I phone in england and ireland

thanks so much steve!

I spent 18 days in Italy in May/June this year.

Before I left, I activated the following on my iPhone account:

AT&T World Traveler @ $5.99/mo. (this gets you their best roaming rate per minute) and 20 MB of data transfer @ $24.99/mo.

I made a few short calls home from over there. About 4, just to let family know we'd made it OK.

I made about 5 calls to others in our group while over there. Again, short calls just to arrange meeting places or to find people.

I sent about 25 text messages while over there, again just to people in our group, to arrange to meet for meals, or locate people who'd become separated from the group.

I used data services about a dozen times to check e-mail and a couple of times to use the GPS to get an area map. This used about 18 MB of the 20 MB of data service I had purchased. There is a free iPhone app that will monitor your data usage so you can be sure not to use more data service than you purchased. Charges are very high if you go over the amount you paid for. They also have a 50 MB data plan available for $59.99, but I was careful and did fine with just 20 MB.

When I got home from Italy I canceled the AT&T World Traveler @ $5.99/mo. and the 20 MB of data transfer @ $24.99/mo.

Bottom line: my monthly phone bill after 17 days in Italy was about $65 more than what it usually is.

DO make sure that you disable your email functions that automatically download your emails while you're there. You'll be charged a connection fee for each one that comes in, and that can add up quickly.

Maureen: "DO make sure that you disable your email functions that automatically download your emails while you're there."

Yes, that's the data plan mentioned above. It's good to have it, but you must monitor it and use it wisely.

Most of the time I kept data services turned off so the phone didn't use my data plan without me knowing it. That's Settings/General/Network and turn Data Roaming to off. That way your phone still works to make/receive calls, but it won't use data services.

When I wanted to check e-mail or do other things that used my data plan, I'd go turn Data Roaming on, use it, then go back and turn it off.

It's a bit of a pain, but not too bad.

I would also suggest signing up for Skype. When you are in a Wi-Fi spot, log into skype and you can make skype to skype calls for free or call other numbers for around $.02 a minute. We used this to call my parents and it was fantastic. Also, I didnt get service for the first day and a half (Doolin and driving to Dingle) so be prepared for that.

Thank you for your quick and helpful responses! There
was an article in the paper about a woman who did not
turn off those functions happily checking her emails
throughout her trip and her bill was $5000!

"...and her bill was $5000"

Yes, AT&T has a major problem with this. Since the iPhone comes with an unlimited "free" data plan at home, people get used to using it all the time and don't realize it doesn't apply abroad.

As I understand it, the high charges aren't from AT&T, but from the foreign systems who must handle the overseas portion of the transactions. When I arrived in Italy I did get a text message from AT&T warning about the situation, and explaining about turning off data roaming, but I guess lots of people don't understand what it all means, to their peril.

AT&T would be wise to send a current-balance text message every time people run up another $50 in charges. Then the situation might eventually sink in to people!