My US-based cell company does not accommodate smartphone use in Europe although I’m aware that it may be possible to buy a sim card so I can use it there.
However my main question is:
While overseas, will calls, voice mails or texts made to my Android phone while out of the country show up on my phone logs when I get back to the US? Or will they remain suspended in space?
Sorry if this is an ignorant question, but I’m curious.
I don’t understan the question.
Either you roam on a foreign network and then you get everything just like normal except you pay through the nose, or you don’t roam and it’s like your phone was turned off the whole trip.
If your phone isn’t connected to the network, it will behave just like it does now when it is turned OFF (not asleep, but really off).
What type of phone/carrier do you have, anyway?
Thanks, you both answered my question with “as if it was turned off.” Which is what I figured.
You need to be very careful.
If you have a GSM phone, it will roam on European networks, and you could run up a huge bill, unless you turn data roaming off.
Thanks beowulff. I pretty much plan to leave it turned off which is why I suspected it would behave the same way as if I were still in the US with it turned off.
MetroPCS, btw.
I actually found a bug in the Nextel network with this, many years ago. I think I’ve told the story before, but it fits here.
I was travelling to Palau, and waiting in Guam for a flight. I noticed that they had an iDEN network, and I had never seen my Nextel phone display the roaming icon. So I turned my phone on, let it camp, then turned it off.
Kept it off for the rest of the trip. Two weeks later, when I got back to Florida, I turned my phone back on. No big deal. Until I got the bill, which listed every incoming call while it was off as a long distance charge to me - it routed them to my voice mail via Guam.
Nextel was very polite about it and removed the charges. I offered to go back and help debug the issue, since I made cell phones professionally at the time. Couldn’t get anyone to agree to pay for the return trip.
I went to Germany this summer with a cell phone that was capable of accepting phone calls off of a foreign carrier that has agreements with my US carrier. I’m on Verizon. ( Carrier is not the only issue, the phone model also must be able to get on a certain network. )
I altered my plan to fit the overseas trip, paid for limited data, etc.I also turned OFF all Data unless I was at the house with it’s free ( and secured ) WiFi. I never, ever, made use of any public WiFi spots. In fact, I had no way of knowing by looking at my phone if I was near one. WiFi was off the whole time I was outa the house.
Worked out pretty well, too. Aside from some free-floating fears concerning hordes of Neo-Nazis, a big concern was cell phone hacking. Most of the time when I was in public, it was off with the battery pulled. If I needed to make a call, I could boot it in 90 seconds.
Another thing one might do is set the phone to Airplane Mode WITH WiFi upon departure, and leave it that way throughout the trip, turning it on to use (verified) hotel or restaurant WiFi.
This is a good point. When I travel internationally, I make any adjustments needed to my phone before I turn it off at departure. That way I don’t have to turn if on and scramble to turn off service or anything like that.
To a point. Whassap for example recognizes a phone once it’s been linked to it, even if the SIM gets changed (different number, provider and even country).
Re. buying a local prepaid SIM, check out coverage and sister companies: 3 covers several countries at non-roaming prices, other companies/groups have similar (or at least, better than “buy a SIM in each country”) arrangements for different sets of countries.
Last year, I went to Iceland with two phones - a carrier-unlocked iPhone 4, and my then-locked iPhone 4s (AT&T). I bought a Siminn SIM card ($20 for the month, which included data) at a mall in Reykjavik, popped it in the iPhone 4, and enjoyed a local phone number during my stay. The 4s had no problems roaming in Iceland; it bounced back and forth between the Siminn and Vodaphone networks. (I made sure to turn data roaming off before I left the US.) Of course, no issues using either phone with wifi.
Depends on your carrier, and on your plan. The only real answer for you must come from your cell company.
For reference, I have T-Mobile, which has FREE data roaming in just about every civilized country in the world. For no extra charge, I get (relatively slow 2G) data all over Europe and the Caribbean. Don’t know about other carriers, but they will probably all follow suit before long.