iPhone virgin asks: Will I be able to send email via wifi?

Your Verizon iPhone will still do wi-fi, it just won't do 3g or voice in Italy because it uses the CDMA technology instead of GSM. There won't be any roaming charges because Italy and Europe don't use CDMA. Until you get back to the states think of your Verizon iPhone as an iPod Touch. Email, Web, Skype, Google Voice with Talkatone or anything else that works over wi-fi will be fine.

Lisa, As the previous reply mentioned, you won't have to worry about "airplane mode" or "roaming charges" as the cellular part of the phone won't work at all in Europe. The display will probably indicate "No Service". AFAIK, Wi-Fi will still work normally. You'll probably find that using an iPhone / iPod Touch for E-mail or web browsing becomes somewhat cumbersome if used a lot (that's why I now travel with a Netbook). Cheers!

Also, set up a Skype account and load the free app on to your IPhone. You'll be able to make voice calls back to the States when you have wifi access very cheaply.

Im still in france(italy tommarow) and writing on my Nook tablet. The iphone has been working as well but like everything on our travels it isnt as easy as it is in the states. Log-on requirements make for some difficulty (terrorism laws) and connections are not always good. Having said that i would absolutely take your phone and buy skype credit to make wifi to landline calls back home. Practice before you leave and like everything else expect and embrace the differences.

Richard "hit the nail on the head". Bring your phone, but don't expect good w-fi coverage. Use it for Email and Skype calls. Italy has limited wi-fi hot spots because of terrorism laws. These laws were recently changed. When we were in Italy last year I found Wi-fi at some of the places were we stayed, at one restaurant, and at Mickey D's. Verizon does have a neat plan for an overseas phone. You rent one for $10, they fed Ex it to you, and you pay $1.99/ minute, or $.99 minute for all of your calls. I beleive that the phone will use your US Verizon #, and that it is easy for you to transfer all of your contacts to this "loaner". Check it out on their web site. My cousin is doing this for our trip in two weeks to Spain, because she needs to keep on top of her Mother's health issues.

Just set your iPhone to data roaming off, you will never worry about roaming data again

Wifi in a public places (particularly hotels, train stations or a piazza) is risky because bad guys know where the tourists will be on wifi and they try to steal email passwords. With your email password, a thief can look through your emails to find your banking email, with an account number, and then ... well you can imagine it from there. A VPN provides some wifi protection but its not a free service (assuming that your iPhone even supports VPN - the older ones may not) In addition I never check email via wifi, even in the hotel. I use a cable connection into the hotel's internet (some hotels have this service) to check email. This is still not 100% safe because the hotel can get hacked, but it's the best I can think of as a non-expert in this field..

zolopho raises a valid concern, but only if you're sending or receiving your email without SSL. If you are using a web site that starts with https:// instead of http:// then that connection is considered secure as the packets of data are encrypted between your device and the server. That goes for home, work, and travel. Anyone snooping the data isn't going to see usernames or passwords being sent in the clear. For email, it is a bit more complex, because you need to verify that how you are sending and receiving email is utilizing SSL as well. I'll give an example using iOS 4 and Gmail. You need to look at your Accounts under Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars Tap Gmail Tap the Account ([email protected]) Tap Advanced Under Incoming Settings, Use SSL should be On Tap Account to go back Under Outgoing Mail Server, Tap the SMTP server
Under Outgoing Mail Server it should show Use SSL as On Sadly, you need to verify these settings for each mail server you use and I don't know if there are any hosts these days that by default don't use SSL, so I can't confirm if one or more would be a problem. The ones I use use SSL as the default when you first configure them.

Or you could switch to AT&T. Just sayin'.

Thanks everyone, especially for the tips on security. I'm in Italy now and it's working great!

"I'm in Italy now and it's working great!" We know. We are tracking you. :)

Besides SSL, as Kevin suggests, encrypted email connections may also be called TLS (Transport Layer Security). This is an up-dated version of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) (I think). Gmail can be set up to always use encryption. Comcast email can as well. I have no problem with checking email on my phone so long as the email program is set to use SSL or TLS and it is supported by my email provider. A VPN (Virtual Private Network), which encrypts all traffic to the VPN host, adds nothing to your security if you already are using encryption. Having said that, if you aren't using an encrypted connection, others can eavesdrop on whatever you type and send over an open wifi connection. This is true for phones as well as netbooks and laptops. ==
(I know that isn't how you spell "up date", but the forum otherwise isn't letting me use the word.)