Smartphones & not so smart people

owen1978

Getting a bit bored of the same types of thread appearing...

What i'm talking about is data roaming charges....

Its simple, so i thought i put little guide together!

If you can live without your smartphone on holiday then leave it
at home and use a cheap non-smart phone

If you need to take it/or dont have a spare phone disable the following settings (if available) or similar settings

Data Enabled
Data Roaming

and also for good measure enable Airplane mode
with these settings i have never had a problem.

And if you do want to use your phone for browsing/email etc...
then use the hotels wifi service (which you might have to pay for)
or try to use free wifi spots.

Hope this helps!

Jai_M

You could always get a pay as you talk sim for 'emergencies', vodafone are throwing free sims at everyone at the moment.

Cash-Strapped.T32

..NB If you use Orange/T-Mobile at home, and go on hols, don't forget that you might still have "Data Roaming" enabled, because you use it at home to toggle between the 2 networks (at least for data usage).

Best always to check .

c-m

With t-mobile you must enable roaming before leaving the UK as they claim they can't turn it on after you've left.

With t-mobile you'll never run up a large bill roaming because you must buy a booster before you can even use data. Once that booster runs out data roaming is cutt off until you buy another. Hence the lack of threads complaining "OMG £20,000 data roaming bill from t-mobile".

grumbler

c-m wrote: »

With t-mobile you must enable roaming before leaving the UK as they claim they can't turn it on after you've left.

With t-mobile you'll never run up a large bill roaming because you must buy a booster before you can even use data. Once that booster runs out data roaming is cutt off until you buy another.

I think this is correct only for Europe.

TakeThis

c-m wrote: »

With t-mobile you must enable roaming before leaving the UK as they claim they can't turn it on after you've left.

With t-mobile you'll never run up a large bill roaming because you must buy a booster before you can even use data. Once that booster runs out data roaming is cutt off until you buy another. Hence the lack of threads complaining "OMG £20,000 data roaming bill from t-mobile".

Actually it's not at all true. I used my BlackBerry abroad without using the browser at all.
Spent around £3 in a day, sending pictures and video back home from Europe.
They charge a max of £4 per day, but I didn't hit that limit. I could have bought a Monthly bundle before I left, but it was only a day trip.

flyingscotno1

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

..NB If you use Orange/T-Mobile at home, and go on hols, don't forget that you might still have "Data Roaming" enabled, because you use it at home to toggle between the 2 networks (at least for data usage).

Best always to check .

Shouldn't be necessary. My phone happily roams onto Orange without data roaming enabled.

Cash-Strapped.T32

I was referring to data only, not basic calls/texts "because you use it at home to toggle between the 2 networks (at least for data usage)"

I'm only a t-mo customer, I don't have any special inside knowledge or anything but that's how the T-Mo literature described it to me; To be able to use an internet connection while your phone is on the Orange network, data-roaming must be enabled, and I would assume the reverse is true for Orange customers.


Personally I'm kinda old fashioned in that I treat my phone's data connectivity like my old 56k modem;
ie, I connect just before I use my browser, or d/l my email or whatever, and then always disconnect immediately afterwards so I'm always aware of what state the phone is in by a sort of default, but imo many threads could be prevented if people were more aware in general what leaving an always-on connection running means.

ronharvest

All I can say is DONT go with Vodafone their roaming is TERRIBLE. Im currently using it on a Blackberry but I have a friend who has iPhone with them and he also states the 3G internet is selective for when it wants to work!

owen1978

I see many iphone users are content with just switching off
Data Roaming....

Seriously i would switch off all data capabilities not just the roaming..

And for good measure, switch off the phone!

rjs200

Not mentioned here is the GPS function- is activity on that accounted for by data usage i.e. doers its functionality get switched off if you switch off data roaming and the 3g connection?