Making Calls

The article Using UK Mobile Phone in USA covers this very nicely, so please look there for that information.


Surfing, eMail and Apps

Unless you really need a mobile data connection everywhere you go, it would be VERY wise to turn the feature off.

The iPhone makes a lot of data calls in the background for various reasons, and certainly with the latest iPhone updates you will find apps are updating themselves and the data they use in the background without you even opening them.

As at April 2011, the cost per 500MB were as follows:

3: £1,500 (£3 a MB)
Orange: £4,096 (£8 a MB)
TMobile: £3,700 (£7.50 a MB)
Vodafone: £300 (£30 Per 50MB Per Day)


How do I stop it?

Navigate to: Settings -> General -> Network on your iPhone

For IOS6 it is Settings -> General -> Cellular

You can see various options here.

Firstly, and most importantly, turn OFF Data Roaming. As you can see from the text below the option, this will avoid substantial roaming charges for data. If you are using iOS4 then you will see an option to turn off Cellular Data. This will stop any app connecting to the data network as well. So with that turned off you will not get any nasty surprise bills on your return home.


If you are really unsure and/or justifiably paranoid you could go as far as taking the SIMM card out of your iPhone by using a pin in the little hole next to the SIMM tray on your phone to eject the card.

The phone will still pick up on wireless networks, and you have the choice of paying the agreed rates or not.