Using iPhone Wifi Overseas without Carrier Charges?

There's no setting to do this as yet, but removing the SIM card does exactly what you want. Here's how:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305746

If you want to make/receive calls without also incurring data/EDGE charges, put your iphone SIM in an unlocked basic/cheap handset and use that for calls.

I have the same (similar) question.

I'll be traveling next month to central america. While I understand that I'll be charged for the minutes if a voicemail message is left, I want to know if I can use free WIFI to check email/web surf if it is available and NOT be charged for the data since its not using EDGE?

Any suggestions/tips/advice?

I heard that I could potentially rack up large fees from AT&T checking email, etc. because they "cannot tell the data difference" between EDGE and WIFI.

Should I just turn WIFI off altogher and use the phone for entertainment and the emergency phone call?

This one was solved by the 1.1.1 update. You have the option to turn off data in international roaming. When you do the update, the default becomes phone data off ... leaving you wifi data access.

Check out the update and install it before you go.

You are not charged for data on wifi access, you just have to find a wifi source.

Message was edited by: Rhyd

I'll give the update a try as we speak. Thanks!

I did what Rhyd suggests above and it works just fine. For added protection I actually just removed the Sim card and stored it in my briefcase. This way I can't inadvertently change the roaming setting and start incurring unexpected charges.

Also, Apple used some peculiar wording next to the "Data Roaming" setting. Note that it says "When abroad, turning off Data Roaming MAY avoid roaming charges when using email, web browsing and other data services". Apparently the setting is not a slam dunk disabler of roaming capability.

Also, Apple used some peculiar wording next to the "Data Roaming" setting. Note that it says "When abroad, turning off Data Roaming MAY avoid roaming charges when using email, web browsing and other data services". Apparently the setting is not a slam dunk disabler of roaming capability.

Wording to protect themselves in case something goes wrong with this setting for whatever reason - which isn't likely but such wording is required for the "I take no responsibility whatsoever for ANY of my actions and expect others to do this for me".

Yep, that is some pretty cryptic language from Apple!

AT&T is trying to tell me the international roaming charges for data will be the same for wifi -- .0195/kb Can this be right?

Wrong - not possible for AT&T to track data access over a WiFi network.

If you have installed the 1.1.1 update, international roaming for data is turned off by default. This must be turned on in order to access the EDGE network when roaming internationally.