DAY FOUR
The last day in Oxford, my WiFi service has run out, and we’ve only an hour or so until we head for Cambridge — so I decide to turn on data roaming and get my email. As soon as it is enabled, my voicemail badge shows a number (where previously it was there, but blank), so now we know for sure that voicemail is only downloadable via cellular, not WiFi). I synch my mail get the voicemail, and then check the usage statistics to see how much was downloaded. Turns out to be 2 megs. Ah, more than I expected, but not bad. Then I remember that each kilobyte is 2 cents and wonder how much this cost me. Doing the math, I calculate with dropped jaw that it’s $40.00.
Ouch.
Data roaming RE-disabled.
Looking over my data usage on the AT&T site, I see that my data usage has been VERY high – although sorting out email from other data-using apps isn’t easy, it’s apparent that email does eat quite a bit of data. I may try to do some analysis on this to see how much data is actually used.
DAY SIX
I wound up with some time to walk around the local shopping center in Cambridge and came across some mobile phone shops – so I stopped in to inquire about prepaid SIM cards. Now, when I was last in the UK a few years ago, an American couldn’t simply buy a prepaid SIM – you had to have a UK address tied to it. So, I simply used the address of a co-worker who lived there. However, now *anyone* can get one — and they are in most cases free. So after a few stops at Orange and O2, I found the answer I was looking for in the T-Mobile store. 20 pence/minute for UK calls, and 1 pound per day for unlimited data. Score! Oh… Except that I have to jailbreak/unlock. Well, hey, why not? The only caveat is that you must make at least one call every 6 months or the card is deactivated. That apparently won’t be cheap here in the US, but at two calls of 1 minute each per year, that’s only 3.50 pounds — or $5.00 or so. I think I can afford that given the alternative of using AT&T.
So with a SIM card loaded with 5 pounds on it, back I went to the hotel to JB and unlock. Following the excellent directions from iClarified (http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1881), I was able to complete the process with minimal issues. Unfortunately, in the process iTunes got completely confused as to which apps I wanted loaded – so a lot of time has been spent fixing this. I also lost some (but not all) of my settings — very annoying. My ringtone preferences are gone, but my email settings are intact (albeit sans passwords). Annoying, to be sure, but fixable.
But hey! Everything works fine – voice, data, everything — with one exception — I cannot download voicemail. I suspect that AT&T only permits such connections from their network. Upon returning, I stuck my AT&T SIM back in and everything is once again fine.
CONCLUSION
A lot of lessons learned. If you are planning to make the trip, you’ll surely want to grab a pre-paid SIM – but not all the terms are equal. Orange, for example, wanted 1 pound for the first 20 megs, with 1 pound for each additional meg on top of that. T-Mo asks only for a pound per day unlimited, and texts to/from the US were the same rate as local ones (20p send/10p receive). The phone rates seemed to be reasonably similar, however.
Of course, you can’t receive calls at your US number — but quite frankly, that may be your best bet given the expense. You can always provide your UK number in your voicemail message, and even arrange to have a calling party text you on the UK number – after which you can call them back. You also won’t be able to get your voicemail – although I presume you can still dial in for it – I never did get around to trying it.
My only other suggestion? Jailbreak/unlock BEFORE the trip so that you can sort out any issues beforehand.
And now, it’s time for me go back and explore Cydia some more. Cheers!
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
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