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Taking your iPhone or iPad outside of your home country

R. Zucker, Entertainment Magazine

Since international roaming charges can get very expensive quickly, AT&T advises customers to take several steps with their iPhone before making any calls.

There are several ways to minimize international data charges from AT&T:

• Use Wi-Fi instead of 3G, GPRS or EDGE networks for web access, email. Additional charges could apply to access broadband networks. Internet and Email tips: check email, stocks, browse web, etc. when you land at the airport. Go to the hotel lobby to check email and browse web. Wifi is often free in many international airports, hotels, restaurants, cafés and retail stores.
• Purchase an AT&T International Data Package. This additional cell phone plan can considerable reduce the cost of using data abroad. AT&T has four different discount international data packages from $24.99 per month for 20MB of Data Global access to $199.99 for 200MB. AT&T's international Data Global Plans cover more than 65 countries. There are overage charges starting at .005¢/KB.
• To store a Google Map: Use the Maps app instead of Google Maps web browser. Locate the city you wanrt to visit and load that map. When you are offline, you can still access the map, enlarge or move around to other locations without occuring charges.
• Synch your movie library to your iPhone so you can watch movies without using a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
• Read more about international use of your Apple mobile device.

Voice and data usage, including data usage from delivery of Visual Voicemail messages, are charged at international rates. For a complete list of countries and rates visit att.com/wirelessinternational. AT&T offers iPhone International traveling tips to help you keep control of data usage.

iPhone data charges are higher on the iPhone than other mobile devices because iPhone delivers full HTML email, including attachments and graphics. The Safari web browser in the iPhone support full HTML browsing for a "full Internet experience." This uses more data than a WAP browser on a standard mobile, handset or PDA. Also, programs like Google Maps, YouTube and others can require a large amount of data to download to the mobile.

Change your iPhone General Settings

You can make sure you are not charged by AT&T when you get a phone call while on the road and do not want to accept it, or accidently activate automatic email checking, voicemail or other wireless actions, such as stock or weather reports, YouTube or GoogleMaps. Read more about Airplane Mode.

Avoid unexpected iPhone international roaming charges

Find out what to shut off on your iPhone. How to prevent iPhone charges. Make sure you are not charged by AT&T when you get a phone call while on the road and do not want to accept it, or accidently activate automatic email checking, voicemail or other wireless actions, such as stock or weather reports, YouTube or GoogleMaps. Continue reading about avoiding international roaming and other charges.

Sources: AT&T and Apple (TM)

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