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Question

Roaming charges, GPS settings and airplane mode

by May 27, 2013 8:56AM PDT

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone with a U.S. Verizon plan. I would like to use my GPS in Canada but not incur roaming charges when I do it.

There are so many different solutions on different forums with some suggestions contradicting one another. For example, one suggestion is to turn on airplane mode and use the GPS which will still function with downloaded maps but not incur roaming charges. Another opinion I read is that airplane mode will not completely eliminate background programs from downloading when the phone is turned on even with airplane mode enabled. So a bunch of individual settigns should be disabled (such as data roaming and email syncs).

And on my phone there are two GPS settings to muddy the waters: Standalone GPS Services and Google Location Services. I'm not sure which one to use in Canada to avoid roaming charges.

Any help clarifying this maze is appreciated.
Thanks.
Richard

Discussion is locked

2 Posts
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Answer
In short.
by Forum moderator May 27, 2013 1:16PM PDT

If it's in airplane mode and it gets data over the radio the FCC and the FAA would like to know since that's a violation of the rules. In short I've yet to find a phone violate that rule because the consequence is dire. Recalls, penalties and more.

As to the GPS, you want standalone. I'll leave you to research what location services are but for GPS it's not very interestiing.

Bob

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Answer
Regarding roaming charges while travelling
by Oct 9, 2013 12:48PM PDT

Hi there

travelled myself and had a similar problem (been mostly to EU countries), tried to use data on my samsung galaxy s3 without spending too much and having all the services working, discovered that the easiest way for that might be a separate roaming sim card for travelling (these do have GPRS service nowadays and all kinds of services included, like concierge service etc). People are using different ones, and I guess they all work pretty similar but I tried TravelSim, and was pretty happy with the rates for gprs (it was smth like 0.5 usd in european countries or so).
Would advise you to try this option as well, I believe their website is www.travelsim.com

Best of luck Wink

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