Wifi on Europe trip.. without any suprise charges

[cyberpine]

We have four different android phones under a US Sprint plan. an Evo, Epic, transform and hero.

How can we use Wifi in Europe (Paris and Northern Spain) without incurring any suprise roaming fees?
Will Google voice work without a cell plan?
How about google maps and GPS?

How can I make sure no roaming service get's used? - Just wifi

 

[Dark Jedi]

Google maps you need either mobile data or wifi connection to load the maps.

Google voice I cant make a call on my Dinc that isnt activated. So I guess you do need a phone plan to use GV. Sucks as I do have wifi. Maybe someone will know other wise.

AS long as its wifi and you are connecting trough your wifi settings. I dont see you getting hit by any charges. I know some places charge for the use of their wifi. Like when I was at disney I staied at the port orleans hotel and they wanted like $10 a day. Glad I had 4g and free tethering.

I hope this helped some.

oh and turn off moble data and an easier way is to just place the phone in airplane mode. That cuts everything off and you can still enable wifi.

 

[lunatic59]

I was in Paris last Summer and found few free WiFi spots. The UK and Netherlands was better. that said, turn off roaming data and autosync and you should be good. You might want to get an international SMS plan, too.

Google voice, i beleive will not work without a voice plan, but maps and GPS will. If you need directions all the time, however you might want to look into an app like copilot because Google maps doesn't store them on the phone. You'll need a data connection to use it.

 

[NightAngel79]

One thing to remember is that when you turn airplane mode on you can still turn on wi fi and gps and use them, thus guaranteeing no extra charges

 

[cyberpine]

One thing to remember is that when you turn airplane mode on you can still turn on wi fi and gps and use them, thus guaranteeing no extra charges

That's awsome. but if the phone is powered on and off will it revert back from Airplain mode? What if a call comes in? Any other surefire way to make sure some roaming won't happen? Pulling out SIM? My EPIC does not appear to ahve a sim, just a memory card I think.

But seriously, what are the chances the phone will just work and roaming charges will be incurred? Mostly worried about internet access.

Google voice won't work for calls due to call back, but with wifi and a google voice line we can txt message which is what we do most of anyways? Also wondering.. no google talk/chat client working on Android froyo yet? Anybody doing IP only calling through Google Voice from an Sprint Epic on Froyo not rooted? this would be ideal right? sure people are waiting for this.

Airplane mode on my phone says turn off all wireless connection..

 

[lunatic59]

...If the phone is powered on and off will it revert back from Airplain mode?

If the phone is powered off, it should power on and retain the last known mode. The only way a phone wouldn't come back up in the same mode was if the mode was changed and the phone locked and had to be restarted with a battery pull.

What if a call comes in? Any other surefire way to make sure some roaming won't happen? Pulling out SIM? My EPIC does not appear to ahve a sim, just a memory card I think.

You've got the best surefire method for assuring roaming won't happen. Your phone won't work without a sim card. The Epic is a CDMA phone and not compatible with most non-US carriers.

But seriously, what are the chances the phone will just work and roaming charges will be incurred? Mostly worried about internet access.

Because of technology incompatibilities, it can't work, even if you wanted it to. The only internet access you'd have is through WiFi.

Google voice won't work for calls due to call back, but with wifi and a google voice line we can txt message which is what we do most of anyways? Also wondering.. no google talk/chat client working on Android yet.. in theory if this worked, it could be all IP over the phone with no call back right?

Airplane mode on my phone says turn off all wireless connection..

It is my understanding that Google Voice requires cell service to work, and you cannot receive SMS messages via WiFi. You may be able to send them through an IP interface, but you'll never get them. eMail would be better ... slower, but better in this case.

 

[cyberpine]

It is my understanding that Google Voice requires cell service to work, and you cannot receive SMS messages via WiFi. You may be able to send them through an IP interface, but you'll never get them. eMail would be better ... slower, but better in this case.

Is this true? My understanding is that google Voice SMS functionality is actually an IP only service and not really SMS. I might be wrong. And as what I thought was proof of this. A few months ago, my phone was run over by a truck.. but still worked. I bought a new one and they deactiveated the old one at Best Buy. I could not use the old one for phone calls and could not see the 3g or 4g connection on it, but I could still do Google voice line txting between google voice and other cell phones.

We have 4 andorids under sprint. Epic, Evo, Hero and Tranformer. Will pulling sims (when available) assure us of no chargers. Worried kids will switch off airplain mode and then we will get at $3000 bill for internet usage over roaming.

Thanks.

 

[lunatic59]

Is this true? My understanding is that google Voice SMS functionality is actually an IP only service and not really SMS. I might be wrong. And as what I thought was proof of this. A few months ago, my phone was run over by a truck.. but still worked. I bought a new one and they deactiveated the old one at Best Buy. I could not use the old one for phone calls and could not see the 3g or 4g connection on it, but I could still do Google voice line txting between google voice and other cell phones.

We have 4 andorids under sprint. Epic, Evo, Hero and Tranformer. Will pulling sims (when available) assure us of no chargers. Worried kids will switch off airplain mode and then we will get at $3000 bill for internet usage over roaming.

Thanks.

It looks like the SMS will work through email forwarding. I found this on Youtube. I still don't believe you can call with Google Voice, though without cell service.

From what I could find Virgin Mobile in the UK is the only EU provider that support CDMA technology, but you'd still have to be activated on their network to be able to connect. The rest of Europe is GSM based, so no sim=no service. However, wifi is not free in all hotels. If you're hotel has a daily fee for wifi access, all your kids need to log on is the room number, unless you tel the desk to block it.

 

[cyberpine]

I'm not looking to SMS from my Sprint line through google Voice. I'm just looking to use Google Voice's native TXT message feature through Wifi (with no cell service). I suspect Google Voice messaging is not actually SMS, eventhough it's shooting txt messages to Cell phones recieving them with SMS. I have every reason to believe the product will work without Cellualar service.

 

[cyberpine]

bump. I've been in Europe for a week now. No cellular access or roaming to worry about.

For some reason Wifi in McDonalds in Spain and France have not worked for me on my Samsung Epic. Just get redirected to some mcdonalds wifi page that says it's can't load. I'm connected and strong and can see people with laptops and iphones connecting without a problem.

Without Wifi, Google Maps does not work. The satellite tries to locate me, but then returns unable to find your location. Does anybody of any way or ap to use my android phone as a gps without wifi or cellular service? I presume I would need to load in maps for the region.

Thanks.

 

[330D]

It is my understanding that Google Voice requires cell service to work, and you cannot receive SMS messages via WiFi. You may be able to send them through an IP interface, but you'll never get them. eMail would be better ... slower, but better in this case.

This is not true. I use Voice to text all the time over wifi. It works very well, as the service in my house sucks. I did integrate my Sprint number with voice, though. That may be the deciding factor.

 

[Roze]

bump. I've been in Europe for a week now. No cellular access or roaming to worry about.

For some reason Wifi in McDonalds in Spain and France have not worked for me on my Samsung Epic. Just get redirected to some mcdonalds wifi page that says it's can't load. I'm connected and strong and can see people with laptops and iphones connecting without a problem.

Without Wifi, Google Maps does not work. The satellite tries to locate me, but then returns unable to find your location. Does anybody of any way or ap to use my android phone as a gps without wifi or cellular service? I presume I would need to load in maps for the region.

Thanks.

Hopefully you get wifi to work on your phone

Try MapDroyd, it allows offline map for your gps

Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.osa.android.mapdroyd&feature=search_result

It says you need ContentDroyd to download the map.

I've never used this, but I've heard that mapdroyd works.