Note that, data roaming fees usually applies even if you are traveling domestically within some regions in the same country, especially if coverage isn't available for that carrier in that region since people always think that they're in a clear as per roaming concerning in such situations.
For instance, you can be charged a roaming fees; for example, England service provider can charge roaming fees if you go to Ireland if there's no cell towers over there.
Another good example is: a cruise ship which uses their own satellite antennas, so you may be charged by your cell provider as much as £2 to 3 per minute for any data usage or voice calls while onboard their cruise ship.
So, continue to Step: If you are unsure what your roaming status would be.
i. Contact your cell phone provider or researching their roaming policies online is essential because fees and policies varies.
You should probably confirm also before you travel that, your phone will work at your end destination and that your plan has the appropriate features for international roaming, if applicable.
For example, I know that, T-Mobile uses a GSM technology prevalent in most countries, my cell phone would work overseas.
However, I didn't know that I needed to contact T-Mobile to have the international roaming add-on (which is free on their service) activated.
ii. Now that you have the roaming details from your service provider, consider your voice and data usage needs for this trip.
Do you need to be able to make and receive calls? Do you need real- time GPS, Internet access, or other data services on your device? Will you have access to wi-fi hotspots or Internet cafes and therefore, you can use wi-fi on your device instead of using the cellular data service?
How you proceed depends on how you will be using your device on your trip.
iii. If you want to be able to make and receive phone calls, but don't need data services on your trip, turn "data roaming" and "data synchronization" off on your device(s).
These options will most likely be found in your device general settings or your devices connectivity settings from main menu or settings.
My MTK Technology M3 phone, an Android smartphone, the data roaming feature is found under Settings > Wireless & Network settings > Mobile Networks > Data Roaming.
While the data sync setting is under the Settings > Google Sync > Background Data Auto-Sync (this allows the phone to automatically sync all enabled settings like: the calendar, contacts, and activated email(s); it's on by default). Your menus will likely be similar to mine.
iv. Keep in mind that even if you turn off data roaming and data sync, third-party apps can still turn these back on. Therefore, you need to be sure you don't have any apps installed that will override your data roaming settings. If all you want to do is make/receive phone calls and you're not absolutely sure you don't have any apps that would turn data roaming back on, consider leaving your phone at home (turned off) and renting a cell phone just for your trip or renting a different SIM card for your cell phone .
Alternately, if you won't be making outgoing calls but just want to be reachable, follow the step below to have access to voicemail over wi-fi.
v. Enabling the phone flight or Airplane Mode if you just want wi-fi access saves you battery. Airplane Mode turns off the cellular and data radio, but on most devices you can leave wi-fi on. So, if you'll have wireless Internet access (e.g., in your hotel or perhaps a free Wi-Fi hotspot like a coffeeshop), you can still go online with your device and avoid the data roaming charges.
Virtual phone features found in the section VoIP software/services and web apps like Google Voice can come handy during this period since it allows you to have a phone number that can be forwarded to voicemail and sent to you in form of a sound file via email, which you can check whenever you're connected to any available wi-fi access.
vi. If you do need cellular data access, e.g.: Internet access outside of wi-fi hotspots or GPS, turn data roaming on only when you use it, and after you should put your device in flight Mode, as above, and then when you need to download data put your phone back to its default data-mode that you are now connected to.
vii. Monitor your mobile data usage with an app or special using a USSID dial-in number assigned by your carrier.
Several smartphone apps for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry can track your data usage, some can also track your voice and texts usages.
Learn how to monitor your mobile data usage in the next page
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