International Travel Tips for Using Your Cell Phone
If you are planning a trip to another country, you must make sure that “Cell Phone Plan Coverage” is on your checklist of things to take care of before you travel. International Voice and Data charges can cost tens of thousands of dollars if you do not take action to add the appropriate international roaming and data usage plans. Suggested Options to help keep costs to a minimum:
- Leave your Cell phone at home.
- Taking your cell phone with you? Be sure to purchase an International Package (voice and data as applicable) before you travel. To sign up for international plans, call the IT Services Cell Support Desk at 650-725-HELP (650-725-4357), option 4, and tell them the device you plan to bring so they can recommend the best plans to suit your needs.
- If you purchase International plans, be sure to leave the plan(s) in place for 60 days after your return from your trip. This will ensure that all usage charges during your trip are billed with the rate provided on your international plan(s).
- During your travels, if you have difficulty with your service and/or device, call the AT&T international troubleshooting line: 011-916-843-4685. From the US, call 800-335-4685.
PDA Travel Tips
International data usage is NOT covered under your existing U.S. data plan. Any voice or data usage outside the domestic (USA) coverage area is considered an International Roaming charge.
International data roaming can get expensive quickly. For example, opening an email with a 5 megapixel picture in it, or downloading a 3-minute video YouTube each takes about 2 MB of data. The cost would be almost $40, based on pay-per-use international data rates of $0.0195/KB.
What can you do to minimize your international data charges?
- Turn Data Roaming OFF.
- Utilize WiFi instead of 3G / GPRS / EDGE: WiFi is available in many international airports, hotels and restaurants to browse the Web or check email.
- Turn Fetch New Data OFF.
- Purchase an international Data package: Purchasing an international data package can significantly reduce the cost of using data abroad. To sign up for international plans, call the IT Services Cell Support Desk at 650-725-HELP (650-725-4357), option 4. -Call BEFORE you travel.
- Where available: Reset your usage tracker to zero. When you arrive at your international destination, access the usage tracker to enable you to track your estimated data usage.
