Hi, My sister and daughter has an IPhone 5 and they are both under my plan. I called Verizon yesterday to ask about their Global plan and was surprised to learn that although it is an IPhone 5 , Verizon still needs to unlock it. The Verizon representative did the ' unlocking ' over the phone for me and was told to do steps to turn off data roaming so We can just use the SIM card that We will buy in London. I am not technically savy and am worried that maybe this might complicate things and I will be charge the international rate for the 3 countries that we will be visiting. Our original plan is to bring our unlock phone that is not affiliated with any carrier and just use SIM card there so there is no risk of coming home with a surprise huge bill. What would be the best? thanks
Posted by
Happy Valley, PA
672 posts
Please see my post from yesterday in the topic entitled "phones" in the Italy forum page (I have an iPhone 5 from Verizon). I imagine the only reason your sister and daughter would need to buy a SIM card would be if they plan to make a lot of calls. If not, then they can purchase the discounted voice rate from Verizon for a one-time fee of $4.99, and phone charges would be $0.99 per minute (versus $1.29 per minute). Texts are $0.50 each to send and $0.05 each to receive. They would not need to do anything to their phone, other than turning it completely off and then on upon arrival in Europe, so the phone can find the local voice/data network. Of course, as you alluded to, "Cellular" would need to be turned off so no data charges are incurred; it is also a good idea to turn off "Push" in the "Fetch New Data" mail setting, and then check "manually" under "Fetch". This would prevent the automatic downloading of email if the "Cellular" setting was accidently turned on. Verizon also offers a data plan for $25 for 100 MB. If you hit 100 MB, Verizon needs your permission to purchase more, so this is another safeguard against a "surprise huge bill" and would also allow internet use/email checking if not in a wifi zone. Lastly, one other advantage of the Verizon global plan is that their phone number would remain as their U.S. number (not so if they buy a SIM card). However, if your sister and daughter do plan to make a lot of calls, then buying a SIM card would surely be a cheaper option. Since I make very few phone calls when abroad, I like the convenience of staying with Verizon for voice and data and not messing with buying an unlocked phone, SIM cards for each country, etc.
Posted by
Freedonia
16198 posts
I think the Verizon rep was having fun with you or you misunderstood what was said.
I have an Iphone 5 with Verizon and it came unlocked.
To unlock a phone, you need to input numbers into it.
However, if you want Global access, Verizon has to do that at their end. That's probably what he did.