Third country calling while roaming internationally?

[stevewilliams2]

I travel to Europe a couple times a year. I have an unlocked iPhone 4 and have always used a local SIM when traveling. I have been looking at the AT&T World Traveler plan to see if it would meet my needs so I wouldn't have to keep changing my number every time I travel. I tend to make a bunch of short calls so cost per minute is not a huge issue.

My concern is the following. Looking at calling from France for example, I look at "details" and there is this statement:

"You may not be able to place calls to international destinations other than the United States while roaming in this destination. Calls can be completed within the visited destination and back to the United States."

I always travel with a group of friends from various countries and need to be able to call them on their mobiles. From this statement, it sounds like I would not be able to call my friend who has a German mobile number while we are both in France.  Am I reading this right? or is it just necessary that we both be physically in France?

[ATTJulieCS]

@stevewilliams2 These are great questions! As long as you're using the correct dialing patterns you should have no issues calling your travel partners from various countries while you're all in Europe. Check out the correct dialing patterns here: 

Use a Correct Dialing Pattern for Domestic or International Calls

Also, review the following to ensure you are correcty provisioned for international calling prior to your departure. 

Traveling internationally with your phone or device

Have a fantastic trip! 

[stevewilliams2]

Thank you very much for your answer! I hope you are right. However, following your link  Traveling internationally with your phone or device and selecting "France" -> "Details" leads me to the same message:

"You may not be able to place calls to international destinations other than the United States while...

so I still worry about this. If this is not an issue, why would it be stated explicitly like this?

[stufried]

You need international customer support to enable expanded international roaming for this to work, but think twice about doing it. The cost of calls can be very high and you can't always get the information from ATT's website. Moreover, if your phone gets stolen and someone spends three hours on the phone to Lagos you are fully responsible. http://forums.att.com/t5/Account-Features/Error-message-when-trying-to-make-international-call-from/...

[stevewilliams2]

Oh man it sounds like a big pain to get this working! I guess I'll stick with Maxroam when traveling. This means when the new iPhone comes out I will either have to buy an unlocked one ($$$$) or go to Verizon ($$).

I'm not really worried about my phone being stolen. I just want my calls to work and not have to jump through hoops to make it happen.

[stufried]

Maxroam has good rates when you are in the EU.  The moment you leave it (except for countries like Switzerland), their rates are no longer attractive.  

I hate to steer people to competitors, but if your travels are solely in the EU, take a look at what TMobile released yesterday:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407172,00.asp

$50 a month for unlimited data (first 500 megs at HSPA+ speeds) for the US plus the entire EU.  I don't know what their small business data plan is, but it might be worth a look.

Alternatively, look at Truphone's borderless bundles:

http://www.truphone.com/en-US/Business/Price-plans/

I love my iPhone, but if I didn't have my $64.99 iPhone International plan (grandfathered and long closed to new sign ons), I think  I'd go Android.  In addition to being able to natively integrate third party dialers, apps like:

http://gigaom.com/mobile/devicescape-combines-data-monitor-with-wi-fi-access-for-androids/

(when coupled with VOIP) could drive my phone bill down signfiicantly.