auch! that's gotta hurt...

Question: I often go to Canada on business. If I use the iPhone in Toronto (or anywhere else in Canada) is that going to be considered international data roaming? Not wanting to spend 3 hours on hold in order to get an unreliable random answer, I thought I'd ask Gizmodo readers whether they have actually been charged for data usage in Canada.

T-Mobile international data roaming (GPRS) on Blackberry: $20, unlimited usage. I've used it in Asia, Europe, Canada...never been charged more than $20. That includes surfing through the blackberry browser as well as using the blackberry as a tethered modem on my laptop.

AT&T/Cingular is notorious for having high international data roaming rates...doubt it'll get any better any time soon.

yes u will be charged in canada.. i was in vancouver and was charged 300.oo for data i had no idead it cost that much so thay wave the charge

I called and asked while I was abroad, they put me on a $3.99 international plan that did NOT cover data.

One day's worth of data?

$687

I kid you not.

It is now "under review". My point is that I called WHILE I was abroad and asked them for the best plan, they didn't offer me the best plan.

Plus I think it doesn "something" that you don't ask for. On that 1 day, I hardly used to the phone, yet it ranked up 14MB. IN ONE DAY!

It must do a lot of push data behind the scenes.
Has anybody ever checked into what it's sending/receiving all day?

I should also add that I BELIEVE the high cost that one day was due to visual voicemail. I had the phone witched off most of the day and received 4 voicemails. Visual voicemail uses data to download the call. I had 4 blips of 3-7MB which cost $150 a shot.

...thats cheaper than what sprint charges without a data plan, its roughly $0.03/KB... so basically downloading a ringtone costs you an extra dollar if you don't have a data plan

I've been told that with the $25 / 20MB plan a 12-month contract is required. Not too bad if you travel to other countries frequently, but if you're taking a once-a-year trip it'll still cost you $300 for that 20MB (12 months @ $25) + any KB over that.

Some countries have a data rate of almost $0.02 per KB from ATT and thats where I think people get messed up as they don't know how much data a webpage actually has. The Gizmodo homepage is 1.32MB and would cost a cool $26 to load at international rates. The iPhone also has a tendency to download data on its own when not in use - I know this because even on a prepaid plan that gives a warning for any data used, I'll sometimes get 30-40 of these in a day with the phone just sitting there (this was traced back to Yahoo push mail which seems to auto-check for new mail instead of being "pushed" like it says.

Even using wifi, the phone has a tendency to switch to Edge on it's own without any notice. You can be wasting 20 minutes reading your favorite sites only to realize that 10 minutes in, Edge kicked in and started charging you. Theres no warning when this happens and even just a few minutes of it could cause a high bill.

The iPhone really needs a text-only option which can disable images when needed. With how slow Edge is, I'd even use it for normal browsing when just looking for text data to speed it up.

Another option to consider is removing the sum card altogether and rely on wi-fi only if possible. Fortunately the non-phone functions work great even without the sim (thank you Lord). I know my little Sony W810i refuses to do any functions when there is no sim present.

mine data plan from unicel is the cheapest...I think, well any way my data plan is 1 cent a KB. Beat THAT, haha idk. I acctually have the unlimeted data plan for 15$.

Great device but when you travel international make sure the data connection is turned off. I have TMO and settings need to be changed when roaming. In mexico last week I just shut off the data connection and go straight up WI-FI (hotel had it free). If you cant do that put your phone in phone off or flight mode. The per/kb charges add up so fast especially if pages are not reformatted for your phone. I-Phone lets you see pages as they were meant to be seen and pay data usage charges you could never imagine ringing up.

Unlike all the whining about battery life, AT&T's international rates are class action material. They could repackage the unlimited plan for the Blackberry, or they could modify their rates in some other way so they reflect what iPhone usage is actually like (especially given that it's easy to use data without even knowing it). It does not cost them anywhere near $26 to open a single page.

Or, they could allow us to unlock the phone and use a SIM card from someone else.

I mean, can you imagine how much it would cost to use Google maps, with all the image reloading to generate the maps? And Google maps is a service that I would consider to be pretty damn important when traveling.

I'm fine with paying slightly more to roam overseas, but paying thousands for normal usage is ridiculous. And it really is normal. We're not asking to stream video, we just want to check our email and figure out where the hotel is!

I'm about to go away to Europe for three weeks, and I have to choose between not using my normal device (with my email, maps, and all my travel plans synced up) or paying thousands just for the privilege of using modem speed data. How is that right? It's not even a choice.

let's hope it unlocks soon, and people figure out how to get data and SMS to international numbers. will be worth the temporary loss of visual voicemail.

I remember these rates maybe a decade ago. The CEO at the company I worked for would rack up similarly huge bills for international roaming, both voice and data. Back then it was essentially a novelty reserved for top execs. These days, it's pure eveel. Thank you ubercapitalism for monopolies run amok. Give me a $49/mo unlimited international data plan and I'll sign. iPhone uses more data you say, fine $69/mo. What they're offering is robbery. Without a plan, it's outright lunacy. As S5 pointed out, I understand paying extra to have my normal services available across the pond, but not thousands of dollars for checking my mail a few times and browsing a web page or two. Screw you AT&T. Should you decide to offer palatable services, I'll play ball, you'll get my $$$. Until then I'll keep my hack'unlocked iPhone on a local SIM and my wallet in my pocket.

I was considering switching to AT&T from TMO to get 3G goodness on my HTC Cavaliere but screw that. I'l suffer with Edge and WiFi.

What I really hate about Cingular is that you can call them 20 times and get about 20 randomly different answers to the same question. Their support who answer the phone simply have no idea what Cingular offers.

When I frist got my Treo650 I signed up a "Unlimited" data plan for $49.99/mo, but I got a $1500 bill after using it for 2 weeks in Canada.

I called in and asked to get a Unlimited data plan that covers Internationally and told the guy that I was using Treo 650, then I was given this Blackberry International Unlimited for $69.99/mo. This time I got a $300 bill after using it for just 5 days in US. This time I was told that Treo 650's data is not considered as Blackberry data, so my treo 650's data bill was based on pay per use.

After that I pretty much given up on data plan and recently upgraded to Nokia E90. Once again I called Cingular to ask for Unlimited data and told them that I was using an Unlocked phone. This time they gave me something called "Laptop Connect unlimited" which gives me unlimited in US and upto 100MB in other countries.

Fortunately, I didn't get a hugh bill this time but instead, not only my Phone cannot connect to internet, my Voice is also disabled. I was not able to make regular phone calls anymore. I called in again and this time Cingular told me that Laptop Connect is only for laptop connect card, so they gave me another plan called "PDA connect unlimited" which cost $69.99/mo and is supposedly unlimited in US and upto 20MB in other countries.

Now, my next month's bill was not ready for view yet, and hopefully this time nothing gets screwed up.

Could pricing and billing for mobile phones be any screwier? Yeesh.

I'm surprised not more people react to these high prices. Today we all use internet and it should be free, or at least a small flat-rate. Sure it cost money for the operator to provide service, but not THAT much... you'd think technology has progressed a bit..

I guess this is something we should add to the list of 24+ tangible iPhone drawbacks. See the list here: [www.essistme.com]

Rogers (the only Canadian GSM carrier) charges $60 for 25mb of data. So it's actually cheaper to get an AT&T phone with data roaming and use it on the Rogers network than to get a Rogers phone with data and use it on the Rogers network. I wish I had some sympathy for you 'mericans, but I just don't. Us Canadians get hosed.

Is there not a simple setting for EDGE data to be turned off while still allowing use of the phone functionality abroad? I can send 40 cent texts messages in Peru, but I don't want my phone's overactive EDGE to try and suck data from a roaming signal. I assume removing the SIM card is the only way to use Wifi without extra charges as well. It seems like Apple didn't have a full idea of AT&T's billing to incorporate it in the phone's function beyond adding bookmarks to their website.

What is ridiculous to me, (besides the fact he's a web developer who has no concept of page sizes) is that he couldn't open up the settings are and take a look at his usage and figure out how much it was costing him. For $3000 he was on a LOT.

@KKCOOLJ - how is a guy not paying attention to his usage an iPhone drawback? That is just plain stupid.

Heh, I got knocked at $0.05/kB for US data roaming (Formerly free). My bill was around $3k as well after a 4 day trip.

They wiped it all after realizing that well, they forgot to tell me that the terms changed...

Don't think this is limited to data calls. The mofo mobile companies will try to grab cash from you in any way possible. A friend recently had his US cell phone stolen when moving to Costa Rica (he has a Costa Rican phone, but wanted to hold on to his US phone for visits). He had never used that phone abroad. When the bill came in it was for over $4,000, primarily due to the roaming charges. He is suing the movers but T-mobile are demanding payment. When I use my credit card in a non-usual way I sometimes get a call to verify. I hope this sort of thing comes down the pike for cell phones. Do you usually call Borneo and rack up $2000 bills? If so, fine. If this is the first time, what does a little fraud / stolen phone alert cost them? A customer if not.

VZN tried to reem me with a $2k bill for roaming for not doing nationwide blah blah blah. They eventually (took 4 months) said fine - we'll credit you the ouch... silly wabbits.

I'm not so sure this issue is isolated to the iPhone.

I'm no Apple fanboy (never owned a mac, never will) but it seems that alot of iPhone ire should really be leveled at the industry as a whole.

Like the fact that it's tied to a carrier...uh...who doesn't do that?

I just received a $1,300.00 bill for something I did not even know I was using. I had called AT&T before I went abroad and they never told me about any data charges. I just called the company 5 minutes ago and it was like being in court, (ex: did you ask about the data plan ?, most people buy the phone for internet, but you just said this and now youre saing that). This is redicilous ! When someone calls customer service to ask about international charges, the answer should include the charges for data. In addition, I don't care that most people buy the phone for the internet and they should know the charges, I could have bought the phone simply because I like the way it looks, it is not their business to tell people what they should buy the phone for. The bottom line is that, a phone is a phone, and its used for calls, if I had bought a lap top to take abroad I would have called the company to check how I can get internet internationaly and what the charges would be. This company has made a mistake of not training their staff to properly notify people about all their charges and now they are charging people for their mistake. They are simply swindeling people out of money.
If anyone has an idea about how these charges can be disputed, please let me know.

Note: you can call AT&T and enable the international data plan for as little as one month, then cancel it when you get back

AT&T have no issues with that - just call before you go - set it up for the month, cancel at the end of that month

repeat each time you go abroad - sounds reasonable

Man, shit is wiz-eak. WEAK. I just did some research, seeing how I maybe going to U Toronto for law school. Canada has some fucking screw-y cell phone plans. And even if I did a turbosim unlock, I would still be paying out the ass. I really hope AT&T does some sort of international travellers package for the iphone because this is absurd. like they do with the blackberry.

@SteveA:
I am in deep dispute with them at the moment.

I am pretty sure that most of the data is related to visual voicemail downloads, but I can't find out the average size of a voicemail file. I am assuming it is AAC and a minute is at least 1MB. I think that accounts for most of MY $600 usage in one day.

I'm not a particularly savy tech user, probably like the majority of people who just enjoy using it. I was considering buying the iPhone thinking that it would be great not to have to tote my laptop to Europe. I did go to to the AT&T site and read about the cost of international phone and data plans, but really didn't understand that this data usage would be racked up so rapidly until I read the comment by BY MRSFD AT 08/20/07 09:32 PM. I had absolutely no idea.
Thanks to all of you, I "understand". Ha Ha I was going to use it for mapping and such on the web and maybe a couple of calls or emergency contact.
Again, thanks