Thank you, Apple!
The iPhone is a great product, but one of its biggest weaknesses was the fact
that it was incredibly easy to run up enormous
cellphone bills if you use
the data services abroad, either inadvertently or on purpose. What iPhone
users needed was a way to allow wifi to be used (that’s free), allow phone calls
to be made (you know when you’re on the phone, and how much phone calls cost
when you’re abroad), but not allow the exorbitant data plan to be used
(which would charge you $20 to download a single web page, if you weren’t on
a wifi network).
Well, the iPhone 1.1.1 update is now out, and that’s exactly what we’ve been
given: an option to turn off EDGE roaming. Engadget has the screenshot.
Now to spread the word. If you travel abroad for any reason, turn EDGE
roaming off. Do not even think about turning it on. And you
should be fine.
Update: I just installed 1.1.1 myself. It’s actually
better than I thought: rather than a cryptic button talking about "EDGE
Roaming", there’s a simple button called "Data Roaming". Underneath
it, in plain English, is this:
When abroad, turning off Data Roaming may avoid roaming charges when using
email, web browsing and other data services.
Better yet, the default position for Data Roaming is off, not on.