iphonetrip

Sharon. you don't need data to send and receive Emails; you just wait until you find a wi-fi hot spot, and then send and receive your emails using your Iphone. I just came came back from a trip to Spain, and I used my Iphone....without data. It worked fine. I have an 85 year old MILaw that we needed to monitor. Her caregivers had to call us once. We responded using, Skype, direct calls(at a reduced price), and had the option of using texts. I used Skype to place lo-cost calls when I had a wi-fi hot spot. (all of our hotels had wi-fi) While we were in Spain I used skype to call frirnds in Germany, Romaina, and back home. If I had to communcate immediately with someone, I ether texted them, or called them using the AT&T World Traveler plan (you pay $5.99/month and your call rate is reduced from $1.99 min to >99/minute). I signed up for 50 "free" international texts for $10 (Global Messenger offer) , and also used these to "talk" to a fellow traveler. If you do want to use data, AT&T has quite a few plans that are quite economical. You monitor your data usage, and if you get close to exceeding the prepaid amount, you can increase your plan amount, on the fly. Look at the AT&T website, or better yet, give them a call. Last year they even discouunted all the voicemails that were left on my phone; when I explained to them that I needed to keep my phone "alive" because of the health problems of my MIL.

Sharon, the cost of data on iphonetrip ranges from about $16 to $26 per day. For your 20-day trip that runs $320 to $520. There is also a small shipping fee. I think they knock a bit off your bill if you order over a certain number of days. This cost does not include calls or texts, which run from $1.68/$0.85 to $1.19/$0.60. Plus it will likely be a phone number based in some European country (the U.K. is used by most of these companies). That means someone calling from the U.S. would have to dial the international prefix, country code, etc. and pay for making an international call. There are obviously cheaper alternatives, but based on your concerns, why not just stick with AT&T? (I assume that is who you are with because you mention SIM cards). That makes it really easy for your mother. She just dials the number she always uses to reach you. Nothing to teach her or explain. I would turn off data because data from a U.S. carrier is just crazy expensive ($15 a MB or more). I'd use wifi for that. If you think relatives may try and contact you by email instead of call (which strikes me as a little strange), sign up with one of the companies that will convert emails to text messages and send them to you. Cheaper than data unless you get lots and lots of emails. The costs of iphonetrip aren't necessarily prohibitive. I could see someone using them for business purposes and the cost might be bearable. For your situation, though, I'd use my U.S. cell phone provider.

Thanks for the information. I should have also said that we plan on taking our Ipad 3g and with iphonetrip, the sim card is interchangeable with the iphone and ipad. I don't want to worry about trying to find a wifi hot spot. I want/need the easiest way to go. As far as family calling us, it would only be my mom, everyone else would just sent us an email. Sharon

Sharon, I think you've answered your own question. Iphonetrip is the easiest solution with a known cost beforehand. The truly easiest course is to roam on your AT&T number, but the data costs could be in the thousands or tens of thousands, literally. The question then is whether you are willing to pay the $300 to $600 charged by iphonetrip. There has been at least one post from someone who used iphonetrip and I don't think they reported any problems, but you may want to search to be sure. Do a google search, too. Because you asked for our thoughts, let me throw out one other option. For that amount of money you could buy an unlocked Android smartphone. Get a prepaid phone SIM when you arrive. I know this works for U.K. companies, not 100% sure about the countries you're visiting, but I think it is true too for Germany and Austria. Android lets you set the phone to act as a wifi hotspot. The phone connects over the phone connection, but it sends out a wifi signal that you could use with both your iphone and ipad to connect to the web. This is similar to the mifi devices that are sold here. Then get a prepaid Internet data package for the phone and you're set. The benefit: You have a working smartphone that you can keep or sell on ebay to recover some of the costs. As another option, you can buy a portable wifi device that isn't a phone but acts to set up the same sort of wifi hotspot. Check out the T-Mobile U.K. site for what it calls a "Wireless Pointer." I think the cost will be less than what iphonetrip charges. These European cell companies sell roaming packages that work in other countries for very little, relatively speaking. But iphonetrip is easier, I'll admit.

I used iphone trip during my 3 week April-May trip to Italy. I have my own business, I need to be reachable and to have communication at any time. It was easy, only required turning off the phone transferring SIM cards, restarting phone and turning roaming on. For me it was well worth the $15 a day. I forwarded my regular AT&T calls to Google Voice and I could get them any time on my phone. I returned calls using Skype with a Skype credit ($10) you can call any phone number in the world for pennies a call. I also found it useful for finding restaurants and bus stops etc. on the go. I was using maps and didn't want to pay AT&T $199(actually more) for much less data and since my trip spanned two billing cycles.