iPhone in Europe... any suggestions?

[Rich Schmidt]

I'll be in Europe for 2 weeks starting this coming Monday (France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal). I'll be taking my iPhone 4 with me, not to use as a phone but to use for email & internet when I'm on wifi.

I think I can just flip all the cell services off in the settings... but I'm not sure. Does anybody have experience with this? Anybody know exactly what I need to do to avoid roaming charges?

[Hans Deventer]

Rich,

Switching off data and regular phone should be enough.

[Rich Schmidt]

Rich,

Switching off data and regular phone should be enough.

And switching off regular phone is done... how? Airplane mode? That also kills WiFi...

Ah... it looks like I can turn on Airplane Mode... then switch WiFi back on. That should do the trick. :)

[Susan Unger]

What exactly does airplane mode do? I have that on my phone but don't know what it means.

[Hans Deventer]

What exactly does airplane mode do? I have that on my phone but don't know what it means.

Susan, in airplane mode you can use the phone, but it does not have any connections. So you can play a game, check your agenda, read something, stuff like that.

[Rich Schmidt]

What exactly does airplane mode do? I have that on my phone but don't know what it means.

What Hans said. It turns off all the radios in the phone (cell networks, wifi, bluetooth, gps, etc). It's called Airplane mode because that's the setting in which most people would need to turn off those radios.

Here's Apple's explanation: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1355

[Gary Creely]

My last trip I bought a cheap unlocked android phone, and got a prepay sim card.

or try this-http://gizmodo.com/5860647/unconfirmed-unlock-iphone-4s-method-found-no-software-or-hardware-required

[Hans Deventer]

My last trip I bought a cheap unlocked android phone, and got a prepay sim card.

The only thing in Europe is, there is no such thing as a European provider with a single fare. There is for instance Vodafone who works in many countries, but once you leave the country where you bought the sim, you're paying crazy prices.

[Rich Schmidt]

I survived the trip with the phone in Airplane Mode and WiFi turned on. We had WiFi in every hotel (had to buy it in one of them), and so all of us were able to Skype with our wives/families back home.

A couple of the guys had paid for international texting packages, and they used them. I wasn't that brave... or that dependent on texting. :)

[Gary Creely]

The only thing in Europe is, there is no such thing as a European provider with a single fare. There is for instance Vodafone who works in many countries, but once you leave the country where you bought the sim, you're paying crazy prices.

Considering what US carriers charge you for international rates it would still be much cheaper to buy a sim in each country.

In Romania on Orange for $7 Euros I got-

Sim Card
2800 in network minutes
100 international minutes
200 texts
100 mg Data