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In my experience, Apple actually made this process of "global roaming" worse, not better. Case in point: I spend about 2 months a year in Japan and a month in
by kamechan 14y ago
In my experience, Apple actually made this process of "global roaming" worse, not better.
Case in point: I spend about 2 months a year in Japan and a month in London. I live in the US and have a plan through ATT. I used to have an iPhone 3gs, and then a 4 (now a Galaxy Nexus).
The first time I travelled to London with my iPhone, I knew enough to be paranoid about overages and activated my global roaming service and bought 25MB of data coverage just so I could use it in a pinch. ATT customers were supposed to be able to get free WiFi at Starbucks. That turned out to be false. Fortunately, almost every pub in London has free wifi and I tend to spend more time in pubs than Starbucks anyway.
The second or third day I was there I called ATT to try to get them to give me the unlock code so I could swap my US SIM out for one from O2. After about 30 minutes on the phone, I finally got someone who put it plainly, "Sir, if you had any other phone besides the iPhone, we'd be glad to let you unlock your phone so you could use the SIM from the local carrier. But we are under strict orders from Apple not to." I bought a 20£ throwaway Nokia the next day which had a free 30£ top-up with it and used it for the duration of the trip.
I have had similar experiences in Japan, except I have always had a Japanese phone (because I use the NFC-based Suica card for the Metro and in convenience stores). A couple years ago, I needed to be on-call whilst in Tokyo and wanted to be able to answer my iPhone if it rang. Long story short, my iPhone didn't even work in Tokyo ... regardless that the global roaming was turned on (and I was paying for it).
Was in Tokyo from Nov-Jan this last year. Brought my [unlocked] Galaxy S2 I had at the time. Went to Softbank with my wife, and went through the normal procedure of proving citizenship (hers, not mine) etc. to get Japanese rate plans. Also had brought my Japanese phone. SIM swapped into my GS2, worked perfectly. No more global roaming/iPhone drama. Had tried to do similar with iPhone previously, carriers in Tokyo wouldn't touch it. Same thing, "Under strict orders from Apple not to …"
Went back with my Nexus recently. Put SIM from GS2 into Nexus. Worked flawlessly, as unlocked phones have been doing forever. I do not yearn for an Apple-controlled MNVO. a) I like specifically choosing whatever carrier works best for my needs at the time (via a SIM card) b) my experiences roaming with iPhone so far have been much MORE expensive than with any other phone.
Edit: wanted to make it clear that the "unlocked" GS2 was an ATT GS2 which ATT voluntarily gave me the unlock code for when I called and told them I would be travelling with it.
- DanI-S 14y agoI have a Verizon iPhone 3GS, which I bought specifically so that I could use it in the US and the UK. After three months, which is Verizon's minimum wait period, I called them up and had them unlock the phone for an international SIM. On traveling to the UK, I cut my trusty Orange SIM card down to size and inserted it. Everything worked perfectly.
- kamechan 14y agothings may be better now. the trip to london I was speaking about was with a 3GS in 2009-2010, and at that point the (sole) carrier in the US (ATT) apparently couldn't offer unlocked service. i could have unlocked it myself and voided the warranty, i guess, but didn't opt to do that at the time. of course, now americans can just buy unlocked iphones. so problem solved, i guess. remarkably happy with the nexus and don't plan to go back to the iphone, so i guess i won't find out.
- jarek 14y agoApple sells unlocked iPhones directly these days - was this before that time?
- ableal 14y agoIn late 2009, in Europe one could buy the unlocked iPhone 3GS from Expansys (online shop) for around 600+ Euros.
- st3fan 14y agoAll the things you describe are carrier business model problems and have nothing to do with Apple. You can blame yourself for not buying an unlocked phone or for not having a separate unlocked phone for traveling.
- kamechan 14y agoI disagree. The fact that ATT unlocked my Galaxy S2 last November for me without hesitation when I told them I would be out of the country 3 months each year says otherwise. Even last year, with my iPhone4 they wouldn't do this for me. ATT essentially said the same thing they had in 2009, "we're sorry, if you had any other device but an iPhone we'd be glad to unlock it, but we're prohibited by Apple from doing so..." Maybe Verizon is better for customers who travel abroad often. But ATT showed me they were willing to unlock my non-iPhone without hesitation, so I still blame Apple. And the number of shady iPhone unlocker operations in both London and Tokyo tells me I'm not alone in their aggressive lock-in practices. Maybe Verizon customers get a better deal, and I know unlocked iPhones are available now. Honestly, for the hefty price tag I've never considered unlocked iPhones here in the states. Sim-free plans in the US don't seem to offer the same level of discount that they do elsewhere in the world. Here it seems better to just sign the contract and take the carrier subsidy (something which I fully blame the carriers, not Apple, for). It wasn't until Google started selling the Galaxy Nexus through the Play store for $399 that I even considered buying an unlocked phone. I am still under contract with ATT, but for this price the extra freedom I get is worth it to me. Definitely not gonna pay > $600 for it though. FYI, I do have a number of unlocked phones I carry in other countries. But honestly, wouldn't you rather carry just one phone, the one you use for all your contacts and as a camera, music player, etc ... than having to carry two phones all the time? Kind of a PITA.