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phkc070408 · Mar 26, 2011, 01:49 AM

We're traveling internationally and want to take our iPhones with us, but only use them under a WiFi network.

I saw in Settings -> General -> Network that you can turn Cellular Data off. That's a good start.

Is there a way to turn the telephone portion off as well, so we won't accidently make / receive any incoming calls?

We want to keep the phones with us in case of an emergency. We are trying to avoid people calling us. Avoiding answering the phone is not an option as we will be leaving the kids behind. Not having the phone ring will be a better option.

Is there a way to turn all services off, but keep the phone active and continue to pay for it while we travel?

PS, we have textfree with voice and will be able to check messages from the hotel.

turtle777 · Mar 26, 2011, 05:28 AM

Yes, turn on the Airplane Mode, this disables all radios (phone, 3G, WiFi).
Then manually turn ON Wifi. The rest will stay turned off.

-t

Phileas · Mar 26, 2011, 08:22 AM

Also, Skype will make it possible to call your kids for free, or cheap, using your hotel's wireless network. That is, if you WANT to call your kids

Cold Warrior · Mar 26, 2011, 11:58 AM

Vonage also has free US calling while on wifi. It'll try to take you to an account page after registration to get you to add money to your account. Just close the page and return to the app. Ignore any warnings about low account balance and just make calls on wifi.

There's a service I love called localphone. If you set it up, it'd probably be very cheap for select people to call the hotel/room, and you'd also have access to its VOIP capability using something like Bria on iPhone. Localphone is a paid service, but it's incredible if you have to call international a lot.

driven · Mar 27, 2011, 11:39 PM

One of the things about CDMA is you'll find unless you are staying in North America (inc. Canada & Mexico), you'll probably find that you won't be able to get a CDMA signal anyway.

Big Mac · Mar 28, 2011, 12:33 AM

I got full signal strength on my Verizon phone in Israel, FWIW. Didn't use it though.

phkc070408 · May 2, 2011, 09:01 PM

Cold Warrior: Great tip on the Vonage bit! Thank You. When we are overseas, we don't need to do anything special to dial into the USA, do we, like a country code or anything? I would assume that it is just like dialing from within the states.

Also, TY for the Airplane Mode tip Turtle. That worked as well. TY

Spheric Harlot · May 3, 2011, 01:17 AM

Airplane mode will work, but really, you don't have to worry about switching it off: no European country has any CDMA carriers, anyway.

amazing · May 3, 2011, 11:49 AM

If you explore the VZ website you'll where you can use a CDMA phone. Not in Europe...

International Roaming

You're not always going to have wifi?

So, depending on what country you're going to, you should plan on purchasing a calling card. For example, I had a calling card for France, and just bought a smart card for the French phone booths (it's been so long, do they even still have those?) so that I could call the toll free number, whereupon the calling card provided cheap calls to the US. I could use that to call my phone's voice mail and pick up messages and respond to messages.

Cold Warrior · May 3, 2011, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by phkc070408

Cold Warrior: Great tip on the Vonage bit! Thank You. When we are overseas, we don't need to do anything special to dial into the USA, do we, like a country code or anything? I would assume that it is just like dialing from within the states.

Nothing special, either 1+area code and number or just the area code and number.

Phileas · May 5, 2011, 06:53 AM

Like any other country in the world, the US has a country code, 001 which you need to dial from outside the US. Unlike any other country in the world, to the best of my knowledge, it shares that code with another country, Canada. The root of the 01 code then gets shared further, into the Carribean, where numbers are added to specify the country in question. It's all quite interesting in a geeky way.

Direct international calls are a surprisingly new development. Up until the 1960's, you had to call your local operator and request an international line. That operator would call the international operator who would open an international line, if one was available, into the destination country. Depending on the system you would then request the destination number from the operator in the country of destination, or the operator in your home country would do it for you, language barrier permitting.

Now you just call a Skype name.

gradient · May 5, 2011, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

If you explore the VZ website you'll where you can use a CDMA phone. Not in Europe...

Not entirely true, apparently there is roaming available in Ukraine.

Big Mac · May 6, 2011, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Phileas

Like any other country in the world, the US has a country code, 001 which you need to dial from outside the US. Unlike any other country in the world, to the best of my knowledge, it shares that code with another country, Canada. The root of the 01 code then gets shared further, into the Carribean, where numbers are added to specify the country in question. It's all quite interesting in a geeky way.

Interesting post. It's important to note, though, that when using Internet telephony services like Skype, if you keep your origin country set to the US you continue to call as if you're calling from a US line even when you're over seas, so you don't have to dial 001 to call the US from a US Skype account. If, however, you set your country to the country you're in currently, you would have to use the international prefix to call the US.