Data Roaming

Data Roaming
 
When you are traveling abroad, not only making calls, but also using data (BBPIN, WhatsApp, E-mail, streaming and more) is more expensive, because it incurs data roaming charges.
There are tools available to monitor your usage.  BlackBerry has is the ‘Data Traffic Counter’ from App World. Android users can download ‘My Data Manager’ from the Android market. Make sure you download these apps while you are still on Aruba, in order not to pay data roaming costs for the download.

Here are a few ways to avoid high data roaming charges.
 
  1. Turn Off Data Roaming – in the ‘Settings’ of your phone there is an option under ‘Network’ where you choose to switch ‘data services’ on/off, with a similar option to do so when roaming. With data roaming turned off, your phone won't be able to connect to any 3G data networks and thus won't run up any bills.
  2. Turn Off All Cellular Data – in ‘Settings’ under ‘Network’ you choose to turn ‘Data services’ off. This means you turn off all cellular data. With that setting on, the only way to connect to the Internet is via Wi-Fi. This can work in conjunction with, or separately from, turning off data roaming. Whether you want to turn off one or both will depend on your situation.
  3. Use Wi-Fi - When you are overseas, you may want or need to get online. To do this without incurring major data roaming costs, use the phone's Wi-Fi connection. For anything you need to do online-from email to web, text messages to apps-if you use Wi-Fi, you will save yourself from these extra charges.
  4. Do not use streaming video, whether that be web content ( YouTube, radio) or sending own content to social media sites or contacts.
  5. Turn off ‘automatic synchronising’. This function allows your phone to constantly search for updates (on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and more), incurring data roaming costs when abroad.