Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with data and international

Data and calls in Paris without breaking the bank?

SNWidget — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:47:41 -0800

My wife and I are visiting Paris over the week of US Thanksgiving - can you help us figure out the best way to get cell phone service and data while we're there? My wife and I have traveled abroad before, but it was a while ago, and we both had cheapo cell phones that we bought over in Europe. Those cheapo phones, unfortunately, are long gone.

As of right now, here's what we have. My wife and I both have iPhone 3GSs - I've looked at the publicly available unlocking methods, and I'm pretty sure we can't get these unlocked (or at least, without losing some of the functionality). She also has a Kindle 3G (2nd gen) that has an awful web browser but is supposed to work overseas. We'll also have one laptop with us.

The original idea (before I realized our iPhones wouldn't unlock) was to go over there, buy a cheap sim card, pop it in, and use our iPhones like normal. Now, since that doesn't seem to be an option, I'm not sure what to do.

We'd probably need to make a few calls while we're over there, as well as send a few texts. We're more concerned about being able to use data on the fly, especially as our senses of direction are rather poor, and having easy access to Google Maps is incredibly useful.

What's the solution? Although this is a single trip, we are considering more international travel, so a solution that we could use down the road would be useful as well. Buying a new smart phone? Not so much, unless a good argument can be made.

How do you deal with this? What's the best solution for our set of needs?

Prepaid iPhone data plan in Mumbai?

jesseendahl — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:40:15 -0800

Hi, I will be living in Mumbai for 11 weeks next summer. I have an unlocked iPhone 3G. What is my best bet in terms of carrier and plan for the cheapest and most reliable data access? I plan to do local calls over the cell phone voice network and international calls via Skype on the iPhone. Thanks in advance!

$30,000 per gig? Really?

rokusan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:58:12 -0800

iPhone user from Canada roaming in Big Apple.... how? I have a friend visiting NYC from Canada with her iPhone. Her carrier is "Rogers" (?) and she is afraid to use it at all because of possible very high data charges. I understand this but it seems silly to waste so many features when traveling (like Maps) that are especially valuable when traveling.... more than when at home, right?

She's here for two months and from the sound of the data roaming fees -- $30 (sic) per megabyte (sic) -- she's right: it's effectively unusable.

I could lend her my ATT SIM card but I use my phone too much to be without it that long. I showed her how to preload-cache maps, and made her some static ones to help, but man... GPS would sure be nice.

What are her options to avoid huge fees? Is there a two month one-time purchase possible, either from her Canadian carrier or from AT&T or Verizon down here?

I can jailbreak it for her if necessary (never done that but I can figure it out) as long as its reversible.

Cheap Cell Phone Service in Europe

mahoganyslide — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:52:05 -0800

What is the cheapest option available for using my iPhone (AT&T) in Europe? I will be traveling to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in the coming summer and am curious what the best option is for voice and data usage on my (unlocked) iPhone. I would love to use Google maps to get around and be able to call family back home as well as friends coming along with me. However, if data prices are exorbitantly high, I can forgo my beloved Google maps and settle for voice usage alone.

So far, AT&T offers a $6/mo. + $1/min. under its World Traveler plan. Data is far worse at $25/mo. for 20MB and $0.005/KB thereafter. I do not know if incoming calls are free as they are under certain European plans (I doubt it).

Can I get anything cheaper if I were to use European providers? Would it be possible to use the same service/SIM/number throughout the 3 nations without having to switch with each one? I would like to purchase a non-contract only service (e.g. pre-paid).

Furthermore, if it is possible to get better voice/data rates using a European provider, where can I purchase service? I will be landing in Amsterdam Schipol Airport and will also be passing through Amsterdam Central Station.

Thank you so much for your help!

T-Mobile data coverage around the world: is there a single map showing all covered areas?

allterrainbrain — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:52:48 -0800

T-Mobile's Unlimited International Email add-on for BlackBerry currently offers data service in "90 countries and locations." Is there such a thing as a single map showing these 90 countries and locations? If not, what's my most efficient way to make one myself? (On T-Mobile's site, there's only a drop-down menu; you need to click on each country to see whether data [as opposed to just voice] is offered in that country, then click again to see a map of the country's coverage area.)

My dream map would be a current, zoomable world map of actual T-Mo data coverage areas -- so you could view, for example, all of Eastern Europe or all of Central America at the same time, as with their excellent zoomable map of U.S. coverage.

Assuming there's no such map, I want to make a simple map myself, with different solid colors for each country (indicating "full coverage," "coverage only in urban centers," etc.) and each country shape linking to T-Mo's actual coverage map of that country. For this map I don't care about countries where there's only voice coverage & not data. Yes, I know this info fluctuates, so any map I made would be just a "current as of [date]" solution.

For making my own map, is there such a thing available as a big outline map of the world that already comes with an imagemap for each country's shape -- or just comes with clickable country names inside each country? (I'm hoping for something free or cheap; this is not an assignment for work, just a tool for planning my own low-budget travels.)

Is a Blackberry 8800 on T-Mobile my best choice for a data-heavy cell plan starting in spring 2007?

allterrainbrain — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:47:22 -0800

My (non-existent) ideal device is a Treo -- with wifi, GSM/GPRS, and either EDGE or HSDPA -- on a service plan that includes flat-rate unlimited data, flat-rate international data roaming, and a small amount of voice usage inside the U.S. (say 100 mins/month). So, in the real world, is a Blackberry 8800 on T-Mobile my best choice for a plan starting in spring 2007? I want to use wifi, cellular-data, and cellular-voice, in that order of usage/importance. (Cellular-voice calls would only happen when there's no wifi available for VoIP.) I've been tethering my Sprint phones as laptop modems for six years -- ever since the first-generation data network where you were lucky to get 10k or 12k down -- so I'm looking forward to having EDGE-or-better speed on my next device.

Cost of the PLAN is the biggest factor for me. T-Mobile is cheaper & more flexible than Cingular for data (more below). Sprint and Verizon are out, since they're CDMA and I want GSM/GPRS for international voice & data roaming (esp. in remote areas that currently have GPRS and aren't likely to have any other data coverage for years).

Cost of the DEVICE is less important (since investing in a device that works with T-Mobile will save me money overall vs. any other carrier's data plan). I already own a basic PDA-only Palm device, and I've accepted that I'll need to keep carrying that along with the new data/phone device (since my biggest musts, Palm OS and GSM+GPRS+wifi connectivity, seem to be mutually exclusive for now [I need Palm OS itself, not just an OS that can sync with my Palm data]).

---- Here's what I want in a PLAN:
• flat-rate data plan, covering both unlimited data on the device and unlimited tethering (such as T-Mobile's $30/mo Blackberry plan for non-corporate users)
• EITHER a very cheap add-on for voice calls (like $10/mo for 100 mins/mo [not available at T-Mobile]) OR the ability, if you're on a data plan, to make voice calls billed per minute (as in T-Mobile's $0.20/min voice calls with data-only plans)
• flat-rate international data roaming with no annual commitment (such as T-Mobile's $20/mo international add-on, which you start & stop anytime [billed at $0.66/day] and which doesn't officially include free web access, tethering, or anything other than "email" [I've found many dozens of anecdotal reports to the contrary, but those experiences are apparently due to communication gaps between T-Moblie and its partners which I have to assume will be closed sometime soon]).

---- Here's what I want in a DEVICE:
• available from T-Mobile by June 2007
• non-Windows OS
• quad-band
• QWERTY keyboard
• uses GSM and GPRS and any EDGE-or-faster data standard
• has wifi (WPA-compatible) and will run at least one VoIP client (preferably many clients)
• can be unlocked and used with a new SIM card (for any travels where cheap-voice is more important than cheap-data)
• ringtones can be user-supplied mp3s (it's fine if that requires third-party software and/or lots of fiddling)
• no unsolveable incompatibilities with Mac OS (again, third-party & fiddling are fine).

Am I right that T-Mobile is my best provider and a Blackberry 8800 is my best device (assuming it turns out to have most of the features that are now being leaked -- most importantly wifi)? Am I missing any better ideas? (There are lots of mefi threads with info on older Blackberries/etc., but none specific to my situation.) Thanks for any reactions!