Cell phone usage

Mary - the surprise is with your AT&T voicemail while you are overseas. If you are a person that gets a lot of calls it can be an expense. If your phone is on it is registered with the foreign network. In other words AT&T's network at home knows where to find you. Someone calls your US number. The US network routes the call to the foreign network. You decide not to answer because you are overseas and send the call to voicemail. The foreign network routes the call back to the US network and your voicemail system. AT&T will charge you for at least their minimum international roaming rate and the foreign network may also charge you for routing the call back to the US network even if the caller doesn't leave a message. If you phone is turned off the call stays in the US and goes straight to voicemail.

Mary, others have used it and I suspect you'll get some replies saying so soon. Keeping your own service is the easiest way to go if you don't plan on using your phone very much and if you take steps to ensure you don't actually use data. This is a relatively recent change from the practice just a few years ago when buying a local SIM or even a travel phone SIM made more sense. If you need data, however, or if you will be doing much more calling, then those two options could be worthwhile.

Mary, I haven't used an ATT phone here, but from what you describe, it sounds like the most practical option to me. You get to keep your US number that way, so people back home can easily contact you without having to pay international rates (for example in case of emergency); meanwhile, you can call them if you need to and while it is expensive, it doesn't break the bank, especially if you keep the calls short and to the minimum. If you were planning to be here for a long time and/or use the phone frequently, there would probably be cheaper options for you with Italian cell phones (though folks back home would have to pay international rates to call you in that case). Based on what you say, though, I would stick with the ATT phone. I know lots of people who have done this on their trips.

Mary, My suggestions are much the same as Paul mentioned. If you only expect to make occasional and short voice calls (and perhaps some text messages), the AT&T Travel plans are a reasonable option to consider. As they've mentioned switching off the data, I'm assuming your phone is a "Smartphone"? Be VERY careful with data roaming! One very important consideration is to ensure that your phone is a quad-band model. That's likely the case, but it's still worth checking. You'll also need to check the Charger to ensure it's designed for "world operation" from 100-240 VAC. Happy travels!

One way to avoid this: unconditionally forward all incoming calls to voicemail. You may still get notices of new voicemails plus you can keep your phone on for sending and receiving text messages. Outgoing calls aren't affected.

Mary, we have used the AT&T option for every trip to the EU since we bought a cell phone. IT WORKS GREAT. If you are traveling with someone else we found their international text plan to be a tremendous bargan. It was a great way to keep in touch. You can shut off "data" yourself, and you need to understand how to do this. Just go to the "Settings" section on your phone and look around; you will find the switch. As mentioned, notify all the people that call your cell not to call when you are overseas, or all of those voicemails will end up costing you $$$. You may want to look into buying an data package for Europe; sometimes it can come in handy. And you can turn on a clock in your phone that will tell you when you use up that data.

Mary.. Another option, especially if someone doesnt use ATT, is Line2. You sign up online and its only $10/month for free calls to or from any phone (cell or land line) from any country. Line 2 assigns you a separate phone number for your cell. Then, when you want to make a call or receive a call you use that phone number. You can cancel at any time. We went to Ireland/Scotland and used it constantly for the 3 wks. We canceled when we got home so it only cost us $10!!

Sorry to hijack the thread, but if you turn off the data, are you still able to send and receive texts? Do you have to be connected to Wifi to do this? If you forward all incoming calls to voicemail, then your only means of communication is wifi? What if you are not in an area that you can connect to wifi, what happens to incoming texts? Sorry, but I am really not up with the new technology.

No, you don't need wifi or internet access to send or receive texts. They come to your phone the same way a regular call would. That's why old crappy phones with no internet capability can still send and receive text messages. (think back before you had a smart phone) The goal is to turn off your access to wifi and the internet, because it's really expensive, and just use your phone as, well, a phone.

@Melanie, As the previous reply mentioned, you'll still be able to make or receive voice calls and send or receive texts while the data is switched off, as those functions use a different part of the cellular network. Switching off the data will disable access to the cellular data network, and affect things like internet access, maps, position location, E-mail, etc. You can still access those in Wi-Fi areas. If you place the phone in "Airplane mode" it will switch off ALL wireless functions including voice and text. It would be easier to offer more specific advice if you could indicate what type of phone you're using and which network you're with. Cheers!

Eric, not quite right.... U don't want to shut off wifi. Just data. And suspend voice mail.

Hi Mary - just returned from Italy....we have AT&T iPhones. If you have an iPhone, AT&T offers an app called AT&T Call International, which can be downloaded on the app store. It offers very cheap calling rates. 4 cents a minute for calls to cell phone. Go to callinternational.att.com for more info. You'll need a wifi connection to use it. But to tell the truth, it didn't work that well for us...when we could get connected to wifi, we could make calls very easily, but alot of times it didn't recognize that we were connected to wifi and so couldn't make the calls. Ask AT&T about that before you travel (P.S. some of the customer service folks never heard of the app, you just have to ask them to look it up).

@ Ken, I am using an iPhone 4s with Verizon. So confused whether I should use my own phone there with an international plan, or buy a phone and SIM card there. We would only be using our phone for keeping in touch with my sister in law who will be traveling from Scotland to meet us.

My husband has the same phone. He wound up asking Verizon to "Unlock" his phone so he can get a SIM chip when we get to Europe. That way, we can use local service really cheap. If you don't do this, you will pay 1.29 a minute for all calls, plus 50 cents for every text, and a big data fee if you want to use it for GPS. You have to push a bit to get the information you need, because they want to sell you their "international plan."

Mary - I used the ATT plan and it worked fine for me since I'm not a heavy call or text user. I made sure to tell friends and family to only call or text if an emergency. The one surprise I had was when I took a picture with my phone and sent it to several people in the US - I "assumed" it would be one charge for the sending of the picture but instead I got charged for each of the numbers I sent it to.

@Melanie, Using your iPhone 4S is certainly one option. I believe Verizon offers an "International Roaming Plan" which reduces voice calls to 99¢ per minute, sent texts are 50¢ and received texts are 5¢. Check with them for details and more specific costs. If you plan on using text most of the time and occasional and short voice calls, that should be a cost effective option. HOWEVER, you'll have to be very careful with data roaming. Verizon may have data roaming plans as well, but the cheapest method would be to leave cellular data and data roaming blocked, and only access the net or E-mail when you're in Wi-Fi areas. You could also have your iPhone unlocked as Jan mentioned, and either buy a local SIM when you get to Europe or use a SIM from one of the "travel phone" firms. You didn't say which countries you'll be visiting? You may find that local SIM's are readily available in some countries, but not in others (especially if you want data access). Keep in mind also that you'll have to find outlets that can provide a micro-SIM. Be sure to take a paper clip or the small Tool to release the SIM card tray. I'll be travelling with an iPhone for the first time this year and have decided to try a "travel SIM" (which includes data), so it will be interesting to see how that works. The SIM will have a U.K.-based number, so the rates are reasonably good for voice and text (the data part is a bit expensive). If you'd like to have a look at the plan I'll be using, check This Website. Good luck and happy travels!

"...old crappy phones with no internet capability..." Hey! I resemble that remark ;-) Great; now the Samsung a237 is crying... (darn bullies)