Great iPhone Solution for Europe

[MarkBearSF]

Like others, I've heard horror stories about "thousand dollar phone bills" for people using their iPhones abroad. Specifically, it's those "little sips of data" as the apps refresh their data and do searches at our bidding that creates such surprises. (It's not uncommon for a traveler to think that they're OK because the charge for roaming voice is reasonable - but it's the data that costs 'ya) ...and solutions involving "jailbreaking" my iPhone made me nervous

 

I used a company "iPhone Trip" (http://www.iphonetrip.com) to rent a SIM card for international data-only 3G service. It costs $15/day (various pricing schemes are available). This allowed us to use the ESSENTIAL map apps to navigate Venice and Athens (as well as keep up to date with Facebook and email). Although ain't cheap, that's a lot less than the AT&T charge.

 

It took about 30 seconds to swap the SIM card, and immediately after, my phone was just fine, with all my apps and settings as before (This was true both swapping in the new SIM and later replacing it with my original one from AT&T)

 

One downside is that it is a DATA ONLY plan. No problem using any of my apps or surfing the net. However, I needed to use Skype to make a voice phone call (luckily, they just started supporting 3G) - and were I to text, I would've needed to use a 3rd party app. Note - if you need an incoming number for people to call you on Skype, you can pay for one from the US, but you must be an Italian resident before you can apply for an Italian number. Since I only needed to make one phone call over 19 days and I seldom text, that limitation wasn't a factor for me.

 

I'm sure people using Android phones don't have this issue - but if you're hooked on your iPhone (especially if you're as directionally-challenged as me) this was a wonderful solution that really made a huge difference to us as we navigated Venice, Istanbul and Athens.

[whale-watcher]

$15/day? This is quite a bit more than I paid for an international data plan from ATT last fall (I think we purchased 50MB of data for about $40 or so, and were able to use it over our entire 3 week vacation; also made use of wifi whenever possible). Plus that way, I was able to still use the phone for incoming and outgoing calls and SMS.

[lrkbpower]

Just returned from Europe (cruise on the Navigator) with my iphone. I made sure that my data roaming was off before I left so I didn't end up with the $900 bill! I paid for a texting plan and an international phone plan from ATT but I really didn't make phone calls because they were still a little high. Worked out great though because we texted so much. Got updates and pictures from home and only 80 extra on my phone bill so I was happy! When I checked emails I just used the free Internet coupons for the ship's horribly slow Internet and an occasional Internet cafe. Might have to check out their data plan for our next trip in two weeks. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!