[Mobilepartners] New International Data Roaming Plans for AT&T Mobile Devices

[Andrew Munchbach]

Greetings!

AT&T recently made a much more affordable and hassle-free  
international data roaming plan available  for their Smartphone  
devices (Apple iPhone 3G and various Windows Mobile devices).   
Previously, only BlackBerry data plans gave users the ability to  
travel internationally with an unlimited data option.

The new plan is called:
"Data Global International Plan for Smartphones (PDA/BlackBerry) or   
iPhone 3G".

With the new plan, iPhone and other Smartphone users do not have to  
track the amount of data they are consuming when traveling overseas to  
supported countries.

Before this new plan, PDA/iPhone users had to do the following:

    a. Estimate how much cellular data was going to be used while  
traveling overseas and sign up for a corresponding plan (20MB, 50MB,  
100MB, 200MB, etc.).

    b. Figure out if the destination countries were covered by the  
"limited" data roaming.

    c. While traveling, constantly monitor the cellular data usage to  
try and stay within the quota.

    d. Pay an exorbitant amount for cellular data usage above and  
beyond what was originally estimated. (e.g. 1 MB of data = $5 extra,  
100MB of data = $500 extra)

    e. Deal with a shocking phone bill after the trip.

The new plan eliminates this need for detailed international data  
planning, and could  potentially save MIT users hundreds or thousands  
of dollars per year.

The details on this new plan are not yet officially available on  
AT&T's  website, however, there is an IS&T Hermes article that  
includes the information currently available.

http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/tx1B
If you or others in your department currently have the iPhone  
International Data Plan, please review the information above and  
consider making the switch to the new plan.

If you need to adjust your plan, please contact AT&T Wireless or   
MIT’s AT&T representative Peter Dunlap:

Peter Dunlap Regional Account Manager--MA/NH/ME

Phone: 617.510.1058

Email: peter.dunlap at att.com

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Andrew Munchbach
Mobile Devices Consultant - IS&T
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

http://m.mit.edu
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