I’m going to Europe in week or so, so I call Cingular / AT&T to sign up for an international calling plan. Calling is $0.99/minute, great, that’s bad enough. But text messages are $0.50 each and data — any data, including emails on the BlackBerry — is $0.02/Kb. Or you can sign up for the unlimited international data plan for only $69/month, but it’s a one-year commitment with an early termination penalty of $200 or something.
This kind of crap makes me so f**king mad. I’d be happy to pay the $69 fee, but why in the world would I want to sign up for an international data plan for an entire year?!? And why do they think it’s good business to try to force me into thinking that — even with that ridiculous constraint — it _still_ might be a better deal than running up data charges at 2 cents a kilobyte? And 50 cents for a text message?!?! what?!?
This is of course why I used to go to so much trouble to buy unlocked phones, but the last one I got cost nearly $500, and service based in the UK isn’t exactly cheap, especially if you’re roaming all over Europe. And of course I would actually like to be able to _use_ the data features while I’m over there… There has to be a better way! Is there?
June 8th, 2007 at 5:32 am
is there a better way? buy an unlocked phone and get service based out of uk. or you tried
that already? um. sign up with at&t and have good service world wide. even though, when
you go to another country where we do not have a network and use another companies network,
it cost a little more, but then again you could not take your phone with you.:-)
also, call back to at&t and tell them you want to add the 69.99 world wide data plan. but
call their international support line, 916.843.4685. you can check their website, it’s the
direct dial number. no contract required. i think the rep you spoke with thought it might
be a ‘rate’ plan and not data.