Avoid Smartphone Roaming Fees

Wednesday, 20 April 2011 | by Pat's Picks

The Wall Street Journal has a very useful story on avoiding massive data bills when you roam with your smartphone out of the country. Too bad all of the ideas involve doing end-runs around the outrageously high roaming rates charged by US cell phone companies. The first thing to remember is that Verizon and Sprint Nextel phones don’t operate in much of the world because they use a different technology called CDMA. If you have a phone that will work abroad, one tip is to disable the data portion of your smartphone while traveling. Experts warn that even if you’re careful about not checking your email, data plans can be working in the background.