Taking Imagio to Beijing China. I have a few questions

johnbrain · #1 (**permalink**) 06-16-2010, 11:57 AM

Hey Gang,

I know some of you have mentioned using VZW's international data plan over in Europe as a faurly good value. My wife is going to Beijing for a week and needs a phone. I know the Imagio (CDMA) works there and I am okay with the calling rate.

However, I called VZW and they said it is $69 for International Data roaming for EMAIL!? That 69 will be prorated and temporarily replace our Unlimited data here in the states. But she would not be clear on whether you had to check email through an Email App like Exchange/Activesync or WIndows Live, or through a browser.

So my question is can they tell if she's just surfing the web or using a webmail interface like AOL mobile? I know she can set up the phone to check AOL with the Email App but she may also want to use the browser

Can VZW differentiate a webmail page vs just any old data usage.

What I am getting at is can she use other data in China on the $69 International Data plan without getting extra charges!?

thanks.

**drewcam888** · #2 (**permalink**) 06-16-2010, 12:19 PM

the only international package i am aware of is for data of any kind, not just email.

johnbrain · #3 (**permalink**) 06-16-2010, 12:41 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0.1; en-us; Droid Build/ESD56) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Okay. Maybe they word it that way to minimize your use

gcianc · #4 (**permalink**) 06-16-2010, 01:18 PM

It's a prorated full DATA plan (web, email, ftp, mms, etc.), just like the USA plan at $30. Prorated means if if you travel for a week you pay ~ 25% of the monthly cost.

bigboy292000 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-17-2010, 10:34 PM

You could also et a local SIM from China Mobile. They are cheap but have no data that I know of but are good for texting.

I came back from Beijing in fact yesterday. I just took my Vogue (which is not a world phone = no SIM, CDMA only) and it worked in Beijing in fact, but I turned off data and did not use the phone really - just had it for emergencies if I needed it (did not need it). I did get one text when there which I am sure Verizon is going to charge me for nicely...

johnbrain · #6 (**permalink**) 06-17-2010, 10:37 PM

$.05 to receive a text. Not bad. Still not sure why VZW calls it the International Data Plan for email. As I said, probably to discourage other use. Sounds like my wife will be fine using web as well, whatever sites are not firewalled by the Chinese.

johnbrain · #7 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 02:39 PM

Off to Beijing. I'll report back when the bill comes.

leland_jr · #8 (**permalink**) 07-05-2010, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnbrain

Off to Beijing. I'll report back when the bill comes.

Sounds good. That $70 is a good deal when you consider it insurance against your Imagio secretly downloading weather info on you and coming up with the equivalent in charges for no data. Since it prorates it's basically about $2 and change per day of data roaming -- I think there's value to that. Definitely cheaper than what you get on other services.