In the days leading up to my adventure in Mexico, I shared my efforts to make my iPhone “Mexico compatible.” Using your cell phone in a foreign country can result in shockingly high “roaming charges.” In one case reported by the New York Times, a U.S. tourist racked up over $3,000 in roaming charges while visiting England and Ireland.
The best way to avoid this is to purchase an international data plan from AT&T, I said. Following my own advice, I purchased 50 mgs. of data the day before my trip.
Unfortunately, I ended up exceeding the amount of data that I purchased by about 10 mgs. The result was a bill of almost $400.
After calling AT&T today, a customer service representative reduced the bill to about $230. He agreed to do this after I purchased the 100 mgs. data plan and applied it retroactively to the time I was in Mexico.
Hours on the Phone. I’m glad the bill was reduced, but I’m still unhappy with AT&T.
Here’s why:
- to “resolve” the problem I had to explain my situation to three different reps and spend about 90 minutes on the phone,
- it seems like AT&T should have the ability to notify their customers when they exceed the data they purchase (they have no problem texting me ads about American Idol etc.), and
- the bill was unclear and difficult to understand.
But even without considering my international data hangover, I didn’t really need to access the Web from my iPhone in the first place. I mostly used it to check my e-mail. My wife and daughter used it a few times to log into Facebook. It didn’t seem like we were online for a long period of time.
Airport WiFi Charges. After paying for the international data plan, I wasn’t willing to pay extra to access the WiFi at the airport. At Washington International, a WiFi “day pass” costs $8. During a stopover at Houston, it costs $5 for one hour of Internet access.
There was one time when I felt like I really did need to use the Internet. I needed to book one more day in our hotel and checked the best available rates on Trip Adviser. But, I could have easily done this at an Internet cafe down the street for a few pesos. The hotel ended up giving me a really low rate even without being presented with this information.
So on my next trip abroad, I’m going old school. Forget e-mails, if you’d like to stay in touch I’d be glad to send a post card. Or, better yet, I can share my interesting experiences with you on Travelojos when I return.
Have you had any international cell phone or Internet snafus?
on Jun 30th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I just remembered being shocked that wifi cost money in the United States when I was there. Santiago is wired many, many places, and if you buy a cuppa joe, you’re on your way. Or even if not sometimes.
I have not had experiences with international phones except that I got a text message when I was in El Calafate, Argentina on my Chilean cellphone when I turned it on to use it as an alarm clock.
Sorry about your bill! Looking forward to hearing about the trip!
on Jul 3rd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I was just in Ireland and Scotland a few weeks ago and purchased a data plan from AT&T for my trip. I have an iPhone, so I reset the usage meter as I left the US so I could monitor how much data I had used as the days went by and make sure I didn’t exceed the amount in the plan. Resetting the meter was a great way to make sure I didn’t get charged a lot of money accidentally. I also tended to wait until I had a wifi connection (available for free at many of the places I stayed) before checking email, Twitter, etc. Another way I saved money was by using Skype on my phone to make calls with wifi instead of AT&T. That saved a lot of money, too.
on Jul 3rd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Laura, thanks for the tip. I just figured out how to track my data usage. On the iPhone, go to “settings”. Then “General.” Then, Usage (second from top). Touch “Usage.” At the bottom it says “Cellular Network Data.” Below that it says “Reset Statistics.”
Hit Reset when you start using your international data plan.
on Jul 7th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Forgot to mention one other thing… you should turn off “data roaming” on the iPhone (Settings/General/Network) and set the email accounts to check for mail manually (Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendar/Fetch New Data). This will stop the iPhone from automatically downloading email the way it does at home, preventing any unintended data usage. It would not be fun to pull the phone out and discover that it’s already over the data limit on the plan when it hasn’t even been used yet!
You can easily turn on data roaming when you want to check mail or surf the net and then turn it off again when you’re done.
on Dec 29th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I’m curious, with what you’ve learned in comments, whether you still would not take iPhone with you next time?
I’m planning a long sojourn around the world, mostly South America, Africa, Europe, and friends keep telling me to get in iPhone. What tempts me most is the built-in camera and video and the ability to email them instantaneously without uploading, etc.
I’m a writer so plan to buy a netbook for my journey, and that will give me WiFi access.
If I could buy an iPhone and ONLY get the foreign data plan, it would be totally worth it. But I can’t see it on top of $70 or more a month just for standard domestic use, when I won’t even be using it in USA…
Any sense in buying an iPhone when I arrive in Mexico, instead of buying one here?
Thanks so much, all, for any feedback…
Say, thoughts on which netbook to get would be wonderful, too!
on Dec 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Lenore, that is a very good question. I’m so addicted to my iPhone that I think I would take it with me again. But I will be very careful about monitoring my usage. I’d probably keep it the Internet features off most of the time. You’re generally okay if your using free wifi, but some people have come home to big bills after trying this.
As I recall, you only have to pay for one plan at a time. So if you switch to international, you don’t have to pay for the domestic plan at the same time.
I did a little research about buying an iphone in Mexico. The downsides are that electronics tend to cost more in Mexico than in the US. Also, you have to sign up for a calling plan immediately after purchase. This would lock you into a Mexican plan, which has even less favorable rates than the US. Here is a link to a story I found on this:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/crossing-the-bo.html
I don’t know much about netbooks. But I’ve noticed that there are Internet cafes throughout Costa Rica and Mexico, so it seems like it work out.
Please keep me posted on your trip and what kind of hardware you decide to take with you.