<p>My son is leaving next week to study in Italy for a month. I hear horror stories of the phone bills that can be generated by the I Phone, even if you activate it for overseas and turn the data off. Apparently the texting still comes through unless it is turned off. He will have a Piccell wireless phone for use in Italy. Does he need to bring the I phone in case of an emergency?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bring an iphone. They are targets for thieves. I don’t see a need for one there any more than there is a need for one here.</p>
<p>Cannot speak to iphone specifically but my daughter is heading to France for 18 days and Verizon at least has a pretty decent program whereby you rent a phone from them, sign up for their temporary global calling plan (maybe $5 for the month) and then return the device when returning to the US. The fees on the minutes, texts and data are still high but lower than ‘usual;’ I like the idea of her having SOME manner of communicating with us, but without all the bells and whistles of the iPhone so less attractive to thieves.</p>
<p>I was in France last year and bought a French SIM card to use with my unlocked Tmobile phone. It’s much cheaper and unlike here, it only costs us when we initiate the calls, free to receive calls. Is his iphone on AT&T plan? Check with the phone company to see if they can unlock it and have him bought an Italian SIM card to be used temporarily.</p>
<p>Warning: all of the icons(?) and instructions on the screen will be in the foreign language of the SIM card, so if you are not fluent or very familiar with the handset, you may want to bring the phone template and instructions along.</p>
<p>My brother uses a blackberry with Tmobile and his plan allowed free text overseas , but not voice, so he was super careful to only text. Unfortunately, he still gets dinged for incoming voice mail at roaming international rate even though he never retrieved the voice mail! The US wireless service is very convoluted, to say the least…</p>
<p>I checked into Verizon, but the phones have to be returned within 21 days.</p>
<p>I would think he could leave the iPhone back at the hotel/apartment in airplane mode or turned off and it would be fine. Obviously, if he’ll be in a big city, wagging around an iPhone on the street for pictures or whatever probably isn’t the best idea.</p>
<p>I don’t know what to tell you. My son took his iPhone overseas and kept it in airplane mode unless he was in a wifi place. He didn’t encounter any problems but he was careful. He took another phone with him to use everyday (unlocked, quadband, overseas sim card). He didn’t have those bleed-through texts you are talking about. My understanding is that airplane mode prevents phone calls, text messages, picture messages, video messages, internet, or bluetooth. All wireless communication is off.</p>
<p>Maybe you are getting incorrect information about the texting.</p>
<p>It is easy to turn off the internet on your IPhone. There’s a setting for that. (Cross posted - I suppose it is the same as airplane mode - my D just said she “turned off the internet.”)</p>
<p>If the student is staying in a secure location, having his or her home phone is helpful. At least with ATT, you can RECEIVE text messages for free when you are abroad. My D is in Ghana now and has her IPhone with her. She had it for her long two layover flight there and she keeps it charged and checks for text messages on it. She rarely sends messages because these are 50 cents each.</p>
<p>She has an inexpensive international phone with a pay per minute card on it for when she needs to phone someone there or here.</p>
<p>The IPhone 4 doesn’t use the same sort of SIM card that our other phones use. If it did, we would have discussed the idea of putting her current SIM card in an old phone and leave the valuable IPhone at home.</p>
<p>My son also took his iphone with him for his semester in Italy; he kept it in airplane mode and used it only in hostels, etc. where there was wifi. He found it helpful to have the iphone when travelling, and did not travel with his laptop. He used “WhatsApp” for texting when he had wifi access. He bought a very inexpensive cell phone in Italy which he used for phone calls, and added minutes to this phone as necessary.</p>
<p>My brother’s blackberry was work issued so he did not want to swap SIM card since he was still occasionally working remotely while on the trip. He really did not have an option to turn off incoming voice mail, it may be work related, but did not realize that he got charged whether he retrieved it or not. The bill he got for the week was only $20 to $30 and clearly stated for voice mail. It wasn’t outrageous, but the fine prints on these contracts are not always clear. I agree it’s best to leave Iphone at home or totally turned off if a local phone can be used as in the OP case.</p>
<p>Son was in England and France for a week and took his iPhone, mostly because it is also his ipod and had all his music. He kept it in airplane mode, and only used wi-fi when available, which was nice because he could send and receive emails from his hotel. No texts or calls went through in airplane mode, no extra charges.</p>
<p>If he’s already going to have another phone while there then I say leave the iPhone at home. It’s one less item to worry about getting stolen/lost/broken and people should minimize when traveling anyway rather than maximizing. Amazingly, I’ve done numerous trips to Europe in the past without a cell phone at all and somehow survived (okay - it was in the days before the cell phone). </p>
<p>Even with his euro-phone he needs to be mindful of the length of time he’s talking, how many texts he’s racking up, etc. He should put himself in a ‘conversation conservation’ mode. It doesn’t really take a lot of minutes to do status checks with the family, etc.</p>
<p>In fact, it takes so little that when my D did a study abroad we didn’t bother to get her a different phone - she just used the phone she already had at the time (T-Mobile or AT&T) and it worked fine. It wasn’t costly because she was mindful of its usage. </p>
<p>I have an iPhone so when I go again I’ll just take it, use the appropriate precautions regarding the settings (i.e. not use a data mode unless on wireless), and be mindful of my usage.</p>
<p>On Verizon - the main reason they provide the different phone is because most of their phones won’t work in Europe since unlike AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint don’t use the GSM network which is what Europe has.</p>
<p>In Europe there are a lot of wifi hot spots. We have always carried iPhone with us when travelling, just turn off data and voice and leave wifi on. I would stop off at a coffee or fast food place to get my emails sometimes. iPhone has camera, so skype should work. It´s also useful to take pictures and upload to FB or send it via email.</p>
<p>My D doesn’t have an iphone, & she has found it is easier to get a phone/sim card in the country where she is traveling.
I am encouraging her to take her older ipod touch which has wifi & also a kindle app for books. ( and most of her books for her course are also available as ebooks- much easier to haul around when you are backpacking)</p>
<p>Texting on the iphone with AT&T is 50 cents per 160 character text. If you want internet access (at least in Rome), you will need an Italian phone number and then the wifi is free. I guess for national security reasons you have to register your phone # with the Italian government. Unless the iphone is “unlocked” this will not work. Hotels offer a free wifi password to guests so maybe the universities also provide this service. AT&T offers an international data package for internet use, but you don’t get much for the price.</p>
<p>My son took his iphone with him to Europe early this year. He was gone for four months and we skyped about once a week when he could get free wifi. For one month it’s probably not worth it if he is taking a laptop. Sometimes with my son we would do skype through the computers too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. So if we decide to let him bring it, turn off the data and put it in airplane mode? And only use in wifi mode. Question, when you turn on your phone, will it automatically be in wifi mode again, or are you at the risk for texting to come through?</p>
<p>scoopie:</p>
<p>I assume you have AT&T. Check out these tips from them on traveling internationally with the iPhone - </p>
<p>[iPhone</a> Travel Tips - Wireless from AT&T](<a href=“http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp]iPhone”>http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp)</p>
<p>Make sure he turns off the data roaming and also those “push” applications that automatically update. And do NOT text images. Make sure you contact your carrier to have the international function turn on.</p>
<p>My son will have to turn his 3G off, but I feel it is important to have an iphone with in case of emergency (maps, internet, etc)</p>
<p>I found this article that sounds helpful re my daughters summer plans- but I bet you can find similar info for other regions.
[Cell phones in Costa Rica](<a href=“Cell Phone Service In Costa Rica - PrePaid SIM, Types of Phones |”>About Tico Times Directory and Blog |)</p>