Foreign Travel - general and ATT Moto X specific

[Camilo]

I'm completely ignorant about foreign travel with a smart phone (or any cell phone for that matter).

I'm going to South America this winter (Argentina and Chile, Patagonia region). I have a Moto X and my wife has an IPhone 5, both ATT.

Exactly what is involved to use my MotoX for foreign travel to these countries?

Do I need to contact ATT and arrange for usage in the foreign country?
Can I just use the phone in the foreign country without any prior arrangements?
Does anyone have any idea of the scale of charges that will be involved? Huge/Expensive? Not so bad?

Could I just replace the Sim card with a pre-paid card in Argentina and/or Chile? A co-worker recently traveled to England with (I believe), an LG or HTC Android phone with a removable sim card. She said she just used a paper clip or needle to remove her sim card and replaced it with a pre-paid card she bought in England and the phone worked perfectly while she was there. (I still have the sim card removal pin that came with the MotoX)

Finally - can I assume that the GPS on the MotoX will still work for hike tracking (I use the Sports Tracker app, it's excellent)? without a data/4g/3g connection?

Thanks for any wisdom on these questions. Sorry if it's just basic stuff, but I have no idea!

 

[srkmagnus]

Hello, your trip to South America sounds like fun!

Regarding your questions, contact AT&T and let them know of your plans to visit South America. If they can help you with a global SIM they will - otherwise, you might not be able to use the device in that region if there are no carriers supporting the device bands.

Regarding GPS, yes, it should still work. But without a data connection, you might not be able to make any use of it since most apps still need a mobile connection to operate, load maps, update information, etc. You can probably test this by disabling data and trying to use the app with gps and see what happens.

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

 

[Camilo]

Thanks for the heads up on the GPS. I'll give it a try this evening with data disabled.

 

[efmw113]

Google Maps has the ability to cache map data, so if you will be in a small area, you could cache that ahead of time so that the phone doesn't need a data connection to navigation in that app. Zoom in on the map area that you want to cache, then hit the search bar, scroll all the way down and then press "Make this map area available offline". You can't do an entire country, but you could save off large chunks of several of the cities that you will be in.

 

[Camilo]

Google Maps has the ability to cache map data, so if you will be in a small area, you could cache that ahead of time so that the phone doesn't need a data connection to navigation in that app. Zoom in on the map area that you want to cache, then hit the search bar, scroll all the way down and then press "Make this map area available offline". You can't do an entire country, but you could save off large chunks of several of the cities that you will be in.

We'll be in the backcountry of Patagonia, mostly, so that probably isn't viable (although I'll give it some effort - we do know our general routes and itinerary). I'll probably just rely on my Garmin Forerunner. But I will investigate caching some maps ahead of time. Thanks for the idea.