Taking an iPhone overseas

BrokenRSA

BrokenRSA

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My wife recently upgraded to an iPhone 4. All good and well.

We're going to the UK in two weeks time for a small vacation, and instead of paying the exorbitant roaming fees, we'd rather just get a prepaid simcard over there for the iPhone. Now I don't know if there will be any hassles doing this? Normal phones I've had no problem with in the past, but I can't get a clear answer on whether this will cause problems on an iPhone.

Anybody have any experience with this?
 
BrokenRSA said:
My wife recently upgraded to an iPhone 4. All good and well.

We're going to the UK in two weeks time for a small vacation, and instead of paying the exorbitant roaming fees, we'd rather just get a prepaid simcard over there for the iPhone. Now I don't know if there will be any hassles doing this? Normal phones I've had no problem with in the past, but I can't get a clear answer on whether this will cause problems on an iPhone.

Anybody have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

I can't see any problems, except for the MicroSIM - don't know how easy it would be to get a MicroSIM on Prepaid in the US.

You can always buy a normal one, and cut it smaller yourself.
 
O2 Simplicity Prepaid (link). Go to counter, tell him you want to Simplicity deal where you pay 10 pounds and get unlimited UK texts and 500mb data.
I bought that last year when I went over and had no hassles (just be sure to be explicit when you're asking at the counter, we did waste 1 sim card coz they didn't get it first time.)
After that, 500mb is more than enough for 2 weeks. Plus you get to enjoy the iPhone in its natural environment, a 1st world country (seriously, it's an eye-opener).
Before you go, get Yelp, the London tube map and the london bus app. Will change your life.
 
Excellent, thanks, good to know there won't be any hassles!
 
*glare* at your username!

iPhone 4 will work fine overseas, as long as you get a Microsim.

SA iPhones are unlocked by default.
 
*glares back* Hah!

I was more worried about activiation and such, when you get the iPhone you have to activate it on iTunes, and it downloads some settings, and wasn't clear if that would prevent it from working overseas. But it seems that's not an issue, so it's all good!
 
You might have to reconnect your phone with iTunes though after swopping the SIM card, just be wary of that.

Also, trimming a regular SIM down to size yourself is no problem if you have a steady hand.
 
Mmm, forgot about the iTunes connection thing... Guessing the best way to test it here would be to get a different provider's SIM (say a MTN one if you're normally on VC) and see if you can swop it without the need to reconnect the iPhone. Obviously also try to setup the new internet settings on the phone directly.

I was planning on taking my iPad to the UK in October and getting a local SIM - much better than travelling with my notebook.
 
I regularly swap between Vodacom, MTN, 8ta, O2 and Vodafone in my iPhone without hassles. You will probably need to put in things like 02's APN etc.
 
bwana said:
I regularly swap between Vodacom, MTN, 8ta, O2 and Vodafone in my iPhone without hassles. You will probably need to put in things like 02's APN etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, look that up before you go. I remember parking outside someone's house so I could use their unsecured wifi to look up the O2 apn details, was fun ;)
 
Should be no issue using the phone overseas.

One point i think you may need to look at is if you are insured.

Some insurance deals on your phone will not cover you if you use a simcard with a number that they are not aware of. If you are insured, best you notify them, else they might not pay out in the future (should anything happen).
 
jasonbot said:
Doesnt vodacom have deals with certain carriers overseas to provide calls to RSA at standard rates?
Click to expand...

Nope. You can use SMS roaming, which allows you to receive SMS for free, and you pay R2 to send an SMS. Also keep in mind the R180-200 per MB they charge you for data when roaming... not worth it. Prepaid sim is the way to go
 
I'll arrange with my friend in the UK to get iTunes installed on his PC in the event of my needing to do the iTunes connections and all.

If the iPhone is like the iPad in terms of sim swaps, it hopefully won't be needed, as I've changed sims in my iPad without any hassles, just the APN changes.

I'll report back on all of this when I return.
 
I think the activation would only be needed if you upgrade the firmware or started with the phone fresh so pretty sure you can just shove the SIM in and it will work fine, obviously you may need to change the APN. Please do let us know.
 
Ok, feedback on this.

Getting a sim for the iPhone is no issue. Most of the stores there have prepaid iPhone microsim options. We went for the O2 one, for 10 pounds we got 500mb data as well as free calls and smses in the UK.

The iPad on the other hand was more of an issue. Some, not all, stores had iPad options, but all of them you had to load the simcard online, and for that you need a UK debit or credit card. I managed to come right at Vodafone, they helped load the card manually, although it took them a while to get that right.

So, in summary, iPhone no issue. iPad, a bit more hassle.
 
BrokenRSA said:
Ok, feedback on this.

Getting a sim for the iPhone is no issue. Most of the stores there have prepaid iPhone microsim options. We went for the O2 one, for 10 pounds we got 500mb data as well as free calls and smses in the UK.

The iPad on the other hand was more of an issue. Some, not all, stores had iPad options, but all of them you had to load the simcard online, and for that you need a UK debit or credit card. I managed to come right at Vodafone, they helped load the card manually, although it took them a while to get that right.

So, in summary, iPhone no issue. iPad, a bit more hassle.
Click to expand...


Apologies for necromancing...

Have a business trip in Vancouver in mid-July.
Want to head out to Whistler to hit the trails.

Looking at downloading a $9.99 trails app - and was wondering about whether to do it, since I was concerned about roaming data costs.

Glad to see it shouldn't be an issue. Won't bother with the iPad connectivity, since it might be more of a mission!
 
Feedback from my recent trip in the US with my Vodacom iPhone 4S. I got the AT&T GoPhone pre-paid bundle and loaded about 250 MB on my phone - used it without any issues!

Went to the first AT&T store I could find, but took along an old Nokia E65. Told the guy I wanted to buy the GoPhone SIM WITHOUT any Go-phones - since I already have one. Apparently some of the AT&T stores are rather useless and you have to really convince them that you don't want to use their phone. Don't tell them you have an iPhone/Android - they usually tell you the phone isn't supported on prepaid.

There are three pre-paid plans: the one is day to day which costs $2 per day to activate. You then get unlimited calling and US-texting on the day. This does NOT work with the data bundles - you have to take the month option (which costs $25 and gives you 250 mins for the month and 1000 US-only texts). You can then request data bundles (make sure you you don't buy the all in one bundle package which gives you 'unlimited' data and calling etc, but rather the separate 50MB, 200MB or 1GB bundles). They are $5, $15 and $20 if memory serves correctly.

I initially took the 200MB bundle to test it out with, but could have taken the 1GB from the start!

Got where I was staying and tested the sim on my Nokia first. Worked without a hitch. Then proceeded to cut down the SIM for my iPhone. Also, make sure you put your iPhone on a Wifi connection first, as in the last step you want to set up a new APN using www.unlockit.co.nz on your phone's web browser.

You can register the SIM online at https://www.paygonline.com/websc/index.jsp and do online refills for data & airtime with your SA credit card.

Interestingly enough, my iPhone started showing "4G" as soon as the data and everything was activated - pretty lame (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/03/att-iphone-4s-update-has-4g-kinda-sorta/).

Last thing that I found useful for calling the wife is the Telkom World Calling cards. Bought a R50 one and took the pin along. The number in the US to phone is on AT&T, so you can use the 250 Go-phone minutes to call the Telkom number. I then proceeded to call her on her Vodacom / CellC number in SA and it used very little funds - spoke a lot on the calling card and didn't even use up the R50.
 
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