avoid roaming charges?

**sahmd** · 06-17-2012, 03:52 PM

I'm traveling abroad this week (to Israel) and want to bring my verizon nexus to use as a camera and to talk to my kids via skype (wifi only), and want to avoid racking up any extra roaming charges. I'll have a local phone to use for phone calls. Upon searching the forums, I found a post which asks my question as well as I ever could, so I'm going to copy (and thank) science_man_29's previous post. Thanks to science_man_29, and thanks to anyone else who can help out with an answer!

"A friend and I will be venturing away from the United States to Israel in the near-ish future. We would like to use our phones (a Galaxy Nexus and HTC Rhyme, both on Verizon) as alarm clocks/ebook readers/cameras while we're there. If we run across wi-fi, we'd like to be able to use that, but that isn't a necessity. The most important thing is to avoid roaming data and roaming calls.

I'm looking for advice on how to best avoid these charges.

Here are my thoughts so far - please let me know if these will work or if you suggest something else:

* Airplane mode (can we still use wi-fi in airplane mode?)

* Turning "mobile network" off (this should prevent data over cell networks, but should still allow wi-fi, right?)

* On the Galaxy Nexus, I can manually limit the data using ICS controls

Here are my questions:

* Are we likely to rack up roaming charges just by being in another country (getting time info, etc?)

* If someone manages to call us and we don't answer, that shouldn't use any minutes and therefore we shouldn't get charged roaming, right?

* The Galaxy Nexus has a removable SIM card - would it be smart to take that out? Can I store ebooks on the internal memory? Will the phone still work as an alarm clock, etc without the SIM card?

Sorry if this is a dumb question - I've never taken my cell phone abroad before."

-- Seth

**afranko22** · 06-17-2012, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by sahmd

* Airplane mode (can we still use wi-fi in airplane mode?)

* Turning "mobile network" off (this should prevent data over cell networks, but should still allow wi-fi, right?)

* On the Galaxy Nexus, I can manually limit the data using ICS controls

Here are my questions:

* Are we likely to rack up roaming charges just by being in another country (getting time info, etc?)

* If someone manages to call us and we don't answer, that shouldn't use any minutes and therefore we shouldn't get charged roaming, right?

* The Galaxy Nexus has a removable SIM card - would it be smart to take that out? Can I store ebooks on the internal memory? Will the phone still work as an alarm clock, etc without the SIM card?

Sorry if this is a dumb question - I've never taken my cell phone abroad before."

-- Seth

Airplane mode disables wifi.

Turning mobile network off still allows for calls and you will incur roaming.

Limiting data in ICS still allows data.

Pulling SIM works as the phone won't register without it on any network.

If it were me, I would pull the SIM and look for a local SIM if I needed calling or data on it. Otherwise no SIM should work and turn on wifi when available

Sent from my Verizon Droid Razr Maxx

**sahmd** · 06-17-2012, 05:45 PM

Sounds good - thanks. Sorry if this is a silly question, but can I use a local SIM card (which I assume will be GSM) in my (CMDA) Verizon GNex?

**twindragons187** · 06-17-2012, 05:47 PM

You can turn wifi back on once airplane mode is active. Therefore you can use it as wifi only.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

**Firefyter** · 06-17-2012, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by twindragons187

You can turn wifi back on once airplane mode is active. Therefore you can use it as wifi only.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

This is correct. I did this a couple of weeks ago while in Mexico and it worked fine. I was still able to use the camera, alarm clock, etc., just no phone calls. This on a Galaxy Nexus running ICS.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

**afranko22** · 06-17-2012, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by sahmd

Sounds good - thanks. Sorry if this is a silly question, but can I use a local SIM card (which I assume will be GSM) in my (CMDA) Verizon GNex?

You can if you get it unlocked. I don't remember if it takes the micro Sim or the full sized one. If I had it unlocked and needed a micro Sim, I would cut the normal prepaid one down. We had a store demo phone (the stratosphere) and no micro Sims. I cut a Sim for the breakout down to the micro size and it registered in the settings menu with the right Sim I cut down

Sent from my Verizon Droid Razr Maxx

**sahmd** · 06-18-2012, 09:37 AM

Excellent advice - thanks to everyone. I think keeping the phone on airplane mode through the duration of the trip and reactivating wifi when available sounds like the best solution for me.

**TropicalSammich** · 06-18-2012, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by afranko22

You can if you get it unlocked. I don't remember if it takes the micro Sim or the full sized one. If I had it unlocked and needed a micro Sim, I would cut the normal prepaid one down. We had a store demo phone (the stratosphere) and no micro Sims. I cut a Sim for the breakout down to the micro size and it registered in the settings menu with the right Sim I cut down

Sent from my Verizon Droid Razr Maxx

incorrect. The Verizon & Sprint Galaxy Nexus are CDMA only. IT will work globally on any carrier with the same CDMA frequencies in the county. It will not work on GSM networks, and there is no way to unlock it to do so. This is a Hardware limitation.

**yosteve** · 06-18-2012, 06:22 PM

Their are countries that have cdma?

**GNex Girl** · 06-18-2012, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by yosteve

Their are countries that have cdma?

yes. The countries are listed on the VZW web site.

**Danv1369** · 06-19-2012, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by sahmd

Excellent advice - thanks to everyone. I think keeping the phone on airplane mode through the duration of the trip and reactivating wifi when available sounds like the best solution for me.

I did this for 4 weeks in April (2 in India and 2 in Philippines). No issues with charges etc. You can also use Skype to call home over Wifi. I think it is only like 2 cents a minute to call a landline. Safe Travels.

**jjpeter11** · 10-03-2012, 05:19 AM

When your PAYG mobile internet credit is nearly finished, you'll need to top-up to continue your internet access. The easiest way to do this is by calling your network provider or by using their top-up service online. All PAYG mobile broadband providers will allow you to top-up online using your registered username and password even when your credit runs out, so you needn't worry if your top-up allowance runs out in the middle of nowhere.