Going to USA - Do not want phone to pick up on US networks

Nicholas

Hi

I'm going to the States soon, and want to use my Sony Ericsson W810i for the alarm, music, pictures etc. but do not want the phone to pick up on USA networks after reading Martin's article.

If I selected 'Manual' from Network search modes, do you think that will be good enough to stop the phone from homing in on a USA network?

(Orange are forever sending text messages, and I do not want to pay to receive texts that I do not even want)

superjaggybunnet

Does the phone not have a 'Flight' mode that you can switch on?

Helix

You could get a free/cheap Pay As You Go SIM from Orange and use that. That would allow the phone to turn on and for you to be able to use the functions without having to worry about it costing you anything.

Browntoa

yes, manual network rather than automatic should do it

Idiophreak

superjaggybunnet wrote: »

Does the phone not have a 'Flight' mode that you can switch on?

Fairly sure it does, although it may be called "music only mode" or something, according to the user guide:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/support/phones/detailed/userguide/w810i?cc=gb&lc=en

redux

Even a manual search will find networks, and won't cancel a previous automatic log-on if you don't then select one

If the phone must have a SIM, find an old expired one and use that

Leopard

It does have "Flight" mode and that's what you'd be best to use: it de-activates the 'phone functions.

If you switch it to "Manual", instead, the 'phone part of it will turn on and spend its whole time searching for a signal that it can't find - and that will waste battery power needlessly.



For the same reason, incidentally, even when you're in Britain, if you don't need (or can't get) a 3G signal for any protracted period of time, go to the option that tells the 'phone what to look for and select "GSM Only" instead of "GSM/3G": it won't then waste battery power looking for a G3 signal. You only need 3G for data - you don't need it for speaking to people.

It's also best, in Britain, to set the 'phone to "Manual", choosing only the network that the SIM can access. The 'phone won't then spend its time pointlessly looking for a stronger signal from another network that you aren't permitted to connect to.

All three of these measures make a very real difference to battery life!

Only switch it to "Automatic" when you're going abroad and do want to use roaming services. But even then be wary - it's best to find out from your home network which foreign services it has the cheapest roaming arrangements with and select that manually when you are there. I no longer maintain a Vodafone account but when I did I needed to be particularly careful because "Passport" rates only applied with foreign networks which Voda specified. Not sure if that still applies (?).

I find the best arrangement abroad is to carry an additional 'phone and put a local PAYG SIM in it for receiving all calls and making brief outgoing local calls - (e.g. booking a hotel room, restaurant, taxi and such like).

Quentin

Nicholas wrote: »

(Orange are forever sending text messages, and I do not want to pay to receive texts that I do not even want)

No problem.

You don't pay to receive these texts abroad.

toofingers

you don't pay for text if you don't open it or don't answer a call? I don't.

Quentin

You don't pay for opening a text abroad.

If you intend not answering calls, you need to disable voicemail before you leave UK.

dduk

Or you could divert all calls to voicemail before you leave and listen to them when you get back.