i'm trying to figure out what to do about my iphone when i'm in kazakhstan. i basically have three options:
(1) go to kazakhstan with the iphone and pay the AT&T international roaming charges
the roaming rates absolutely suck. it's $4.95/minute1 for both making and receiving calls, and data costs $0.0195/KB (in the u.s. data is free, which is what 99% of my phone usages is). those charges are on top of the $70 monthly charge i'd still have to pay for my regular monthly allotment of minutes that i won't be able to use.
(2) jailbreak my iphone, get a kazakh sim card and take advantage of the much-lower local cell phone rates
i'm a little worried about messing with the operating system in a place where internet access may not be easy and where i'll have a lot of other things i'll want to deal with other than a bricked iphone. i'm also wondering how reversible the jailbreak would be when i get home.
(3) leave the iphone home, and get cheap kazakh phone while we're there
this is the option i've been leaning towards. but 2 months is a long time. i'm gonna miss it. and what about my precious podcasts? i'll fall hopelessly behind!!!
any thoughts?
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1-AT&T has a "world traveler" plan that would add $5.99 to my regular monthly fee and would get me discounts to the roaming rate in a lot of countries. but in kazakhstan the "world traveler" rate is $4.95/min. and $0.0195/KB, exactly what it is if i didn't pay the extra $5.99 add-on.
