taking my lovely iPad on holiday in Italy

[RoobyMurray]

Forgive my ignorance, but if I take my Uk based iPad to italy...

1. will it work on my 10 pound a month 3G subscription?

and

1. do I need to change any settings to stop horrendous billing?

TIA

Not sure, but with my iPhone you have to set Data Roaming to OFF otherwise it costs a FORTUNE.

I am trying to find a place to sell me a mobile wifi gadget here in Germany to save on roaming charges.

thank you Mme, I was hoping you would answer

Best way to make sure it doesn't roam is to leave it on "flight safe", and only use connexions to the Internet (Safari, google maps, certain apps) when you know you're in a wifi hotspur.

ooooh, first post through my mifi

It works at last.

Ok, here is how to do it. Buy a mifi - I have this one here although the one I had was supposed to be unlocked, it wasn't for some reason.

I bought a usb dongle when I was in Germany last year so have taken the SIM card from it (which gives me unlimited internet access while I am in Germany). It would not work so I had a quick google and came across this website with unlock codes. It was a bit of a fiddle, till I worked out what I was doing wrong but I got there in the end.

So I spent about ?100 altogether, but both dongle and mifi can be used anytime I am in Germany and the mifi can be used anywhere in Europe, as long as I buy a SIM card. I have one already for France, and for UK.

Then you just top up your SIM card and connect mifi to iPad.

Last time I was in Germany I had a HUGE telephone bill - the data roaming charges are massive in CH, but do check with your internet provider if they offer any savings.

Doing it with the mifi is good for me - as you can connnect up to 5 devices to it so both DH and I can check our mails on our iPhones, and we can use the iPad too.

That's great, thanks guys. So, if our villa has wifi, it won't cost me anything?

And if not, then a mifi would do it? thick

"Buy a mifi - I have this one here although the one I had was supposed to be unlocked, it wasn't for some reason."

If you've got a 3G iPad there's no point in buying a MIFI gadget. Just pop the SIM card that you would have to put into the MIFI gadget into the iPad and connect to the data network directly. It's the SIM card that controls how much the network access will cost you so it will cost the same whether the card goes straight into the iPad or into the MIFI gadget.

I'm reasonably sure that the iPad is already unlocked so there's no advantage in having an unlocked MIFI device either.

So get the SIM that gives the data access that you want/need and pop it straight into the iPad.

"So, if our villa has wifi, it won't cost me anything?"

That depends....

WIFI can be set up as needing payment to allow someone to access it, you'll need to check with the villa owner to find out. However what ever payments there are for the WIFI are utterly separate from the data roaming charges that you hear nightmare stories about.

Only thing is that the ipad uses a microsim so unless you can get a local SIM card in the micro format then you are left with trimming it with scissors

Also, you may want to consider where you are going and if it will have 3G coverage. If you are out in the sticks then there's little point in investing in a mifi etc. Best just to leave it with wifi in your accomodation.

Ah, I thought that iPads were locked, like iPhones. They are in Switzerland. Then ignore me - I was so excited that I finally got the mifi working.

"I thought that iPads were locked, like iPhones. They are in Switzerland"

I don't believe that they are in the UK and a quick scoot around the net seems to confirm this. Wikipedia claims that Japan is the only country to sell locked iPads...

Ipad's purchased on a contract with a mobile phone supplier (eg. Orange) are locked. If you bought it from PCWorld/Apple/Wherever then it won't be.