Traveling with iPhone...Tips and help

[mohicanspap]

Hello everybody,

I have a sister who will be touring the world to places like China, Japan, Korea, and Germany and I was wondering if there is anyway she can have unlimited data with her iPhone. She won't really be needing Talk or SMS but Data will be important for her. She does have AT&T as her carrier and I was able to unlock her device. I just need to know any options she has as in official plans by AT&T or prepaid international SIM cards. Any help, comments, or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[shadowjeff]

Data roaming provided by your carrier are mostly very very expensive, wouldn't recommend it.

Assuming your sister's iphone is locked to at&t, she wouldn't be able to use international prepaid cards. Way to get around this is to unlock her iphone, depending on her baseband. After that, she should be able to find prepaid 3G cards in those countries. Some offer unlimited data for a few days at a price.

 

[mohicanspap]

Data roaming provided by your carrier are mostly very very expensive, wouldn't recommend it.

Assuming your sister's iphone is locked to at&t, she wouldn't be able to use international prepaid cards. Way to get around this is to unlock her iphone, depending on her baseband. After that, she should be able to find prepaid 3G cards in those countries. Some offer unlimited data for a few days at a price.

That's relieving to hear. I have looked at AT&T's pricing and almost had a heart attack. I was able to unlock her device before she left. As of know she is still in the states but will be going international very soon. Thank you for the tip

 

[b0blndsy]

Be Careful pone of my friend had all thing like data roaming etc while traveling turned off still he ended up getting a huge bill.

 

[eastercat]

If the OP's sister is using SIMs local to the area, then there shouldn't be any problem.
Anyway, if your friend had turned off cellular data or used airplane mode, he would've been fine. Turning off roaming is never enough.

Be Careful pone of my friend had all thing like data roaming etc while traveling turned off still he ended up getting a huge bill.

 

[nateo200]

If the OP's sister is using SIMs local to the area, then there shouldn't be any problem.
Anyway, if your friend had turned off cellular data or used airplane mode, he would've been fine. Turning off roaming is never enough.

And why is that?

 

[heisenberg123]

get a mortgage for the phone bill, my carrier charges something stupid like $3 per MB

and to put it in perspective i only pay 5 cents per mb for data overages

 

[eastercat]

I don't claim to know the why. I've just seen the posts from people who turned off roaming and came home to very large data charges.
You don't have to believe them, but that's one very expensive risk to take on the belief that they're wrong.

And why is that?