Submitted by Bob Solie for Washington Cellular
If you have a smartphone (iPhone, Galaxy, etc.) you MUST read this before you travel outside the US – (and remember that Canada is a foreign country).
Many smartphone users accidentally incur large roaming charges when traveling because they don’t realize that their smartphone is doing a lot of “data” things in the background. It may be checking your email, doing a GPS location, checking for App upgrades, etc.
In order to protect yourself from these charges, you need to turn off all of the features that work in the background and then check your email and surf the web only when WiFi service is available.
Here are some tips on saving yourself from high data roaming costs when you are traveling:
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International Travel Tips for Data Charges
How to keep data charges predictable when traveling abroad
Check your email only when WIFI is available. You should disable your device’s auto-check functionality. You may then utilize Wi-Fi as a supplement to 3G/GPRS/EDGE to download and manually check email.
iPhone Users: To turn off the auto-check functionality, tap on: Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Fetch New Data. Toggle “Push” to “OFF” and under “Fetch”, select “Manually”.
Android Users: Select: Settings > Accounts and sync > Manage Accounts. Un-check “Auto-sync” to cancel all auto-sync functions (email, weather, stock quotes, etc.) or select specific account and uncheck sync options.
Windows Phone 7 Users: Select Settings > email & accounts, then select an account. Choose “Download new content” and set to “manually”. Uncheck all “Content to sync”, then click checkbox at bottom of screen to save changes.
Turn off Data Roaming. By default, the setting for international data roaming will typically be in the “OFF” position. Check the settings on your particular device before traveling abroad. Turning data roaming “OFF” blocks email, browsing, visual voicemail and downloads, but it will not block text messages. International roaming rates apply when you send text or picture/video messages.
iPhone Users: Tap on: Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming (toggle to “OFF”).
Android Users: Tap on: Settings>Wireless and network>Mobile networks>Data roaming (uncheck it).
Windows Phone 7 Users: Tap on: Settings>cellular>Data roaming options (select “don’t roam”).
If you have any questions on this subject, please call Washington Cellular at 360-754-2310.
