Question Regarding International Travel w/ iPhone

[Nyah]

So I'm heading over to Europe at the beginning of May and I'm wondering how expensive it would be to get an international SIM card. I don't need to make any calls or text, but data every once & a while would be good. Is it cheaper & ealier just to go to Telus and get the card there, or is there somewhere I can go when I arrive?
Normally I just keep my phone in Airplane mode the whole time, but this time we're renting a car without GPS for a short while and I'd like to be able to use Maps if need be.
Advise?

[ken0042]

You would need your phone to be unlocked, and you would get a SIM card there. Getting a card from Telus now would just put you onto a different Telus plan with the same huge roaming fees.

It does seem like quite a big deal to go through to use the phone as a GPS. Unlocking a phone is at least $50, plus the SIM card and the plan over there. Could you not just buy an inexpensive GPS? I know my Garmin was around $60; you would just need to get one with Europe maps.

[Nyah]

I didn't realize it was that big a deal...I figrured you buy a SIM card, pop it in your phone and away you go. The reason I didn't want to buy a GPS is because we're flying into Milan and picking our car up there, and driving to the East coast where a family member has a GPS that we can borrow. Looks like we'll be breaking out the pol fashioned maps. Thanks!

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Nyah

So I'm heading over to Europe at the beginning of May and I'm wondering how expensive it would be to get an international SIM card. I don't need to make any calls or text, but data every once & a while would be good. Is it cheaper & ealier just to go to Telus and get the card there, or is there somewhere I can go when I arrive?
Normally I just keep my phone in Airplane mode the whole time, but this time we're renting a car without GPS for a short while and I'd like to be able to use Maps if need be.
Advise?

Why not just download the map data before you go?

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by Nyah

So I'm heading over to Europe at the beginning of May and I'm wondering how expensive it would be to get an international SIM card. I don't need to make any calls or text, but data every once & a while would be good. Is it cheaper & ealier just to go to Telus and get the card there, or is there somewhere I can go when I arrive?
Normally I just keep my phone in Airplane mode the whole time, but this time we're renting a car without GPS for a short while and I'd like to be able to use Maps if need be.
Advise?

Edit - You will make calls or Texts and if you use ANY data/ or phone use you will want to get a Sim Card for the country you are going too. Trust me, our international roaming is a rip off and a 5 min call will be close to your monthly rate.

Okay, first thing you do is get yourself and text message application that will link your text messages with your phone and your profile. There are a few of them like Live Type and What's App. Create a profile and link it with your text message application that you use with your provider. Now you can send text messages using data and the phone network. When you get the new sim card for the country your going to you'll just need to link your profile with it and BAM! You can now send and receive text messages with a totally different number in a different country and everyone uses your profile and not your phone number. I did this with MSN messenger years ago but MSN Messenger is toast now.