www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Yes, he was correct in what he said, however it's really important to remember that this solution only works within an area with WiFi. In addition, you'll have to be using some sort of VOIP phone solution like Vonage or Skype.

If you try to use your iPhone on the local wireless carrier (i.e., ICE), you'll need to Jailbreak it as described above. If not, you will end up being the victim of ATT's crazy international roaming charges for calls and data. Those $600 bills for several days of connection are not a joke.

I still think the best solution by far is to buy a separate unlocked quad-band GSM cell phone and use that internationally with a local SIM chip. Both the Motorola RAZR and the SLVR L7 are quad band and have cameras and can play music. You shouldn't have to pay more than $65 including shipping for an unlocked phone like this.

Then, if necessary, you can bring your U.S. SIM card with you and use it in your new Motorola phone on those occasions when you need to receive calls on that number. I wouldn't even bring an iPhone to CR. Just the SIM chip.

_________________
"All them women gonna make me,
teach 'em what they don't know how..." TMIB

Pardon my ignorance, but......:

What is "jailbreaking"? I just bought a new 3G S iPhone and am bringing it with me next week. I spoke to AT&T and bought one of those international packages for $5.99 p/month which slightly reduces the per minute cost from $2.29 per minute to $1.99 per minute when using the phone in Costa Rica. Incoming text messages are free while outgoing texts are .50 cents per text. I don't plan to use my iPhone for checking e-mail or any sort of internet browsing so my data roaming is turned OFF. I only plan to use it for emergency calls or business related calls (which my company will reimburse me for) and to impress the chicks.. . In any event my only exposure if I've done my homework right is $1.99 p/minute for phone usage. If anyone notices I may have missed something then please advise. Thx.

Jailbreaking is when the phone has been altered via software to operate in ways Apple and the carrier don't want and or support.

Typically it is to install Apps that can't get into the Itunes store, unlock the phone so you can use it on another carrier ie: get a prepaid sim card from ICE while in CR, use tethering which the iphone was designed to do but AT&T still has not implemented, etc.

Go to the Itunes store and download the Vonage Mobile App. Sign up and you will be able to make calls to the US (not receive) via Wifi while in CR for free.

Unless you want to get a CR number to call girls or give them a way to call you I would not worry about jailbreaking the phone. If you just got it most likely it is the latest release which I described above that ends up being a tethered jailbreak.

Also they may not have told you, if you leave your phone on while in another country and it rings and then goes to voice mail you are billed International rates for the duration of the call / message.
I always leave mine in airplane mode for that reason....

Bill

While on International Roaming practically EVERYTHING is at long distance rates. Making local calls is at the $1.99/$2.29 rate but if a local wants to call you it is an international call to your US #. If someone from home calls you, you get nailed for long distance. It really kind of sucks. But if you need to stay in contact for business purposes, and will be reinbursed, no importa.

For me, I don't want to hear from anyone back home while I'm im CR. I'm on vacation! If a friend or family want to make an emergency call to my US cell #, okay, it's an enmergency. For my calls back home, if I REALLY need to, I can use my laptop, a high speed connection and a VOIP application to make a free call.

What is more important to me is to be able to send and receive calls and texts in CR at local rates. That is why I really like the prepago SIMs available now from ICE. I've had a pay-as-you-go (prepago) SIM from the UK for years that I've used in the UK and Europe for years for the same reason. It's about time that ICE got with the program

_________________
Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

From my understanding this is not correct. I am very interested in this because I am buying a friends used iPhone 2G in 2 weeks and I want to unlock it, so I can use it with other services than AT&T and in other countries, but I was hoping not to have to jailbreak it. From my research so far, that is not possible. Basically what I've come across has been that before unlocking your iPhone, you will have to jailbreak it.

If you know anything different I would appreciate if you could post the source so I can look into it further. Thanks.

I have looked into this, as far as I can tell only unlocking the phone can only be done with the blessing of the carrier. They will do whatever they do to the phone and then notify apple. When the phone is connected to I-tunes there will be a seldom seen screen that confirms the phone is unlocked. I have never heard of At&t doing this with an iPhone. They will do it with Blackberries and other phones, even when they are still under contract.

I would find out what "version" and "modem firmware" are on the 2g. Settings | General | about. Whatever ever you do, don't update it until you are sure what approach you are going to take. It's hard to go back, apple has seen to that. 2g phones are not as much a problem to do this with as the new 3gs. Just jailbreaking it to unlock it should not be a big thing, probably best as it's the only way to insure you can go back to the older firmwares. Probably would be best to do this before you set the phone up for yourself and install apps you want etc.

A lot of good information is at:
http://www.hackthatphone.com/

Jailbreaking my phone has allowed me to change a few things that always annoyed me. One was the font apple assigned to the note pages. I always had the worst time reading it, obviously it was chosen by someone under 40 and doesn't have a problem reading small type up close

Bill

After going through this thread, all I can say is:

Thank God for Blackberry.

mh

_________________
mh

Yeh, I see you all even have the trapster app now

Bill

Hi Bill,


Yeah that's pretty much my understanding also. AT&T won't even consider doing that. And really I don't want anything to do with AT&T.


I've researched it quite a bit and I think the way I'm going to go is to jailbreak and unlock the phone with OS 3.0 using PwnageTool 3.0. They have a custom firmware file that you can download that you use with their tool. It really looks pretty simple. I'm not going to update to the latest OS (3.12?) through iTunes at this point because I read in multiple places that it is giving people lots of problems.


Thanks for that link. Lot's of good info there. And thanks for the good advice. I can't wait to do this, and I can't wait to get the iPhone. Just being able to use it as a 16GB iPod Touch is going to be fantastic, and being able to make cheap local calls in other countries is the icing on the cake. This should be very cool.

As from my other posts, I'm playing catch/up on cell phones. I've seen guys here use an application that allows them to use a wireless connection to call the US or Germany on their I/Phones.

vonagemobile.com
You can call the U.S. for free via WiFi, Germany would be whatever their rate is for that country.

Skype is available for the iphone. If both parties have Skype you can call each other for free from anywhere. Calls to any number U.S. or otherwise cost $

Textplus will allow you to text most U.S. cell phones for free. Not all carriers are supported. If both people have textplus you can text each other for free from anywhere.

Bill

Picked up Sim card this afternoon at the airport, no problems with my recently jailbroken 3gs

Bill

Pwnage is probably a better way to go if you own a Mac IMO, I don't . Still need to use Blacksn0w to unlock I believe.

If you are going to stay on 3.0 make sure you read this as apple is trying to prevent this.
http://www.hackthatphone.com/3x/local_ecid_shsh.html

Bill