T-Mobile and the Web in Italy

Jim, I'm not familiar with the Droid phones, but would suggest speaking with the CS staff at the nearest T-Mobile store to find out how to turn-off the data roaming functions (extremely important!). "Airplane mode" will likely block Wi-Fi as well, so hopefully there's a menu option that only blocks cellular access? As far as the "telephone component", I like to have that accessible, as I use texts to keep in touch with family and friends at home. Outgoing messages are usually about 75¢ each and incoming free. For calling Hotels to notify of late arrival or whatever, most larger places have some English-speaking staff, so not necessary to speak Italian. T-Mobile probably has a "Travel Pack" that will minimize voice and text charges, so you might ask about that also. Finally, be sure to notify them that you'll be travelling with the phone. Happy travels!

The technical aspects of this new Droid phone will take some getting used to, but we've enjoyed five previous Europe trips and not often felt the need for a telephone. Based on our 2009 experience in London, however, and wandering around South Kensington looking for a couple of street addresses and that addictive sense of seeming to read our emails at least every three or four days, we'd like access just to Google and our email and expect to find a few wi-fi locations, some included with our lodgings cost. I'm not sure if the phone's GPS capability is linked to the cell as a telephone or as a wi-fi device. I'm not sure that a GPS in Italian would be easy to use in any event so that's not a use we're looking for. If we have an emergency and have to contact our US home and friends, I think we're fairly likely to find a landline in a hotel or at a commercial exchange and we'd pay the long-distance charges in that case anyway.

You should talk to T-mobile about an international roaming plan. Also learn how to turn on and off automatic email retrieval so that you can turn it on in a wifi area. I have both an iPhone and android phone. I use the iphone as the main phone and it access a lot of data. My android is a secondary phone but it is unlocked and I can buy a SIM card in Italy very inexpensively for it. I will either buy a roaming plan from AT&T for my iPhone or more likely go with a service that provides unlimited international data roaming for iPhone. If you visit the Europe board you will see a thread about a Canadian woman receiving a $37,000 phone bill after returning from Europe. http://www.iphonetrip.com

This was part of AOL tips for today:
http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/02/22/i-got-hit-for-450-in-phone-data-roaming-charges-what-i-learned/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk3%7C205322 Gives specific directions on what to do on your Droid phone when overseas to control your costs.

Thanks to all advisors here. I've saved Ed's link to my desktop and I'll read it probably four or five times before it soaks in. The one thing I didn't mention before is that I have a prepaid phone; therefore, I paid for the phone and 1000 minutes to start. I have no contract and will not be billed. I'll burn minutes as I use the phone. If I'm careful to turn off all elements of the cell before I depart on my Euroipe-bouynd aircraft, and I do not use the telephone elements in any way in Italy (the GPS, it seems, is out, but we'll be traveling by rail and not using a hred car so an Italian GPS capability is not something we'd use anyway. So our sole use of the phone in Italy is to access email and Google a bit and both of these functions only in wi-fi hot spots, do we really have any exposure to costs beyond, I assume, minutes accessing the wi-fi?

Hi all, I'm traveling to several European counties this summer, and I'm looking for a SIM card I can use everywhere for local calls and web access. Has anyone used the MaxRoam SIM card? It appears to be just what I need. Any comments or alternate suggestions would be appreciated. http://www.maxroam.com/Home.aspx?cur=EUR Thanks, Stan