iPhone in Thailand

A question for all you iPhone owners.

Anyone been to Thailand with their UK iPhone. Thinking of getting one before going on a trip there and want to use web, email, maps, etc.

and I guess you get charged handsomely for the pleasure of 'roaming'?

unless you can get it unlocked and use it with a local sim it will cost you the earth.

wifi would be fine but 3G/GPRS is crazy money.

Data roaming is something like £8 / Mb and calls will be £1-2 / minute.

I used to often run up £1k phone bills when abroad with work in a week, but now carry unlocked phone and date modem and just buy local PAYG sims.

O2 actually recommend turning off data roaming when you go abroad to avoid deeply damaging bills when you get back home. I read of one father allowing his son to play on-line games to keep him ’amused' while on holiday, who was more than a little shocked, shal we say, to get a bill for somewhere north of £1400. Fine to use wifi hotspots, but do not use data roaming. I turned it off as soon as I got mine, just in case I happened to get a holiday abroad and forgot.

Contract phones work with local sim cards (1-2 call) pay as you go mobiles do not
Not sure how there networks are set up for 3g, Bangkok might be ok, but you will be able to hook up to wifi in a lot of places.

1-2 call, is thai pay as you go cheapest way to call home

the iphone turns off data roaming by default when you go abroad.

the iphone turns off data roaming by default when you go abroad.

Well, there you go! Didn't realise it actually did that. Neat, cheers for the info.

and I guess you get charged handsomely for the pleasure of 'roaming'?

there's a cream you can get to clear up the rash after

i'll get me coat

Thanks for the info folks. I guess the answer is, don't do it!

From what I could find out, O2 want something like £50 for 50MB data roaming 'bolt-on', or you can pay £6/MB.

Wifi is free apparently. If you can find a free hotspot.

Internet cafe may be the way to go if needed.

O2 want something like £50 for 50MB data roaming 'bolt-on

If you decide to go down this route be careful. I used one of O2's data roaming bolt ons over the summer.

What they don't tell you is that you can't have it on for just one month. So that £50 will be £100.

Also when I did it they charged me for the bolt on and for the downloaded data. I ended up getting a phone bill of over £100 two months running. It took a long time to sort out.