iPhone roaming question

kraggy

Hi folks,

Long story short, I want to be able to use my iPhone in wireless places here in China.

I turned off 3G. Is that enough to protect me from roaming charges?

I had to turn Data Roaming on as I couldn't access the wireless network without it.

Thanks.

cuilteanna

When I travel I have to keep data roaming OFF or I get charged. I can still connect to wifi wherever I find it though.

Saruman

Wifi works with your phone in flight mode. No chance of getting unwanted roaming charges and it saves battery.

kraggy

Saruman wrote: »

Wifi works with your phone in flight mode. No chance of getting unwanted roaming charges and it saves battery.

It doesn't. I just tried. Thanks anyway.

Saruman

It does, That's how I spent three weeks in the US recently.
Works that way on my iphone 4 and my iphone 3g.
If it does not work without you having roaming turned on then I would be very worried if I was you. Chances are you are actually roaming because the wifi you are connecting to is not giving you Internet.

Creamy Goodness

you have to turn on airplane mode, then go into wifi and turn it on as turning on airplane mode automatically turns off wifi.

Jesus Shaves

Saruman wrote: »

It does, That's how I spent three weeks in the US recently.
Works that way on my iphone 4 and my iphone 3g.
If it does not work without you having roaming turned on then I would be very worried if I was you. Chances are you are actually roaming because the wifi you are connecting to is not giving you Internet.

Exactly, turn roaming and 3G off and wifi on.
Otherwise you're getting charged.

kraggy

Ok now the airplane mode is working.

Also I found on the Internet that if you turn Cellular Data off that that also turns off Data Roaming.

For some reason when I turned off Data Rosming on it's own, the wireless wouldn't work.

Thanks lads.

bkehoe

You shouldn't switch off 3G. All that does is reduce the amount of cells your phone can connect to for any service, whether its voice, sms or data with potentially worse coverage as you're restricted to 2G only.

All you need to switch off is Data Roaming. There is absolutely no way that switching this off will stop your wireless from working. If you do not have it switched off you WILL be charged for data roaming even if you mistakingly switched off 3G as data will still work via 2G.

So: Data Roaming Off, 3G on, Cellular data setting irrelevant in this case but no need to switch it off.

Also its worth saying that if you're with Vodafone from prior to March 2011 and haven't changed price plan or upgraded your handset since then you will have free data roaming which you can use worldwide from your existing data bundle.

Saruman

bkehoe wrote: »

Also its worth saying that if you're with Vodafone from prior to March 2011 and haven't changed price plan or upgraded your handset since then you will have free data roaming which you can use worldwide from your existing data bundle.

Really? How does that work? I would imagine that would be a massive selling point for any service. I have no need for billpay but if I could get free worldwide data roaming I would get a contract just for that feature.

I heard mention of it for Europe but worldwide? That would be brilliant.

culabula

kraggy wrote: »

Ok now the airplane mode is working.

Also I found on the Internet that if you turn Cellular Data off that that also turns off Data Roaming.

For some reason when I turned off Data Rosming on it's own, the wireless wouldn't work.

Thanks lads.

If you turn mobile data off, then it's off and thats all about it, no need to agonise any further.

Leaving data roaming on to access the Internet via wifi is achieving the exact opposite of what you want to do.

The Big Gig

Saruman wrote: »

Really? How does that work? I would imagine that would be a massive selling point for any service. I have no need for billpay but if I could get free worldwide data roaming I would get a contract just for that feature.

I heard mention of it for Europe but worldwide? That would be brilliant.

Not available anymore for new connections, upgrades or plan changes.

Saruman

The Big Gig wrote: »

Not available anymore for new connections, upgrades or plan changes.

That's a load of arse... It's my biggest gripe about mobile phone services the world over, the legal theft for data roaming.

kraggy

I'm telling ye, for some reason wireless wouldn't work when I turned off data roaming. I don't understand why either.

I've had it on airplane mode since. Can ye confirm that this protects me against data charges?

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

(I should add that I'm with a Korean provider and not an Irish one though I'm sure it's a phone issue as to a carrier one)

bkehoe

Saruman wrote: »

Really? How does that work? I would imagine that would be a massive selling point for any service. I have no need for billpay but if I could get free worldwide data roaming I would get a contract just for that feature.

I heard mention of it for Europe but worldwide? That would be brilliant.

It was standard to every customer, bill and PAYG, of Vodafone from at least 2008 up to March 2011 for any data used through the Live APN (standard APN covered by data bundles intended for smartphones). It became more useful since mid 2009 when the requirement to use the proxy on the Live APN requirement was dropped in anticipation of the iPhone launch.
Since then only customers who were on a bill pay plan before March 2011 and who haven't upgraded or renewed their contract since then have retained this but many many people are avoiding taking upgrades because of this, myself included. It's much cheaper for me to buy a sim free handset and have the knowledge that I can go anywhere and have free data than to pay big monthly bills for roaming usage or have to go to the hassle of buying a foreign SIM.

For current VF customers the offer is still the best out there if you're going further afield than any '3' Like Home countries. 2 euro per day for up to 50MB within Europe and 5 euro for a more pathetic 10MB per day for the rest of the world.

Saruman

That's cool