TimesOnline: Why you'll be paying a lot for iPhone 3G roaming

...because the iphone is the only phone with where 3g roaming would be an issue

Just hit up http://www.iphone-hacks.com unlock it for free and use the phone on any carrier you want.

Having visited Canada last month and expected the roaming for basic e-mail and Google Maps functionality to be somewhat reasonable, I was shocked to get the call from AT&T kindly letting me know that the international roaming charge would be in excess of $1000 if I didn't switch to their international roaming plan immediately.

In the US at least, the text messages are included in the plan, not the data package.

What about roaming in Canada and vice-versa? Can anyone chime in on US residents visiting Canada and paying for data roaming. I live in Canada, and can almost guarantee you that using your phone in the US is the equivalen of getting ass-raped. Mind you, we are used to it already from the current ridiculous cell phone costs.

...just thinking, if Apple would let an iPhone-App be available through AppStore, which switches Data Roaming Off and On automatically, when signing in/out of another Mobile-Carrier...
...or based on GPS...

In the UK, which this article applies to, it's actually a lot cheaper to own and run the iphone 2 vs the iphone 1. You do get SMS on all the plans and even the roaming is somewhat cheaper than it was previously.

This is all well and good, but the questons remains: with the international nature of the Internet, why do wireless voice/data plans cost so much when roaming internationally? Does it really cost AT&T that much extra per minute to bill me for roaming around in other countries? Does it really cost the local wireless provider that much more to stick my data packets on the Internet than a local user?

Given that billing is largely automated, I would think that the cost increases are negligible. However, I think the answer to the question is simply: because users will pay it.

I don't think it costs more to handle the calls, especially since Internet traffic to overseas Web sites and international email doesn't cost extra. (I shouldn't have said that, since it will give the telecos another bad idea.)

Consider this: I bought a prepaid SIM in Australia once while traveling on business. A local call cost US$0.40/minute. Calling back to the US costs $0.25/minute. Yes, you read that right; it cost more to call locally than internationally.

Now, given that, how can you tell me with a straight face that international calls are more expensive to process?

Feels good to be in a huge country like India. Data roaming is non existant, everything is the same everywhere. And subscription rates for EDGE (no 3G yet) is $10 per month! :)

OK so probably a really dumb question but if you use AT&T in the states you can't just put a T-mobile SIM card in when in Europe unless the phone is unlocked correct?

I have a Blackberry my company pays for overseas but I'd rather just take the SIM out and use on the iphone 3g here.