OK, I just discovered the first disadvantage of the iPhone: AT&T

[Lydia Leftcoast]

(And no, for my situation, Verizon would be no better.)

I'm leaving on a 3-week trip to Scandinavia next week, and I thought that I could just take my iPhone, but I called AT&T to check.

Turns out that since I have had my iPhone only since May, I am not eligible for international roaming or even international calling from the U.S.

Ironically, I did not have this problem with a TMobile prepaid phone. I needed to call overseas in an emergency, I didn't know if it would work, but it did. It just worked.

If I had a Verizon phone, I'd have to rent another handset to travel overseas, so that would be no improvement.

Fortunately, I have a Mobal world phone that I bought for my 2006 and 2007 trips to England... BUT I need to update my credit card information. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, I forgot the password for my account (not having used the site in four years), and I can't even get my password sent to me, because the e-mail address I had then is with an ISP that no longer exists.

Just to add to my frustration, Mobal's support service is closed on weekends. GRRRR.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Ha ..... we were talking about this very thing earlier today

My son has my old Verizon Blackberry Storm. Crappy phone, but it has a SIM chip. I have SIMs for France, England, and Spain. I am told any of the SIMs actually work all over Europe. A phone call to Verizon before a trip, a change of SIMs, and off we went. Not sure if that still works, but it did a few years ago.

Too bad our new (Verizon) iPhones can't do that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I'll see how the Mobal phone works out

Anyway, if worse comes to worse, I can buy a prepaid phone in Norway.

In the meantime, if AT&T is going to be so pissy about adding international roaming to my iPhone, I'm looking into a suggestion that one of my fellow translators made for traveling to Japan (where GSM doesn't work): using Google Voice.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Update: I was able to reach Mobal customer service,

and the World Phone is good to go.

I'll still take the iPhone, because it has all my tunes on it. But I'll use it for wi-fi only.

[av8rdave]

4. I've been an AT&T iPhone user for a year and a half now

I STILL can't get international roaming. I signed up for a $5.99/month feature that would give me access to it, but it wouldn't work overseas - in Amsterdam OR Paris. So when I got back, I went back to AT&T. Their response? "Well, gee, it really should work."

A PSA for anyone considering new or switched wireless service. When it comes to AT&T, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. In a word, they suck. My home is in almost the exact geographic center of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, and I rarely complete a call without it dropping when I'm in my own house!

AT&T is overpriced, the service is terrible, and their customer service reps rarely know what they're doing.

I really miss Verizon!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Update: The Mobal phone was so old that it wouldn't charge

I didn't discover this till I was already in Europe.

It turned out that I didn't need to make any phone calls and that everywhere I stayed (except one private home) had wi-fi.

Then, around the end of July, some time during my stay in Sweden, my iPhone rang. I recognized the caller ID number as one of the robo-outfits that bothers me frequently ("The Disabled Veterans Association will be in your neighborhood to pick up any unwanted household items..."), so I refused the call. Then I saw that I had bars attributed to some Swedish phone company. I had bars in Iceland, too, so I made sure that 3G data was turned off (I had turned it off before leaving the country, just in case).

Everyone who called my U.S. number who wasn't a robocall got a message on my U.S. voice mail saying that I wasn't available by phone till August 5 and that they should send an e-mail, so I had no reason to answer any of the phone calls that came in.

While I was in Iceland, I got a text message from AT&T saying that they had turned international roaming on. But it was about three days after I had noticed it on my own.

[MilesColtrane]

6. My 3GS worked well in Moscow, Singapore, and Seoul last year.

You've got to remember to turn roaming off when not using your phone though, or else your bill will be a whopper.