iPhone/iPad and “Local” Data Rates
(I’m just getting caught up on unfinished drafts I started earlier this year :) )
Over the summer before I travelled to the UK, I was doing some research on different international plans for iPhones and iPads.
Unfortunately with AT&T–unless you purchase an unlocked phone–there’s no way to use another SIM in a iPhone 4 (and likely 4S). The phone is locked to AT&T and can’t be unlocked.
The research below applies to older iPhones, unlocked iPhone 4/4S, or 3G iPads, *if* you want to get a SIM ahead of time. For many locations, it’s just as easy to purchase a local SIM once you arrive at your destination. Though in some cases you have to register/have a local banking account, etc. (For my trip to the UK I ultimately just purchased a local 3G SIM–though it did mess up the settings on my iPad and I had to get a new AT&T SIM once I returned. I may have just re-enabled my AT&T SIM the wrong way when I got back into the country, or did something else wacky like using an APN Switcher app.)
- Flashpacking through Europe with iPhoneTrip.com: “iPhoneTrip allows you to rent a SIM and use it abroad very cheaply. It works extremely well, and is well worth the money.”
- iPhoneTrip.com: $15.99/day unlimited data & $1.68/min voice; $22.99/day unlimited data & $1.29/min voice both plus $11.99 for a MiFi (as of 4/30/11 for Europe-wide coverage)
- iPhoneTrip Reviews at Flyertalk
Another option is to rent/buy a MiFi device.
From what I’ve read, Xcom provides MiFi’s for each country you will be travelling to (at the time of writing this article, apparently each uses a separate local SIM, instead of a global or even regional SIM).