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Using my US iphone in UK but not for calls...

Using my US iphone in UK but not for calls...

Old Feb 14, 2010, 5:30 pm
  #1  
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Using my US iphone in UK but not for calls...

Hi all -

I use my iphone for everything. I access my contacts, public transport info, documents plus use various apps some of which I had similar to ones I had on my Palm Pilot years ago which proved to be very useful on trips to London.

Anyway, using my iphone for calls in London is prohibitively expensive, so I have a cheap UK PAYG phone I use for that. Jailbreaking my phone is not an option I want to entertain but I would like to use some of the apps on my phone when in the UK.

What I would like clarification on is this:

If I have my phone in "airplane mode" (as in little orange plane icon is visible on the screen) I will not incur roaming charges of any kind.

If that is true, can I access WiFi spots and use my apps that can operate on WiFi alone, even if they need me to turn on "location services" and STILL not incur a charge even if "location services" is enabled?

I basically want to use my iphone like an itouch and just want to be sure I'm not going to incur any surprise! charges when I get home. A friend was given misinformation by an AT&T rep *shock* and came home to an $850 phone bill for one week (no joke).

I really appreciate any feedback on this issue. It is very much appreciated so thanks in advance!
mcubed is offline  
Old Feb 14, 2010, 6:19 pm
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Originally Posted by mcubed
Hi all -

I use my iphone for everything. I access my contacts, public transport info, documents plus use various apps some of which I had similar to ones I had on my Palm Pilot years ago which proved to be very useful on trips to London.

Anyway, using my iphone for calls in London is prohibitively expensive, so I have a cheap UK PAYG phone I use for that. Jailbreaking my phone is not an option I want to entertain but I would like to use some of the apps on my phone when in the UK.

What I would like clarification on is this:

If I have my phone in "airplane mode" (as in little orange plane icon is visible on the screen) I will not incur roaming charges of any kind.

If that is true, can I access WiFi spots and use my apps that can operate on WiFi alone, even if they need me to turn on "location services" and STILL not incur a charge even if "location services" is enabled?

I basically want to use my iphone like an itouch and just want to be sure I'm not going to incur any surprise! charges when I get home. A friend was given misinformation by an AT&T rep *shock* and came home to an $850 phone bill for one week (no joke).

I really appreciate any feedback on this issue. It is very much appreciated so thanks in advance!
Simple. Press the home button. Press settings. Press on for airplane mode. If you go to WiFi settings you'll see it will be off. Simply press on for WiFi. Your phone is still in airplane mode, but it can now access WiFi networks. You'd use this if the aircraft you were in had airborne WiFi available. It shuts off cellular networks, but lets you use available WiFi networks.
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 6:30 pm
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If in doubt, turn off international roaming. I don't own an iPhone, but what happens if you simply temporarily pull the SIM card and leave it in your wallet.

Take a look at Boingo's PDA plan. For $8 it gives you wifi roaming on the Cloud's central London wifi network. Here is another option:

www.fonmigo.com
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 6:41 pm
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I'm sorry if I was unclear....

Thank you for your replies. I do appreciate it .

I think I was too wordy and my actual question wasn't clear.

I know how to turn on airplane mode and how to turn on WiFi. What I wasn't clear on is if I have "airplane mode" ON and "WiFi ON" and "location services" ON will I still be safe from incurring any charges from AT&T when I return home.

Thanks again!
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 6:54 pm
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iphone 3gs

Also, FWIW it's an iphone 3gs.

thanks
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 8:44 pm
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When in Germany I had no service but did have availability for WiFi. Not sure if Apps would have worked, didn't try.

When I returned to the States, I dropped in the AT&T office to inquire about the no service and was told the only way to get service was to sign up for their International service. Of course if you have a different carrier this could be different.
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 9:12 pm
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Turn off international data roaming and you can use it for phone calls (at 99 cents to $1.29 a minute) but it won't use data off the 3G network.

So you will have to use it on Wifi.

But be aware that a lot of apps. which use GPS won't work without a data connection, which can be Wifi. Well they will work but some of their features are based on determining your location by GPS and a data connection.


I usually look for places to stay which has Wifi. So I can use the iPhone at the lodging but usually when you're out and about, it's not that easy to find an open Wifi and I don't really check.

The iPad will be unlocked so it would be possible to buy a prepaid data SIM for it. Apple is trying to negotiate favorable deals overseas.

All we can hope is that if they get such deals in place, they will eventually offer iPhones which are unlocked. Then US iPhone users might be able to use their iPhones overseas for reasonable costs.
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 9:31 pm
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Thank you

Thank you for the replies.

wco81-

I have a UK PAYG phone that I will use for my phone calls so I don't need to worry about an International plan for my iphone. Thank you for the info, though.

Will I be able to use "location services" with only WiFi and "airplane mode" enabled on my iphone 3gs? I want to be able to use my London A-Z app, if possible, which needs location services to be enabled for some of it's features?
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 9:46 pm
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If you have a Wifi connection and it asks you permission to use your current location (may have trouble getting a GPS signal indoors), then yeah it should work.

But as soon as you get out of range of that Wifi connection, you probably need to re-establish your location and whatever you looked up before is probably lost.

Is the London A-Z app. some kind of a travel or city guide with listings of restaurants and so on? Well a lot of free, small apps. need a connection to pull data over the Internet.

There are guides which install all the information to your iPhone, so they will be much bigger, like maybe a couple hundred megabytes. I think there are Frommers apps. for some cities, which are suppose to be like an electronic version of their guide books. Those probably won't need a data connection but you have to pay like $15 up front to buy them.

That's how the GPS turn-by-turn apps like Navigon and Tom Tom work. Instead of streaming the map data over the Internet like the built-in Maps app., these install all the map data on your iPhone, so you don't need an Internet connection of any kind, which makes them useful overseas.

I found some free apps. which save the data locally. But they're in French, like Cityzeum, which I used in Madrid. Honestly, if I had a Wifi connection, I just looked up stuff on my MacBook Pro, which I also had with me.
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Old Feb 14, 2010, 10:16 pm
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Originally Posted by wco81
If you have a Wifi connection and it asks you permission to use your current location (may have trouble getting a GPS signal indoors), then yeah it should work.
.
Thank you! That's what I've been trying to figure out.

If it does work, there should not be any kind of charges on my bill when I get home, right?

Originally Posted by wco81
Is the London A-Z app. some kind of a travel or city guide with listings of restaurants and so on? Well a lot of free, small apps. need a connection to pull data over the Internet.
.
I did have to pay $9.99 for it and I believe it is the digital version of the London A-Z guide (an intensive London map and city guide) that also has the capability of using your location to help you locate places. I just downloaded it tonight and was pretty excited about the possibility of using the location feature (I have a hopeless lack of innate sense of direction). If I can't use it I'll be fine with just using their maps. I can also always pop into free WiFi spots if necessary to use the location tool.

I have a London Tube app and the Metro app (I used this on my Palm a few years back) which I know I can use and are great. I highly recommend them if you ever head to London!

Thanks again for your answers!
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Old Feb 15, 2010, 12:55 am
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Originally Posted by mcubed
Thank you for your replies. I do appreciate it .

I think I was too wordy and my actual question wasn't clear.

I know how to turn on airplane mode and how to turn on WiFi. What I wasn't clear on is if I have "airplane mode" ON and "WiFi ON" and "location services" ON will I still be safe from incurring any charges from AT&T when I return home.

Thanks again!
You obviously cannot incur roaming charges if you are not connected to a mobile network.
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Old Feb 15, 2010, 12:16 pm
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I will be doing the same thing, but in HKG.
With the airplane mode on, GPS gets disabled. The best thing to do is instead of putting on airplane model, take the ATT SIM card out of the phone, and with wifi, you can do everything else. I just tried it at home, using wifi without a SIM card and all the apps seem to work fine.
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Old Feb 15, 2010, 1:27 pm
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I just find that turning off International Data Roaming is enough. No reason to ever have that on, especially since Mexico and Canada can also have exorbitant roaming rates too.

Still get SMS alerts when overseas. I don't think those are too expensive.
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Old Feb 15, 2010, 1:49 pm
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Thanks. I really appreciate the help.
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Old Feb 15, 2010, 2:31 pm
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Originally Posted by Dubai Stu
I don't own an iPhone, but what happens if you simply temporarily pull the SIM card and leave it in your wallet.
If you're unsure, this is an easy failsafe option. ^^
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