# Traveling to the US



## Caillou (Jun 9, 2003)

OK. I'm totally confused now.

I just read about 20 posts (here and elsewhere) about tips to travel to the US with an iPhone. More than ever, the mess is getting bigger!

*SIMPLE NEEDS*
I will be in the US for about 10 days. My needs as a tourist are going to be quite simple :
- to be able to make local calls while in a visiting city.
- to be able to consult the net from time to time when not capable of finding a wifi access point to check a museum schedule, look up a restaurant phone number, etc. Nothing fancy or intense. 
- that's it!

*FIDO...*
Yet Fido, my service provider whom I just called a few minutes ago, makes things very effective to scare me to even consider turning my phone ON while in the US. Roaming charges at a buck-a-minute, outrageous data fees (6$ per MB : kidding me ?!), overlapping billing period with my travel dates (i.e., adding additional constraints to my usage). All in all, quite frustrating to realize that in fact, they have nothing serious to offer me.

*UNLOCK ? JAILBREAK? OPTIONS...*
So I'm told to consider —help me here with the right terminology— to unlock or jailbreak (are these synonyms?) my phone and get an AT&T or T-Mobile card, pop the Fido sim card out and use the chosen US provider with a prepaid service. Kind of... 

*QUESTIONS REMAINING...*
Can someone who has done it confirm please :
- Indeed, this is the way to go. US providers have interesting voice and data offers for foreign travelers. 
- Then will I get access to my data on my phone if the sim card is changed ? Can I sync with my Mac while on site ? Will my iPhone sync with my Mobileme account while in the US with the new sim card? Will it screw up my preferences and data integrity, and all ? _(can you tell I'm somewhat of a risk-averse person!?) (fact is, I don't like to spend time reconstructing data sets and prefs and all, so I try to avoid any risk that will potentially lead me down that path!)_
- what are the consequences when I get back to Canada and pop my FIdo card back in. Do I simply sync with iTunes to get everything back to the way it was before? Or do I need to reset the phone ? Will I risk loosing data ? Will it jeopardize any of my rights in lieu of my contract with Fido ?

*DOOR NOB ?*
You're probably saying: "Boy, what a door nob, this guy! He just doesn't get it, does he? And he's mixing up all kinds of issues." Well, I accept the title (for arguments sake!) if it can help other people like me understand what to do and what they are getting into when it comes to traveling the US. 

*HELP !*
The not-so-frequent traveller that I have become is totally confused and is asking for the kind advices of his fellow ehmac friends. What is indeed the best way to go about traveling to the US of eh with a Canadian iPhone and not have to remortgage my home ?


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

I'm going to be in the same situation as you...so what I have done is unlocked my 3G, when I'm down in florida, I plan on buying a T-mobile sim card with a pre paid plan and use that for my calls.

I think I have read that the sim card will cost $10, and then the cost depends on how many minutes you require.

$10 for 30 minutes
$25 for 130 minutes
$50 for 400 minutes

so that's what i'm going to do.

I was going to let Rogers put extra minutes on my plan I think it was $60 for 120 minutes - too expensive.


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## thadley (Jul 8, 2008)

Hahaha, wow, k, deep breaths.

I'm not fully versed on all of this, but I've had similar concerns, since I'm traveling soon as well.

Calling will be expensive. Everything will be ridiculously expensive if you keep your Fido SIM in. If you're only going to do 1 or 2 local calls, or just emergencies, I'd say don't bother with unlocking, just keep your iPhone as it is and turn everything off. Data roaming, turn email to manual fetch, location services, make sure there's no way it can check any data without you specifically asking it to. I've heard horror stories of people coming back with $300 bills, but I think that as long as you have all that off and don't hit anything by accident, you should be okay. 

Unlocking and jailbreaking are not synonymous, but they are heavily related. Jailbreaking means to hack your phone so you can install unapproved apps and generally do lots of things Apple doesn't want you to do. Unlocking refers to breaking the carrier lock on your phone, which right now means that if you pop in a Rogers SIM or anyone else's, it won't work. But, generally speaking, you have to jailbreak to unlock.

The data on your phone shouldn't be changed if you swap SIMs, though I'm not sure about jailbreaking and unlocking. That's one area where I don't have any experience, so I can't speak to that.

I'd say think about how long you're going to be away, and how much are you really going to need your phone, beyond emergencies. A lot of what you're talking about will be available from tourist booths, or if you get a good guidebook or do some research beforehand. Unless you're going to be gone for a few months, or making lots of phone calls, it doesn't sound like unlocking would be worth it to me.

But that's just me.


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## Caillou (Jun 9, 2003)

Thx bmovie and thadley for your quick response.

Does that mean that I have to get back to the previous millenium, i.e. back to paper maps and Frommer's and Michelin guides ? 

Anybody else ? Feel free to add to the confusion, or clear it out completely!
What's been your experience ?


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

since my phone is jailbroken and unlocked, I have loaded it up with a program called: xpgs and have downloaded google maps for florida and I can use the gps chip in the phone and navigate without a data plan (which I don't have anyway)

bottom line is roaming charges are huge, Rogers still wants to soak me with extra minutes for being abroad.

The unlock will allow me to put in a USA sim and make local calls (which I plan on doing) without Rogers charging me a cent!

and yes you can swap sims without losing anything....actually all contact are stored directly on your iphone it doesn't use the sim card for that.

it's worth it I think.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I just returned from a month long trip to the US. I made a single call home on my Telus phone, 10 minutes cost $9.50.

For the limited use you require, you might want to do what I did. Your best solution is to go to the first Wal*Mart you see and buy a Tracfone for $9.98. It will come with 20 minutes of free airtime. Register it using the phone itself and buy another hour if you need it for $19.99. $30 and you can call anywhere in the US for 80 minutes. Toss it when you return home, or save to reactivate when next in the US. (Note you cannot call outside the USA.)

Prepaid Phone | Tracfone


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## Caillou (Jun 9, 2003)

SINC... that's what I did when I was in last Europe (while still with Bell then). Hum... maybe I can use that phone !


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Not sure about Europe to USA compatibility, but for $9.98, the Tracfone is hard to beat and mine worked well. Clear and dependable. I e-mailed the phone number I was assigned home and had people call me to stay in touch.


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

SINC said:


> I just returned from a month long trip to the US. I made a single call home on my Telus phone, 10 minutes cost $9.50.
> 
> For the limited use you require, you might want to do what I did. Your best solution is to go to the first Wal*Mart you see and buy a Tracfone for $9.98. It will come with 20 minutes of free airtime. Register it using the phone itself and buy another hour if you need it for $19.99. $30 and you can call anywhere in the US for 80 minutes. Toss it when you return home, or save to reactivate when next in the US. (Note you cannot call outside the USA.)
> 
> Prepaid Phone | Tracfone


that sounds like a good idea, but then I would be handling two phones....


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## archangel (Jan 1, 2003)

Plan your route and check the wifi on the way. I'm making a relatively short trip next month. All the NY Thruway stops are wifi so I plan to use that for net. Text is cheaper than phone so I'll do that instead of voice.

I noted that Fido's US package is a three month commitment so I'm not looking at that.

That phone idea is pretty good. I'm going to look into that.

And remember to turn all the data features in you iphone.


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## sashmo (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm new to the iPhone. I plan on getting a 3Gs, as soon as they are again available.  I was looking forward to using the great travel apps, when I travel. Then I read all of the miserable stuff about roaming charges. If I use my iPhone, when travelling, in a wired cafe, and browse the internet, is that considered roaming, with all of its expensive consequences?


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## Flipstar (Nov 7, 2004)

Well, I'm guessing you have to actually tell Fido that you want voice roaming on. I went to Boston a couple weeks ago, and my iPhone turned into an iPod touch.


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## archangel (Jan 1, 2003)

Wifi is free in that it does not count towards your data or time. The wifi finder is pretty strong. I've been impressed with that and it defaults to wifi. It looks for wifi first. I'm on Fido but pretty sure Roger's is the same way.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Hey you have two options...

1. Pay Fido $10/month (cancel when you get back to Canada) and they'll reduce the data charges from $6/MB to $1/MB. http://www.fido.ca/web/content/internet/wia_email_options

2. Buy an AT&T sim card which you can find on eBay for under $20, then buy a $20 100MB prepaid wireless data card. You do need to jailbreak/unlock your phone which is easy but I'd personally only go this route if I was planning to use massive amounts of data. 

It's up to you. If you're just planning to check e-mail occasionally or use Google Maps which uses less than 100kb on average per session provided you're on Maps mode not Satelite or Hybrid mode, I'd get the $10 US roaming plan and pay per MB. If you do need to download a song or movie while on vacation, go to a WiFi hotspot to do it. If you end up using 500kb a day for the 10 days, your total data charges including the monthly addon will be $15 which is totally not unreasonable.


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## sashmo (Oct 19, 2002)

Hey guys, thanks for replying.
According to donna83 wifi is NOT free.  That's a drag.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I think you may have misunderstood me, the prices I've talked about were for roaming over 3G networks, not WiFi.

That's said, you'll find free WiFi in some places, and paid in other places (if it's free,, you usually if you're a customer, you can request the password for the protected WiFi Hotspot, once in awhile you'll find an unprotected WiFi hotspot). Starbucks in Canada lets you use free WiFi for 2 hours as long as you have an active Starbucks reloadable card but i'm not sure if the US has it... as of April of last year the US didn't have this but then Canada didn't have it either. 

Because Apple is partnered with the US Starbucks though, there were a few things I was able to access for free at Starbucks: iTunes Music Store and my .Mac (now MobileMe) account.


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## sashmo (Oct 19, 2002)

Okay, so no charges from Fido/Rogers at wifi hotspots, anywhere in the world? Otherwise, don't use the iPhone for voice or data when you travel and you want to save money.
Thanks for clearing that up.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

After looking through this and about 100 other threads all expressing the same anxiety, I have to wonder WHY Rogers and Fido don't just come up with a simple, easy-for-people-to-understand price/plan for travel into the states.

Something like 90 percent of the population of Canada live within three hours of the US. For a wide variety of reasons, it's a very popular pastime for residents of this fine country to go down south.

There should just be a flat-rate deal per day added to your bill, something like this:

Calls: $10 extra/day for calls back to Canada.
Texts: $10 extra/day unlimited text or $1/text sent (maybe 25¢ per text received?)
Data: $20/day for up to 1GB, or just call and we'll turn off data roaming entirely, guaranteed, for the length of your trip.

There! Done, easy to understand, people can make their own decisions, VERY profitable for Rogers/Fido. Was that so hard?


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## Caillou (Jun 9, 2003)

@Chas_m... maybe their job descriptions are so hard to understand that no one really knows who should do something about it. 

I SOOOO totally agree with you.

Meanwhile, I'll do the walmart strategy proposed earlier : buy myself a cheap phone with a prepaid card.


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