Okay, in the universe of problems to have, this is one of the nicer ones. I just returned from a three-week vacation in Europe (two in Italy, one in Denmark), where my beloved iPhone 3G was hobbled — neutered, even — by limited access to wi-fi and reasonably priced data networks. Before leaving, I’d read every post I could find about how to limit the cost of data usage while abroad, and they all said basically the same thing:

1. Buy an international roaming data package from AT&T
2. Use wi-fi networks whenever possible

Sounds simple, right? So I dutifully signed up for the 20mb for $25/month data plan on the AT&T site, set my phone to airplane mode, turned on wi-fi, and prepared myself for my dream of exploring Europe’s history and art with unfettered access to the web. Why buy a guidebook? I would have 2,000 years of human knowledge in the palm of my hand.

Sadly, Italy has never heard of wi-fi. I exaggerate, of course, but only slightly; in 14 days of travel (to Verona, Venice, and Florence) I found a grand total of six wi-fi networks, two of which were in our three-star hotel in Florence. All were closed, and the two I had access to seemed to go down when overtaxed by my attempts to, say, view a mobile wikipedia page.

Gone were all my fancy plans: the late nights reading up on the history of the Duomo, the cheap Skype calls to home. I was left with my measly AT&T data plan, most of which I’d used up using iPhone maps whenever we got lost, which was frequently, partly because I refused to rely on the maps app except in emergencies to save on data usage….

To make matters worse, I didn’t realize the international data package was pro-rated. I’d signed up in the middle of my billing cycle, so I actually used twice my data allotment in the first week. I was 10mb over my limit, which would be billed at $0.005/kilobyte for an added $50 charge. (If I hadn’t signed up for the plan at all the 20mb would have cost me $390, so there’s that.)

I hastily phoned AT&T to change the plan to the 50mb/$60 variety, which they helpfully back-dated to cover the data I’d already used. All told, in three weeks I spent about $100 for a few glances at the maps app, roughly 30 tiny emails home, and an occasional, tentative excursion to a site which I knew had a mobile version.

Lessons learned? Books are nice, as are paper maps. From a 2009 IT infrastructure perspective, Italy isn’t San Francisco. And without limitless data usage, my shiny little digital friend became a mere game platform for my kids while waiting in line to look at that statue of — what, exactly? My iPhone couldn’t say.

For AT&T’s somewhat oblique explanation of plans and benefits, click here.

Tags: iphone, travel