Avoiding international roaming charges

M

Miranda <3

New member
Hi There,

I'm new to the forums and have searched old threads but haven't found an answer to my question yet..

I'm using a TMobile Android on an American plan but traveling to the UK next week. I've read that even if you turn off data roaming when abroad, the phone may still check updates in the background and thus you may rack up huge data bills.

So, two questions:
Part one: has anyone successfully traveled abroad with the android G3 and avoided exorbitant charges?

Part two - a friend with an iphone tells me it's possible to avoid charges but pick up on free local wifi and use Skype to make cheap calls when traveling internationally. Does anyone know if this is possible with an android as well?

Thank you.
 
Rename the APN on the phone and turn data roaming off This ALWAYS stops all data.

For the UK if you want all your phone features and your phone is unlocked (What is a G3??) ; Three UK does a prepay broadband plan with is 10 GBP for 1GB of data... I always use this when in the UK and just change my US voicemail to reflect I'm out of the country and call me on my UK number...

I would suggest using a SIP client like SIPdroid and a proper SIP service (Google Voice + Gizmo5 - if you have a Gizmo5 account is good).... You can use that if you want to purely turn off data roaming and use WiFi for calls.
 
for me the best choice to have phone and data internationally is using a local sim card,I never do in UK but in China I do like every six month and works perfect
 
A good app that will automatically rename all your APNs so that they won't work (and back again), thus avoiding all mobile network data charges, is APNDroid.
 
I have traveled between the US and Canada with my G1. I used APNdroid to rename the APNs and also use Useful Switcher to turn off Autosync and enable/disable wifi (since I was traveling by car through areas without wifi, I saved the battery too.)

There is no reason to uninstall APNdroid when you get back from your trip but if you do, make sure you enable the APNs before uninstalling.

To convince yourself that you're not using your cell phone network fopr data, install NetCounter and you can see the counters yourself.
 
Thanks everyone.
That's all very helpful.
And please be patient with me if I get terms and names wrong - though comfortable with computers, I'm completely new to Android phones and all the terms etc and likely to make mistakes at first.
 
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