The general rule for overseas travel is that unless you desperately want a monstrously large bill, you should switch off data roaming. But Dan Warne at AusBT has discovered that may not necessarily be true when it comes to the issue of voicemail.
According to Warne, by using the data-based visual voicemail feature on Telstra and Vodafone iPhones, you can actually end up saving money over claiming voicemail the traditional way when you’re overseas. A standard 30-second voicemail is equivalent to about 85KB, which equates to around $1.27 on Telstra’s roaming data rate. Compared to $4.47/minute cost to retrieve voicemail from China (the example AusBT uses), and you’ve saved a heap of cash.
Ultimately, if you travel a lot with an iPhone 4, visual voicemail may be a better option for you, even with the monthly $5 charge.
[AusBT via Lifehacker]
Tristan
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 2:32 PMHi Nick, Who does Visual Voicemail in Aus? Still only Vodafone (and maybe 3 now?)
Nick Broughall
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 3:01 PMTelstra launched visual voicemail this week for $5 a month
steven
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 11:31 PMHi Nick. I’m about to go overseas for 3 months last time I went OS my Fring app kept pinging for updates and when i got home i got a $170 roming data bill. I now have an iPhone 4 and dont want this to happen. How do I turn off my apps from checking in? Also I have my paypal text me the security code is there any app(jailbroken or not) that works over Wifi that can forward my text messages to me? Like a skype app that actually uses skype out and not just the computer to computer one? Thanks