So last year when I went to MINI United, I took my Blackberry with me; before leaving I went to the T-Mobile website, enabled international roaming and signed up for international unlimited data service. Easy! When I got back, I logged back in and cancelled the data service.
So now, flying to England for a week, I wanted to do the same for my iPhone. But … AT&T really doesn’t understand foreign countries apparently!
You can’t activate international roaming online – you have to call or visit a store. But you can’t call at the weekend because they don’t bother staffing that department.
You also can’t sign up for international data online … and anyway, it’s not unlimited. The lowest 20MB/month package costs more than the T-Mobile package, and limits data 😦
OK. I just called AT&T and struggled through their many phone interrogation systems, finally reaching a person who then had to transfer me elsewhere, more waiting and more “it’s me” verifying!
I then learn that I should maintain the data plan for a minimum TWO months – because it might take a while for the international data usage to get billed, and if the plan is closed when the billing occurs, I’ll get hit at their default price (which is $20/MB!); logic might guess it’s related to the USAGE time, but no, it’s according to the BILLING time which is “whenever”.
So now, I want international data for one week and instead of costing me $7, it might cost me as much as $50 😦
Come on Apple, let T-Mobile sell the iPhone!
M&I / GBMINI 
ah, the cost of the high life! and there is the first drawback of the iPhone, I think.
I did the international thing when I visited Holland earlier this year. I called AT&T got the low end data service and they connected me to Apple. Took all of 5-10 minutes. I was lucky as I mainly just used my daughters wifi for most of the time.
I, of course, didn’t really need any high end data stuff but in your case it’s a bit of a different situation being a young businessman. I also found plenty of cafes that let me hook up with them, I guess if ya drink da bier… well you know.
For me the experience was spank’n. But I can see your frustration. It didn’t end up costing me that much as I stayed within the data restrictions.
I had some fool call me from my bank wanting to sell me some service and he couldn’t get it through his head that I was in Holland?! He kept saying “Holland… Michigan?” After 5 minutes I hung up and ATT credited me the time.
Conclusion …
I’ve abandoned all use of the iPhone data use, it’s just too likely to run up huge bills. Instead, try to book in a hotel with WiFi, and stay disconnected the rest of the time!
At least they now provide a switch to turn the data roaming off… when it first launched there were no international data plan options and no way to turn data roaming off. Nice one AT&T.
The US cellular market needs to be run more like the European one. I don’t understand why T-Mo or Vodaphone doesn’t introduce a Euro-style plan… I’m sure they’d attract a lot of new customers. The only way companies grow in cellular is by poaching customers from other networks, so I’d have thought it was worth a shot.
My Dad just got a mobile broadband card for his laptop in the UK for a small up front cost and $10 pay-as-you-go for data. You can’t get them here without a 2 year contract at about $60 a month from what I’ve seen… 😦
A follow-up to this …
Just reviewed my current bill on AT&T website, they charged me the $24.99 fee AND ALSO charged me for international data roaming!
It took a few days, but AT&TG did agree to refund the roaming charge – beware and check your bill, if you go abroad with your iPhone!