tiev

Has anyone used iPhoneTrip? It looks like a great concept for anyone who wants to travel with their iPhone. Although I am a little wary of them since a quick search on google didn't turn up any reviews.

http://www.iphonetrip.com/

-John

patt10019

I've been looking for reviews also, and I've found none. I've had some correspondence with someone in their office, and I plan to give iphoneTrip.com a try in March in France, unless something negative turns up in the meantime.

Patt10019

wanderlust402

I am thinking about using them for an upcoming trip to Disney World. My wife and I don't own a smart phone and we are thinking about using some real time applications for evaluating lines in the parks.

So far, my impression of this company has been ambivalent. I am looking at a 3G "premium" rental which should include their insurance and added software, bu during the checkout process it looks like they want to charge $30 more for these. I emailed their support group and received a response within 30 minutes reassuring me that those are included. So a negative on the website, but a positive for email support. I plan on using a "disposable" credit card number that my bank allows for web purchases, and will keep track of the correspondence in case things go bad. The nice thing is that my bank has been helpful in the past when I have had internet based transactions not work out.

I will post a response if we do end up using them to let you know how it went. If things go well, I could also see using this service for an upcoming visit to the UK. The idea of being able to access digital guides in real time sounds awesome. There are also some nice apps for the London Underground.

iPhoneTrip

An unbiased review can be found here:
http://kevinjedwards.com/114/flashpa...phonetrip-com/

tiev

I used iphonetrip.com for a two week trip throughout Southeast Asia. I was very satisfied with the service over the two week period. I paid about $75 a week, which I thought was reasonable. The sim card arrived a few days before my trip. (Although I recommend having it sent to an office where you will be there all day, I had it delivered to my apartment complex that signs for my packages but FedEx refused releasing it without my photo id) I have an iphone, so I just popped in the sim card upon landing and turned on the phone. All applications worked seamlessly I had downloaded a few before hand and they worked great on the trip. My biggest gripe was that some countries I could not get 3G service, when iphonetrip.com customer support told me I should be able to. I tried all the carriers iphonetrip.com support mentioned and I could only get edge. Edge is not the worst thing in the world, but if you are trying to make calls over edge it can be unreliable. Returning the sim card was a snap, they included a prepaid shipping label that I took to my local fedex and sent off the day after I returned. Best part was that I didn't have to sign up for an international data plan with AT&T where I would have to monitor my data usage. Last comment, was that the data is not 'truly' unlimited, there was small print which limits you to 7GB a week. Now 7GB is more than enough data, on my two week trip I used about 250MB and that was using Google maps a lot, you tube and voip.

JohnL

This is very shaddyy.... Tiev posts the question and then he answers.. The company then responds to the forum with an unbiased report!! Come on.. look at that blog posts.. its sponsored by the company.. this says a lot..

the rates are very bad.. watch out people..

tiev

Interesting interpretation of sketchy. I was curious about the service and posted a request for feedback on 2/17. I found enough unbiased feedback (outside of flyertalk) for me to test the service myself. I then posted a review of the service, how is that 'sketchy'? If I had just joined flyertalk recently and then posted a glowing review I can see how that could be construed as suspect, but I have been a member on this board for five years, which lends me more credibility then someone who just joined this month.

Lastly, how are the rates 'bad'? If you have another alternative to 7GB of data for the Iphone in over 100 countries for under $55 a week without changing sim cards, let me know because I want to see that.

Dubai Stu

Tiev,

How was your experience with VOIP over 3g? I tried it in Europe last year (using up credits on my last day in the country) and I found the reception mixed. It seemed good enough for my mother-in-law, but I wasn't sure that I would do a business call on it. There was a small hesitation. Nothing that made the call unusable, but something that through our timing off.

In my experience, if you find yourself constantly overtalking the other person on a VOIP call, it might be due to a small hesitation in the connection, not a personality unsync (mother-in-law jokes not withstanding).

tiev

Well my experience varied from great to unusable. I experienced some sort of lag or delay almost half the time. I used an app called Acrobits Softphone found on itunes. Acrobits was alright, but doesn't use any of the 'major' VOIP providers (Skype, Vonage softphone account), so I had to sign up with account with one of their supported providers. I am willing to give VOIP over 3G a second change once an official update comes out for skype that lets you call over 3G. Hopefully that will be soon, since VZW announced a skype version that will work over 3G will be released in the next week for select blackberry phones. I know Apple and Skype announced a while back that an app would be coming out but they didn't include a release date.

kevine

John,

Please take a closer look at my site at kevinjedwards.com. It's a personal blog. I have no advertising or sponsorship of any kind on that site. I don't work for iPhoneTrip, nor am I affiliated with them in any way other than that I'm a very pleased customer who rented a SIM from them for 3 weeks and had the time of my life in Europe.

Please take a look at my Facebook profile which has tons of pictures I uploaded from Europe as well as background on who I am, who I work for, and who I've worked for in the past.

If you'd like, I'm more than happy to answer any questions regarding my experience in Europe. Believe me, I'm more than happy to talk on and on about it!

I used the iPhoneTrip.com SIM for data, Skype, and SMS (via Google Voice). As such, I didn't have any use for the voice, so I can't speak much to that. However, their data plan saved me literally thousands of dollars...well "saved" isn't quite right as I couldn't have afforded any other option, but the price difference was literally in the thousands of dollars.

Also, while I gave a positive review to iPhoneTrip.com, much of my excitement was also due to what was enabled by the iPhone as well as the apps and services. The SIM is what ended up making it possible, affordable, and easy to connect all around Europe. It's really incredible to think about what my trip would've been like before this technology, which is really pretty new stuff.

Anyway, if anyone wants to contact me directly, feel free to do so via my website (kevinjedwards.com) or Facebook profile:
http://facebook.com/kevine

offby1

My experience was fairly similar to post #5 above ("I used iphonetrip.com for a two week trip throughout Southeast Asia.") I found the web site, and my initial reaction was: yikes, this must be a scam; it's so ugly and it sounds too good to be true ... however, I got brave because I figured I'd pay with a credit card, and could dispute the bill if they pulled anything. The experience turned out great! They did everything exactly as they said they would: SIM card showed up in the mail (I second the above suggestion about getting it delivered to your day job, rather than your home); it worked fine; I was easily able to return it when I got back.

Here's the worst thing about the entire experience: it took about a month and a half for my voice charges to show up on my credit card, even though the data charges showed up more or less immediately. So I was on tenterhooks for a while until they showed up (just today). And of course the voice rates are high, but I knew that going in, and got the card solely for the data.

Anyway: iPhoneTrip seems like a very good, very small company that could use some word of mouth, so that's why I'm praising them here. Don't fear the web site!

kevintyn

Just returned from a trip to England and Morocco. Their international SIM is a great concept but doesn't work as well as promoted.

First, they neglected to include the requested iphone car charger, and they had no iphone car holder in inventory. (Their idea of you receiving it the day before you leave is bogus because if they make a mistake they can't correct it and you are out of luck -- and it'll make you rush around looking for an alternative. I needed the GPS function to save a $240 charge for a real GPS that comes with a rental car)

Second, the GPS iphone worked well in England. The email function worked well, too. The iCall Skype-type internet phone system iPhoneTrip promoted was awful. Total static in England and in Morocco.

Third, the GPS function didn't work in Morocco. It would have been handy to walk around Marrakesh or other cities and know where you are going. Email worked well, again iCall did not.

All in all, I'd consider using it again after I checked out other cheaper options. It's expensive to rent it (around $180 for 12 days) for basically email. Much better if the voice phone works and you can use the GPS.

tiev

Wanted to post an update on using Skype over 3G. Was in Mexico for a week and used Iphonetrip.com again. As I last posted it worked wonderfully. But I wanted to add to my previous review of using VOIP over 3G. Since my last rental Skype has released its official Skype over 3G app for the iphone. In Mexico I was roaming on Telcel and with 3G skype worked almost flawlessly. There was only one time when the signal was choppy and that was because the signal was weak. Overall using skype over 3G will be a great way to keep in touch when traveling.

alanw

Can someone who has one of these check and see what APN they're using?

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I got 20 gigs a month for $24 from ATT. That price doesn't sound great to me.