You might have heard about some horror stories about iPhone users receiving $3000 bills for international roaming.
AT&T is sending out emails to its iPhone customers with data usage tips on how to reduce bills while traveling out of US.
Here is what the email message from AT&T had to say:
AT&T knows that the mobile Internet on your Apple iPhone is indispensable to you. That’s why we want to remind you that international data usage is not covered under your existing U.S. data plan.
Your iPhone provides access to email, Visual Voicemail, Web browsing and other applications that can use a significant amount of data. It’s no surprise that you might find yourself using more data than you thought. AT&T wants to let you know of some easy ways to help minimize data usage charges when traveling overseas.”
The tips for international data usage recommended by AT&T are mentioned below:
- Turn Data Roaming “OFF” via Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming
- Use Wi-Fi Instead of 3G, GPRS or EDGE via Settings>Airplane Mode to “OFF” and select Wi-Fi to “ON” is an extra safety message to turn of the cellular radio
- Turn Fetch New Data “OFF” via Settings>Fetch New Data Change Push to “OFF” and Select to Fetch Manually
- Consider purchasing one of AT&T’s International Data Packages
- Reset the iPhone Usage Tracker to Zero – to track your actual usage Settings>General>Usage>Reset
If you are a heavy user then the international data packages might be worthwhile as for $24.99 per month, iPhone users get 20MB of data use outside the
US. If you don’t have a plan, the cost is $.0195/KB. If you are on the
plan, the overage charge is $.005/KB which is significantly cheaper.
However, if you decide to purchase one of AT&T’s International Data packages, please remember that there is a catch. You should not cancel the international data packages immediately after you are back from your trip. You need to leave the international roaming data plan for 90 extra days. An iPhone Atlas reader explains the reason for this:
"AT&T’s policy (unwritten, so far as I can tell) is that one needs to leave the roaming plan in place for 90 extra days, so that it is still in place when the foreign carrier finally reports the subscriber’s roaming back to AT&T. If the plan is not in place when the foreign data usage gets reported to AT&T, then AT&T’s billing system — which was fully capable of charging me for the International Data Roaming service when it was in place — is incapable of recognizing that I had an international data roaming plan in place on the dates that the foreign carrier says I used its data connection”
Enjoy the video below, a parody of an iPhone commercial by an iPhone user who visited Ibiza, Spain and other parts of Europe for two weeks, and he returned with memories of a hedonistic summer vacation, and a $4190.76 bill from AT&T:
And before you start cribbing about AT&T, please remember that
everyone charges for international data plans. At least they are being
proactive about educating iPhone users like me who obviously cannot
live without the data plans to avoid the horror of receiving insane
bills for international roaming.
Let us know your thoughts and if you have any other iPhone tip up your sleeve to reduce data usage further do let us know in the comments below.
[via iPhone Atlas]
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