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Will I get charged for using my iPhone in Canada while on Trip?

S

SethRogen

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2009
263
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm from Florida and traveling to Canada (Toronto) for a week. If I use Safari there, will I be charged extra? If so, any packages available?

I'm on the $30 Unlimited Plan btw.
 
Yes, you will get charged $15 per megabyte.
Do yourself a favor and add an international data plan.
 
SethRogen said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm from Florida and traveling to Canada (Toronto) for a week. If I use Safari there, will I be charged extra? If so, any packages available?

I'm on the $30 Unlimited Plan btw.
Click to expand...

It's still considered roaming even though you're in Canada so yes. I'd turn my phone off OR if you have the right iOS firmware jailbreak & unlock the phone and get a prepaid sim card so you can use data while your in Canada.
 
SethRogen said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm from Florida and traveling to Canada (Toronto) for a week. If I use Safari there, will I be charged extra? If so, any packages available?

I'm on the $30 Unlimited Plan btw.
Click to expand...

Everything you need to know is on AT&T's website, or accessible through their app. Basically, if you plan to do any calling, you can purchase discountednper minute rates, for texting you can add a 50-message plan (outbound messages from Canada only, inbound is charged against your regular plan) and data in small amounts at utterly outrageous rates--starting at $24.99 for 50 MB.

Oh, and if you turn data off completely, you won't be able to send or receive texts either. And the data plans are prorated if you don't start the on the first day of your billing cycle. Talk to an AT&T rep to understand how this works and what might work best for you. You need to sign up for your international packages in advance of your trip.

Plan to use a LOT of wifi and be very sparing with your data. Overages are very pricey.
 
My wife just got back from Vancouver and it's best to just turn off the phone - or only use Wifi. The data/voice rates - even if you add the international plan for ATT - are still ridiculously high.
 
Hi,

I Live in Canada

Please know we live in ingloos and our cell towers are large frozen icicles.

To get the best reception, throw a snowball in the air while you make the call and repeat throughout your call for best reception.


Have fun!
 
pismobrat said:
Hi,

I Live in Canada

Please know we live in ingloos and our cell towers are large frozen icicles.

To get the best reception, throw a snowball in the air while you make the call and repeat throughout your call for best reception.


Have fun!
Click to expand...

LOL!

Reception was better in Victoria, BC, than I get around much of Seattle, with Rogers & Telus competing to see who was going to present me with five bars of signal in any given spot. But AT&T charges insane amounts for the privilege of using those systems, and most iPhone 4’s aren't unlocked and can't be easily. Plus when I looked into prepaid SIMs in Canada for those who are unlocked, there wasn't a whole lot available. In our case, going minimal on usage and sticking with AT&T was the way to go. For anything less than a trip of a couple of weeks, it's probably how I would handle it again.
 
EEK! Canadian phone companies nickel and dime you so much. They will end up charging you a FORTUNE. Only use Wi-fi! downton has many wi-fi hot spots, and most hotels do as well.
go to general
select network
turn of data roaming
 
IrishVixen said:
Oh, and if you turn data off completely, you won't be able to send or receive texts either.
Click to expand...

False. Turning data roaming off (thus having no data connection other than Wi-Fi) has no effect on sending/receiving text messages.
 
Scott90 said:
False. Turning data roaming off (thus having no data connection other than Wi-Fi) has no effect on sending/receiving text messages.
Click to expand...

Well, that doesn't explain why when I turned it back on to check something briefly, I got hit with twelve incoming messages (both SMS and MMS), all from the previous night. The phone was on, and on wifi the whole time.

For the whole trip, as long as data & roaming were both on, I received texts. When data was off completely, I didn't. When data roaming alone was off, I also didn't. Fluke, maybe? But I definitely found I couldn't count on it working while we were there.

(We just got back yesterday, so it's all pretty fresh in my head.)
 
Don't know. When I was overseas data roaming was off, but I still received and sent some messages.
 
IrishVixen said:
Well, that doesn't explain why when I turned it back on to check something briefly, I got hit with twelve incoming messages (both SMS and MMS), all from the previous night. The phone was on, and on wifi the whole time.

For the whole trip, as long as data & roaming were both on, I received texts. When data was off completely, I didn't. When data roaming alone was off, I also didn't. Fluke, maybe? But I definitely found I couldn't count on it working while we were there.

(We just got back yesterday, so it's all pretty fresh in my head.)
Click to expand...

MMS uses data (as does Visual Voicemail), but it is up to carriers whether or not they charge users for those services when roaming.

AFAIK, AT&T does not allow MMS or Visual Voicemail with Data Roaming switched off.

When you turned Data Roaming ON that would have prompted the MMS to download.

SMS should not use data. While it's possible to send an SMS over a data network, it's extremely uncommon for a carrier to do that - AT&T certainly doesn't.
 
If you have AT&T, you will be charged at about $1,021 per kilobyte, and $500 per minute. ;)

Seriously though, AT&T's website lists Canada as international, and will charge you a good amount of money for data roaming. I'd stick with wifi.

Not sure about Verizon though...

Edit: AT&T website says in Canada, you will be charged $.015/KB. Calls will be $0.79 per minute (if you don't have any international packages), and each SMS will cost ya $0.50, and an MMS will be $1.30.
 
Daveoc64 said:
SMS should not use data. While it's possible to send an SMS over a data network, it's extremely uncommon for a carrier to do that - AT&T certainly doesn't.
Click to expand...

Weird then. It was definitely a mix of both SMS & MMS that came through when I turned data roaming back on, and I thought it was odd even at the time that I couldn't get regular SMS texts with just data enabled. Sounds like those, at least, should have come through sooner.

Probably just a weird glitch, or something odd on my phone.
 
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