1) The $24.99/month plan binds you to a one-year contract, and there’s a $175 early termination fee.

2) Without that plan, international data anywhere costs $0.195/kb.

3) JaJah doesn’t help when you’re roaming internationally, even if you have wifi, because the rates for incoming calls are the same as the rates for outgoing calls.

Also, remember to be very careful what buttons you press when you’re roaming internationally. If you press the Mail button by mistake, there’s a very good chance you’ll download your last 50 emails — and that’s an operation which can’t be cancelled.

One question: Does anybody know how much data the Google Maps function uses? That’s the real killer app when you’re travelling internationally, and of course the whole point of the directions etc is that you use the cellular data rather than wifi.

> Mossberg’s mission statement for this column:
>
> “There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing,
> unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers.
> Everybody has
> questions about them, and we aim to help.”
>
> And here are the titles of his most recent columns:
>
> * Using the iPhone Overseas for Data Purposes
>
> * Comparing the Treo and BlackBerry
>
> * Questions About Apple’s iPhone
>
> * Printing Wirelessly from a Digital Camera
>
> * Is Security Prudent for a Smart Phone?
>
> What about our confusing, unpredictable and unreliable COMPUTERS???

Oh, and when calling their customer service department, they wouldn’t waive or heavily reduce those fees because I was on a contract with them for another year anyways and it would cost me $200 in early termination fees if I wanted to cancel.

It’s no wonder people hate wireless carriers.

It’s messy, obviously, and expensive to keep 2 devices, not to mention the plan, but hopefully will work. I’ll post an update to my own blog when I find out, as there’s not much info around about this. Great info here, though!