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UK users - using Data Roaming in Europe

P

pittster

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 11, 2007
129
0
UK
am off to Toulouse, France on Tuesday for 5 days.
will only be using the 3G iPhone for calls/SMS/emails.
will switch data roaming on once a day to check and reply to email, no internet surfing at all.

according to O2 its too late to add the £20 'bolt on' for 10MB data download since I'm going on Tuesday.

my question is -

how many MBs would, for example, 5 emails/replies each day for 5 days come to in terms of MBs (assuming there are no JPEGs in them, text only)?

O2 charge £3 per MB download, dont want to come home to a huge bill :(
 
pittster said:
...according to O2 its too late to add the £20 'bolt on' for 10MB data download since I'm going on Tuesday...
Click to expand...
Erm, what?! Call them back and speak to somebody else. They do a couple of mouse clicks their end and it gets switched on. :confused:
 
sibruk said:
Erm, what?! Call them back and speak to somebody else. They do a couple of mouse clicks their end and it gets switched on. :confused:
Click to expand...

Nope, I spoke to 3 diff people on the phone, even went into the O2 shop an hr ago.
the third guy on the phone said it would be fine, then called me back 10 minutes later saying it couldnt be done as my next bill date is 11th October, and I would be billed then. so it would be useless for my trip which starts in 2 days time and only lasts 5 days in total :(
 
it will be no where near 10mb, so in my opinion £20 is not worth it
i just looked at an average email, which had 4 images and 20 lines of text, and it was 6kb in size
 
I would definitely escalate this. Maybe on a day when you won't get weekend staff. So what they're saying is that you need to know if you're travelling up to a month in advance? Yes, that's going to work for business travellers.

Will they not accept payment by card for this add-on for a month?
 
philgilder said:
it will be no where near 10mb, so in my opinion £20 is not worth it
i just looked at an average email, which had 4 images and 20 lines of text, and it was 6kb in size
Click to expand...

yup, thats what I'm hoping, I'll only turn data roaming on once a day and check/reply to any emails. no internet surfing at all, so am hoping it shouldnt cost me an arm and a leg...just being cautious as have never tried this before.
 
I went to Cannes with mine. Only checked a few footy scores during the last 3 days of my visit and didnt go anywhere near emails for fear of a huge attachment.

I got home to an additional £7 charge for data. It was quite steep but I knew it would be. Don't O2 charge you, plus whatever the foreign carrier you are on at the time charge you too? In effect being charged twice?

Either way use as little as possible. Or not at all as I attempted to do (but failed). :D
 
MacboobsPro said:
I went to Cannes with mine. Only checked a few footy scores during the last 3 days of my visit and didnt go anywhere near emails for fear of a huge attachment.

I got home to an additional £7 charge for data. It was quite steep but I knew it would be. Don't O2 charge you, plus whatever the foreign carrier you are on at the time charge you too? In effect being charged twice?

Either way use as little as possible. Or not at all as I attempted to do (but failed). :D
Click to expand...

am assuming you checked footy scores using Safari?
 
Wouldn't it be better keeping an eye out for free WiFi? Not been to Toulouse for years, but in general a lot of hotels and restaurants have free WiFi, so just try that? Wouldn't cost you a penny.
 
NightGeometry said:
Wouldn't it be better keeping an eye out for free WiFi? Not been to Toulouse for years, but in general a lot of hotels and restaurants have free WiFi, so just try that? Wouldn't cost you a penny.
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well, its an hour from Toulouse, so am pretty sure there'll be nothing other than GPRS signal as its out in the countryside.

also according to O2 website, even if you use overseas free WiFi its still charged (?? :confused: ??).
 
pittster said:
well, its an hour from Toulouse, so am pretty sure there'll be nothing other than GPRS signal as its out in the countryside.
Click to expand...

Ahh, fair enough, that makes sense then.

pittster said:
also according to O2 website, even if you use overseas free WiFi its still charged (?? :confused: ??).
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That's mad! Couldn't find anything on their site saying that (but I didn't look too hard, to be honest). There was a thing about turning on airplane mode then wifi, so you don't 'accidently' get data ota. Apart from that - how would they know you were using WiFi? Sorry, that's probably way off topic now.
 
my plan was to turn off both data roaming and push.
will leave the phone/SMS service active.
would then turn on data roaming once a day and manually check email then switch roaming back off until the next day.

that the best way to do it?
 
That's odd.

I went to Normandy on the 20th August. I phoned O2 from the ferry port and they switched on the Data bolt on straight away.

Bizarre that they are telling you it can't be done !?!?
 
pittster said:
my plan was to turn off both data roaming and push.
will leave the phone/SMS service active.
would then turn on data roaming once a day and manually check email then switch roaming back off until the next day.

that the best way to do it?
Click to expand...
that should be fine, and result in no accidental data use

That's odd.

I went to Normandy on the 20th August. I phoned O2 from the ferry port and they switched on the Data bolt on straight away.

Bizarre that they are telling you it can't be done !?!?
Click to expand...
this is o2. you must expect them to have no idea what they are talking about
 
angrywaiter said:
That's odd.

I went to Normandy on the 20th August. I phoned O2 from the ferry port and they switched on the Data bolt on straight away.

Bizarre that they are telling you it can't be done !?!?
Click to expand...

that's why I phoned 3 times... they say that because my next bill is due 11th Oct then that the date when they can add the 10MB 'bolt on', thus making it pointless if I'm wanting it for next week :confused:
 
pittster said:
my plan was to turn off both data roaming and push.
will leave the phone/SMS service active.
would then turn on data roaming once a day and manually check email then switch roaming back off until the next day.

that the best way to do it?
Click to expand...

That's what I did on a recent trip to Greece and it worked fine.

It is also a good idea to go into Settings->General>Usage and 'Reset Statistics' when you leave the UK. You can then keep tabs on exactly how much Cellular Network Data you are using whilst abroad.

Have a nice trip :)
 
smr said:
That's what I did on a recent trip to Greece and it worked fine.

It is also a good idea to go into Settings->General>Usage and 'Reset Statistics' when you leave the UK. You can then keep tabs on exactly how much Cellular Network Data you are using whilst abroad.

Have a nice trip :)
Click to expand...

thanks SMR,
good advice, will do that as I leave the UK.
cheers,
:)
 
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