New Bold 9000 Going To Japan and Need Advice on Roaming ATT Cingular
 

Hello all, got a new bold 9000 on ATT network. Traveling to Japan with this and have a couple of questions.

1. If I have the phone just turned on but with the network connection set to "off when roaming" will I be charged any fees just for having the phone on?

Obviously if I get an incoming or use any outgoing calls I know I will get charged.

2. Can I leave this setting and turn the wifi on and check my emails through the browser and not get charged for roaming?

Thanks very much all.

I called AT&T today because I am also going out of the country. In my case, I will need my phone on, and so I asked about their INternational plans. Luckily, they are prorated, so you can signup before you go, and then cancel when you return. Did you look at this:

International calling rates and packages | Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular

Also, call 611, they were very helpful.

No.
Correct
In theory you should.You just need to rurn the mobile radio off, enable wifi and select the hotspot browser in Options> Advanced > Browser = Hotspot browser. In practice i used to get some arcane cryptic error messages about the radio being off. A couple of times the messages were different. I didnt mind the roaming data charges so i just turned my data radio on and used my data plan. Give it a try and let us know.

My experience in Japan is that Softbank works so much better on a bb data plan than NTT Docomo. Docomo used to lose the data connection even in major metropolitan areas. Softbank is way more solid for me. Scan manually for networks and select Softbank because most likely your automatic network selection settings would camp your phone to Docomo.

enjoy your stay in Nippon :)

Blackberry Bold Use in Japan
 

so back from my trip and the bold worked great. The only thing that I noticed same with my 8800 is that to dial within the area I had to dial all the numbers. I couldn't use my address book.

Maybe an easy solution but no big deal for me.

Also I had the data off when roaming turned on. Didn't get charged for any data and used wifi when necessary. However in Japan most places charge and I couldn't find many free hotspots.

This might help anyone traveling to Japan and if there are any questions please let me know. Thanks.