This week I am in England on business and thought I’d share some iPhone-related experiences encountered in my travels.
PRE-TRIP:
I’ve already decided that I do NOT plan to use AT&T from the UK as the International rates are simply astronomical. (Really now — $1.29 PER MINUTE? And even with the International Plan it is still $0.99 per minute.. There ought be a law…) So my main plan for phone service is Skype — free to call the family since we have Skype installed at home, and only a $0.02 per minute if I need to call a US landline. Much more sane. Only downside – I need WiFi for either the laptop, my Skype Wifi phone, or the iPhone (via Fring) – but I expect that won’t be a major problem. So, the iPhone will be in airplane mode for the entire trip – but with WiFi enabled. I made sure that data roaming was disabled in the event that I do need to fire it up in an emergency and make a $400.00 phone call.
DAY ONE:
Well, apparently I didn’t need to worry about data roaming since I can’t get service at all. Despite reboots, reseating the SIM card, and everything else I can think of, I cannot get cell service at all in the Oxford area. I figured I would make sure that it worked just in case… And it does not. A little research quickly reveals that you need to add International Roaming to your account – how annoying! – but AT&T’s customer support is closed on Sunday (say what?!), so that problem will have to wait until tomorrow.
I have a prepaid SIM card from a few years back in an unlocked Nokia I bought some years ago – but apparently the SIM card is no longer useable and the phone reports that it cannot be activated on the network. Had I stopped to try this in London, I could have scored a new pre-paid SIM, but out here near the hotel in Oxford, there’s no place to get one. Already I feel myself being tempted to unlock the iPhone if I can find a SIM and start wondering what the rates would be — especially for data.
Oddly enough, one of the items that goes down when you’re in airplane mode is Location Services – so Google Maps refuses to tell me where I am. This is resolved by disabling airplane mode – so even though I have no service, I can still get my position. OK, that works. I stop for lunch at a restaurant that has not-so-good food (common for the UK for some odd reason) but has free WiFi. Score! I try to upload a picture of Oxford University via Twitterific but it cannot seem to reach the required server. I can post tweets, but no pictures. I settle for emailing them to the family, then use Fring successfully to call them and say hi. Already the iPhone is proving its worth since I can log in to WiFi portal web pages with it and get online — but there is no provision for the Skype phone to do so. Score: Fring 1, Skype phone 0.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
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- Apple TV now only $69
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