We are headed for Germany & many Austria in a few weeks. I know AT&T (iPhone) have a europe package where I can use my iphone in Europe. I wondering if anyone has experience with this over there. Will I have to rely on WiFi or will it pick up the cell tower lines like it does in the state (Edge)? Also, was is the availabilty of WiFi in Germany. I don't want to take a laptop but would like to have internet access. Ideas/suggestion...thank you!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32206 posts
Shawna,
First, you might want to check with AT&T regarding the "europe package", to determine whether this includes only voice & text, or data as well. There have been a few cases documented here of travellers that have returned home to find a $3K bill in their mailbox!
AFAIK the I-Phone is a quad-band GSM phone, so this will access the Euro cell network without any problems (including EDGE, depending on which Euro network you're connected to). You may have to manually search for a network when you land, but after than it should work normally. Be sure to check with AT&T regarding their roaming rates, so that you're very clear on what the costs will be.
I don't have any information on Wi-Fi access in the countries you'll be visiting. I wouldn't bother with a Laptop, as Internet Cafes are common in Europe. Some Hotels provide these for guests (either free or for a small charge). You can also use text to send short messages back home.
Happy travels!
Posted by
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2779 posts
T-Mobile EDGE is available in 90% of the country, almost 100% in urban areas. So far I haven't been at a single place where my Blackberry wasn't able to retrieve a very strong EDGE signal. "WiFi" is not a common term in Germany. It's referred to as WLAN or HotSpot but it's also available at pretty much every restaurant, coffee place, train station, airport, brand name hotel etc etc. And there is at least one Internet cafe even in small towns. Actually technically Germany is pretty advanced compared to the US ;-) But we're still not as good as e.g. the Estonian capital...