Data roaming – the costs of overseas travel

December 16, 2011 2 Comments

There’s been a lot of recent press around the massive telco bills that some users are getting when travelling overseas with their smartphone.

A Google Australia search on “huge data roaming charges’ currently yields 143,000 results. So it is an issue.

How do you switch data roaming off?

Here’s some quick directions for a couple of the more common smartphones, if yours is not in the list, a quick internet search for “turn off data roaming” for your phone model will likely be helpful.

  • For iPhone – go into Settings / General / Network, and set “Data roaming” to Off.
  • For Samsung Galaxy S2 – go into Settings /Wireless and network / Mobile networks, and ensure “Data roaming” is not ticked (should be grey).
  • For Blackberry Bold 9900 – Go into Manage Connection (or via options) / Networks and Connections / Mobile Network, Data Services is normally selected as “On”, but change “While Roaming” to Off.

There is a chance, that even with Roaming off, that there will still be data downloads (or other call related charges) while overseas. You might consider contacting your telco prior to overseas travel, and restrict your account to disallow international usage. This includes voicemail and call diversions. Just picking up voicemail or a diverted call while overseas can be very costly.

But I still want to use my phone and access the internet!

One of the best solutions for this is to get your hands on a local sim card, with a pre-paid phone and data plan (normally a month at a time). This is by far the best solution cost-wise. These are normally available at mobile phone retailers and convenience stores. Compare prices and what you get in respect of call allowance, and the amount of data included. On a recent trip to South Africa, I picked up a sim card (I think it was Vodacom) with a fair call allowance, but more importantly 500MB of data included for less than $100 Australian dollars (this was my total spend – no extra for the few calls or data – largely because I used Viber as well as Skype on WiFi – see below).

Potential cons though:

  • If you keep your phone contacts on your sim card rather than on the phone, you won’t have easy access to your contacts after swapping the sim card (consider moving contacts to your phone – but make sure they are first backed up online or on your PC/MAC).
  • Since you will be on a local phone number, it’s not so easy for people to call you (maybe this is a pro!)

My suggestion to help overcome this is to use internet based apps (for calls, text, video).

A couple of applications you might consider are:

Skype – you can use this for instant chat, messaging, audio calls, or video calls

Viber – a great little app for text messaging or phone calls

For either of these two, each user must have the application installed – but this isn’t a bad idea even for usage within Australia, as you will be using data rather than call allowance (I’m assuming you have a reasonable amount of data included in your phone plan of course).

A big advantage with these apps though, is that your contacts are still available to you when you change phones/sim cards etc.

Important note – should you use these types of apps overseas (Skype/Viber or similar) – and you use them while global roaming – it will cost a small fortune. Use a local sim card with a reasonable amount of data, or hotel/cafe WiFi.

Don’t forget to also take advantage of WiFi where you’re staying, this will lighten the load for any data usage, even if you’ve obtained a local sim card.

So what will Data Roaming cost?

A lot!

You can estimate your download requirements and cost from the major telcos (as well as other general roaming information), so it would be wise to do so before travelling ..

What about tablet (iPads etc)?

The same issues around data download apply, but not so much the phone calls. You should go into the device settings and switch data roaming off. It may not be as simple to get the right sim card overseas – micro sims (used in iPads) are generally less common than standard sim cards, but a little more looking, or use of WiFi, is still the better solution than the costs of global roaming.

Please feel free to post comments on your own experiences, including any of your own tips!

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