iPhone Worldwide

[mynameismatt89]

Hello all,

I live in Canada and will be purchasing the iPhone sometime after July 11th, probably on the Fido network. I have just completed my first year of university and beginning in January 2009 I will be traveling to different parts of the world for 4 months each year for the next 5 years for co-op. What I am concerned with is if I go on a 3 year plan with Fido or Rogers, what are my options for using my iPhone in other countries without racking up huge roaming fees? Will I have the ability to turn off the 3G network and only access websites, check email, etc when I am on a wireless network? I don't want to have to cancel the contract and have to pay the termination fee every time I locate to a different country for my co-op. What are my options here to have the ability to use my iPhone in other countries while still remaining on the Fido or Rogers network? (I will likely only use the features of the iPhone that are found on the Touch while not in Canada - so no long distance phone calls).

Thanks,
Mat

 

[brunnenG]

Turning off..

Hello,

what are my options for using my iPhone in other countries without racking up huge roaming fees? Will I have the ability to turn off the 3G network and only access websites, check email, etc when I am on a wireless network?

You can prevent the phone from accessing data. It's a menu option. Wireless network still works.
If you also want to prevent it from racking up telephone roaming fees, 2 security measures worked fine for me.
1) never sign up for roaming
2) lock the SIM card (then it just annoys you with a pop up from time to time..)

 

[mynameismatt89]

You can prevent the phone from accessing data. It's a menu option. Wireless network still works.
If you also want to prevent it from racking up telephone roaming fees, 2 security measures worked fine for me.
1) never sign up for roaming
2) lock the SIM card (then it just annoys you with a pop up from time to time..)

I thought the option to prevent the iPhone from accessing data applied to turning off access to the 3G network. Won't EDGE be used then? Or does this option allow for the iPhone to ONLY connect to wifi and nothing like 3G, EDGE, etc...

The phone I have right now is not on a GSM network so I do not have a sim card. What do you mean when you refer to 'locking the SIM card'.

Thanks for the help by the way

 

[brunnenG]

I thought the option to prevent the iPhone from accessing data applied to turning off access to the 3G network. Won't EDGE be used then? Or does this option allow for the iPhone to ONLY connect to wifi and nothing like 3G, EDGE, etc...

The phone I have right now is not on a GSM network so I do not have a sim card. What do you mean when you refer to 'locking the SIM card'.

Thanks for the help by the way

I took the iphone to Europe and Russia but have an AT&T US (data) contract.
I wanted to make sure it doesn't access data roaming.

1: you still want to use your phone
There's a setting obviously meant for that: Settings - General - Network - Data Roaming (on/off).
That still allows you to connect to Wifi and use the phone features.

2: you don't want any roaming charges ("ipod touch"):
keeping it in flight mode is annoying, instead lock the SIM card (software lock, you don't take it out or anything): Settings - phone - SIM Pin - On. Then it will ask you for a PIN from time to time, but when you don't enter it, it will perform neither phone nor data services.

I actually think that these two options are better than not signing up for roaming, cause then you can still use the phone in case of emergency.

Remember if you use it once outside the country you're tied to, you might run up roaming charges just because people call you and leave messages.

This is all first version iphone, of course. If you buy no 2, well..
I unlocked mine after a while and used it with different european SIM cards, but it had never "left" the US - signal wise - because I had always kept the US SIM card locked.


If this helps - my pleasure,
Christina