Roaming disabled by default in UK G1 models

[talkbackdroid]

Just the other day we reported that one user was charged over $100 for taking his T-Mobile G1 out of the country even though customer service said it would be fine and turning all data on their phone off. Apparently this is only an issue with US vers... Read more

[areyoukidding]

Really, are they kidding? This must be fixed. T-Mob's suggestions of "leave it at home" or "use a local SIM card" aren't workable solutions if you really use this phone for business. What were they thinking?

[Tensai]

Agreed. That was a horrible decision on their part. You should be able to selectively and explicitly turn off voice and/or data roaming when necessary.

My Verizon contract expires next week and I think I just decided to stick with them for another year. I love the Android OS, and I can deal with T-Mobile's sparse network coverage, but they have a long ways to go to work out all the kinks in the hardware/software/network setup.

I hope by next year they've ironed out their issues. I don't really even like Verizon (lock their phones to tight IMHO) but T-Mobile needs to get their act together before I'll switch.

[Michael Martin]

The true solution to this is just enable AIRPLANE MODE.

This is the one thing that person charged all those roaming fees did NOT do.

AIRPLANE MODE will absolutely cutoff all wireless signals...unless someone can correct me on this

,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/

[constellanation]

well my plane didn't crash the couple of times i flew with my g1 so thats a good start!

[VValdo]

Airplane mode turns off the data roaming, wireless, and phone network. I dont' know that it does that in a way that's substantially different from turning of data roaming.

In any event, according to this story at tom's hardware, the problem is a bug which only affects people who travel in countries such as the UK which have thier own version of T-Mobile (I don't know if this would affect the parent company Deutsche Telecom). Basically it seems the G1 didn't REALIZE you were roaming when using T-Mobile UK... that it is different than T-Mobile US.

This is a software bug I think that needs to be fixed, but not the policy tragedy that we all thought it was. I'll know for sure when I get my bill this month-- I had traveled to Canada and turned of data roaming. It was using "Rogers Wireless", not a T-Mobile provider, so I should be okay.

Hopefully androidcommunity will post this new info as its own story and Google will get on it so that people aren't charged incorrectly.

W

[averad]

The true solution to this is just enable AIRPLANE MODE.

This is the one thing that person charged all those roaming fees did NOT do.

AIRPLANE MODE will absolutely cutoff all wireless signals...unless someone can correct me on this

,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/

It will also cause the phone to stop being able to be used as a phone.

[rodjordan]

The answer MAY be to turn off the data and remember to disable it again after you have used wifi.

1. Use Anycut to create a shortcut to “Testing”
2. Click on Testing
3. Click on Phone Information
4. Hit Menu button
5. Click on More
6. Click on disable data connection

Every time you use Wifi or go in and out of range of Wifi it seems to start attempting an EDGE connection again so you have to disable the data connection again.

I am currently experimenting to see what happens when I switch off wifi and disable the data. You can watch the packets and data usage if you follow the testing anycut you created above....

Let's see

I have an unlocked UK G1 with a LUXGSM SIM card so when in the UK I have to be careful.
The G1 does actually warn when it attempts to make a GPRS connection to any provider other than LUXGSM (the SIM provider) and T-Mobile (mother of the phone :-) )

[Lrrr]

That will work. It turns off GPRS service, so there is no data pinging. As someone above pointed out, the problem is when you are roaming on another T-Mobile network. Say you are a T-Mo USA customer. If you roam on T-Mo UK, your G1 does not know it is roaming. Disabling your data connection is like manually disabling roaming; it makes sure that there is no data connection.

Another poster is correct, though: when you turn off wifi, your G1 will re-enable the GPRS data connection. This is an easy bug to fix; it will probably be included in the next update. Until then, just remember to disable your data connection when you travel abroad. In fact, I do it at home when I am not planning on using the net in a while. When the g1 isn't pinging the net every 3 minutes, your battery life is greatly improved.

[scrannel]

Ok, my first post, so forgive me if this question seems obvious. I travel to Europe a lot, so are you saying this roaming issue only happens when I am in a country with a T-Mo network, and is not a concern otherwise? I am expecting my G1 shortly (and have been using a Nokia N80 without incident). But if this is a serious issue, I can cancel my G1 now. So, I need to either, manually select a non T-Mobile network or disable data pinging?

Thanks