If you have an iPhone and travel internationally, keep in mind that international data usage is not covered under your existing U.S. data plan. Accessing email, visual voicemail, and the web can add up quickly. Here are a few tips on how to use your iPhone while outside of the country (similar steps can be followed for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or other smartphone users):

Turn data roaming off – By default the setting for international data roaming will be in the Off position. To turn data roaming on or off go to Settings > General > Network > Data Roaming, then tap On. Turning off data roaming blocks email, browsing and downloads, but it will not block text or picture/video messages.

Use WiFi Instead of 3G/GPRS/EDGE – WiFi is available in many international airports, hotels and restaurants to browse the web or check email.

Turn off Fetch New Data – Check email and sync your contacts and calendars manually instead of having the data pushed to your iPhone automatically. This way you can control the flow of data coming to your iPhone. To turn off the Auto-Check functionality go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data, then change Push to Off and select to Fetch Manually.

Reset the Usage Tracker to zero – If you do decide to use the data capabilities of your iPhone when traveling overseas, you can use the usage tracker to monitor your estimated data usage. To reset Usage Tracker to zero go to Settings > General > Usage, then tap Reset Statistics.

Posted by Brad Benner in Technology on 9 November 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.