Data roaming

[battymum]

As you may know I am travelling to Japan with three teenagers. - I am posting my question here, cause you guys are great!!

Anyway, we have four smart phones - (DH has a work provided brick!!) I am absolutely petrified of getting a humongous data roaming bill - I have ordered 1 Local sim, and 1 portable wifi thing. (It is impossible to get prepaid voice sims without being japanese citizen so these are data only - the portable wifi gives us a stronger and unlimited connection, while having one phone with a sim allows us to split up.
So my question is if I have the phones in airplane mode, will they pick up the wifi? And will I be sure to not incur data charges for any background apps?? Or should I leave the phones at home and just take iPod touches?

O

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I will put the local sim in DD's phone, and the boys and I will use the portable wifi -

 

[battymum]

Oh, after a $900 phone bill, the boys phones are blocked from 3G Internet here, will that change?

 

[cmwade77]

There are many prepaid international SIM cards that can cost as little as $0.35 per minute and have low data rates.
An example is:
http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/

Of course leaving the phones at home is the safest way, another option is to remove the SIM cards and use one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/I-PMART-Phone...1363661428&sr=8-1&keywords=phonebook+sim+card

This would prevent any use of the phone, other than as an iPod touch essentially.

 

[zanzibar138]

I was super terrified about my phone roaming without my knowledge when I went to Europe, so I didn't take it! Phones can't connect to any wifi unless they are switched off from aeroplane mode, and I was scared that mine would just start roaming. Apparently you can change the settings so that it doesn't roam, but I'm not very tech savvy and didn't trust myself.

If you have ipod touches, take them instead. They can't roam, so it will save a lot of worry on your part while still allowing your kids access to facebook etc. They can basically do whatever the smartphones can whenever you have wifi. I even downloaded skype onto mine and used it to keep in touch with DH

 

[battymum]

I've spoken to vodafone, they assure me that data roaming is blocked - I proposed taking the iPod touches , which is ok because we are only going to have a data connection anyway, but they want to take the phones for the camera.

 

[zanzibar138]

I've spoken to vodafone, they assure me that data roaming is blocked - I proposed taking the iPod touches , which is ok because we are only going to have a data connection anyway, but they want to take the phones for the camera.

Don't their ipod touches have cameras?

 

[teddykins]

Just thought I'd mention your phones (android and apple) iPads, touches etc can be used in airplane mode, all you do is go to settings and select wifi to be on once you've enabled airplane mode.. you can also use bluetooth the same way. Piece of cake

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We removed the sims from the cards to avoid any possibility of incurring a large bill.