iPhone Wifi doesn't Work Abroad w/o AT&T Roaming Package

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iPhone Wifi doesn't Work Abroad w/o AT&T Roaming Package

Does the AT&T firmware on an iPhone prevent you from using wifi abroad if you aren't paying them for international roaming?

When I crossed from the US to Canada, I turned off cellular data, as my settings menu tells me to do in order to restrict all data to wifi. However, when I connect to wifi networks (homes, hotels, cafes, etc, no internet. After 2 weeks of frustration, I break down and pay AT&T $30 more per month for an international roaming plan, and suddenly with the exact same settings, wifi works.

If I cancel my contract with AT&T, how do I make sure my phone doesn't turn back into a square clock/calculator?

iPhone 5, iOS 8.3

Posted on Jun 16, 2015 12:51 PM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jun 16, 2015 12:56 PM in response to microthought

microthought wrote:

Does the AT&T firmware on an iPhone prevent you from using wifi abroad if you aren't paying them for international roaming?

No, WiFi is not an AT&T service, WiFi calling may be blocked, (ask AT&T) but that's all.

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2015 1:02 PM in response to microthought

Something is wrong. You should be able to use any wifi you can connect to, anywhere in the world. Your contract with AT&T has nothing at all to do with wifi. I have AT&T and have had no issues connecting to wifi when out of the USA. When you connect to wifi, what exaxtly happens? Many hotels require you to authenticate via a web page in Safari? Did you have to do that and if so, what did you see in safari when you tries to connect? Have you successfully used hotel wifi in the USA before?

P.s. The international passport roaming plan you paid for again, has nothing at all to do with wifi. It lets you make unlimited roaming calls and texts at non-roaming rates ($1/min), and it gives you 120mb of cellular data to use Over a one month period from the plan start date.

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Answer 3

microthought Author

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Jun 16, 2015 1:00 PM in response to Csound1

Thanks for your reply.

I understand that wifi is NOT related to AT&T or a service, yet I'm confused why without cellular network access, no wifi networks would work UNTIL I activated an additional AT&T international roaming package.

This kind of thing used to be common with Blackberry for security reasons, they wanted to verify the security of the device via cell networks to enable wifi (no cell simcard = no wifi).

Could something similar be happening?

I'm not asking if NO wifi is possible, it happened, but why?

Thanks for helping somebody clueless enough to not know where I'm going wrong...

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Answer 4

microthought Author

Level 1

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Jun 16, 2015 1:02 PM in response to Michael Black

Thanks Michael.

I'm mid-20's and tech savvy for having zero programming knowledge.

I tried normal trouble shooting, tried other networks, home, hotel, cafe etc, but the only thing that worked ended up being paying for a roaming package.

I could connect to a network, but "no internet connection" was the consistent error message.

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Answer 5

Jun 16, 2015 1:04 PM in response to microthought

One thing to try, under settings, erase, try "reset network settings" and then try connecting to a wifi node again.

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