AT&T bestows international wireless plan on American iPhoners

Takes pity on jet-setters

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 3rd November 2007 04:15 GMT

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AT&T has thrown a bone to all those iPhone owners complaining about ridiculously-high international roaming charges.

Today, the big-name wireless provider announced two flat-rate international data plans for American iPhoners. When visiting 29 countries across the globe - including Mexico and Canada as well as parts of Europe and Asia - these US-based Apple lovers can now pay $59.99 a month for 50MB of wireless data access or $24.99 a month for 20MB.

The move follows countless complaints from American iPhoners who've ventured outside the country and returned home to sky-high wireless bills. After a trip to Mexico and a $2000 monthly bill, one character even slapped Apple with a class action lawsuit.

You see, the Jesus phone is setup to automatically poll the network for email messages, and if you're an American roaming outside the country, this can be rather expensive. Yes, you can turn off this perpetual email checker - but only if your handheld status symbol is loaded with Apple's 1.1.1 firmware update.

With AT&T's new data plans, American iPhoners now have the option of leaving data roaming on. Maybe. If you go over those data caps, you'll start paying by the kilobyte.

But AT&T doesn't want any bright ideas from all you Apple lovers living outside the US. You can't purchase these new international plans without paying for a US domestic plan as well. ®

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