Question about international roaming
 

I am set up to do international roaming when traveling (w/my US phone); all set with the right type of phone, etc. but I cannot figure out whether it will cost the earth to receive e-mail (automatically forwarded from my home server). AT &T keeps harping on what it costs to SEND, but won't give me a straight answer on costs of simply receiving and either reading or deleting e-mail unopened. They cannot seem to understand the question. I hope you Fodorites can do a little better.
Thanks
Jess

I just went through this runaround myself. Previously, you could pay a flat monthly rate to get unlimited international data transfer (send and receive) that you could activate and deactivate at will without penalty, which I did last year for my trip to Peru.

But since then, they've changed the rules. You can still sign up for an international data plan to get unlimited international data transfer (send and receive) for a fixed monthly rate, but you have to sign up for it for a full year. If you cancel early, there's a huge cancellation fee.

Otherwise, you pay $0.0195 per KB sent or received by the phone including attachments....regardless of whether you even open the email or not (!!!!!). I, for the life of me, could not figure out what this would cost me. But given that I get a ton of emails with huge attachments, I was afraid to find out once the bill came and signed up for the international blackberry plan monthly fee. Fortunately, my company pays for my cell/BB service up to $150 per month, so it doesn't cost me anything to have the service year-round.

The number for the international department at AT&T is 800.335.4685. They have a slightly better clue than the regular customer reps.

If you need help while outside the US, the number is 001.916.843.4685. Program that number into your phone before you leave. Last year in Peru, I had to call them a few times to reset my phone every time I travelled into a network area (quite annoying). I never had to do that in South Africa, but, then again, I only turned it on a few times and wasn't going in and out of networks multiple times a day like I did in Peru.

If you want to check your voicemail while overseas, you hold down the 1 key. To dial a US number from overseas, you dial 001 and then the 10-digit number. For local South African numbers, you dial 00 27 (country code) and then the city code and number. If you are in another country, just replace the 27 with the appropriate country code.

Some links that might be helpful:

Link to check international service availability and roaming charges: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2xszo2

Link to the various international roaming and data packages: http://preview.tinyurl.com/34wuav

I have the international blackberry plan. But you will need a different plan if you are using a smartphone. Here's a comparison of smart phone plans: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2fwhtf.

Here's the blackberry comparison: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu2d9n. And in case anybody has a PDA, here's that comparison: http://preview.tinyurl.com/26j289

Hills27
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. I have a BB from work that I do not pay for, but it is not set up as a phone; I use my personal BB for everything except work e-mail. I'll have to experiment with filters, etc. and see how many KBs of mail I receive on an average day.....Again - thank you; I'd only begun this process but you've really saved me an inordinate amount of hassle (and maybe money)
Jess

I think your bill should show how many kbs you get a month. I waited until the last minute (the lounge in Dulles) to call AT&T, so I didn't have that luxury.

As an alternative, you could temporarily remove your existing personal email account from your blackberry and add a new email address that you only give to the people you want to be able to email you. That would cut down on the spam and other stuff you don't want to read or pay for while on vacation.

Or you could have the firm add international service to your work BB at their cost, and temporarily set it up to receive your personal emails as well. It's really easy to do, and they'll never know. Let me know if you need help.

p.s. On that last option, you could then take your personal BB for use just as a phone. Just make sure you temporarily remove your email account from the set up so you don't incur a ton of data charges.

And you're very welcome.

I can see my data usage when I log into my personal AT&T account.

Good idea; I am new to AT&T - does the personal account show incoming as well as outgoing data?
Jess

Hmm.. strange, now that you mention it, when I look at the data transfer details, under the IN/OUT column, it only ever says OUT. I don't know how you'd figure out incoming vs outgoing.

I'd also planned to switch to the Intl BB plan for one month and found out that you can no longer do that. So I think I'm going to keep only one email account on my BB and temporarily remove the other accounts. Only a few people have access to that email so hopefully I won't have $500 in data charges when I'm away :D

I guess you could do a rough count of KBs coming in on an average day- and if it's anything you can work with, filter out messages from certain sources while you are away.....
Jess