Data Roaming Tips & Tricks
This page offers tips & tricks for a better data roaming experience on your service iPhone and/or iPad.
Please remember only Directors have data roaming enabled automatically. All other eligible administrative staff may have data romaing enabled ONLY upon specific and justified request by their Director. Academic staff members are entitiled only if a specific yearly data package has been purchase in advance as part of their request for a service mobile.
Once ICT has confirmed your data roaming is enabled, please go to Settings \ Cellular and verify that Data Roaming option is indeed enabled otherwise you will not be able to use data connectino when abroad.
IMPORTANT: if you are running iOS 8 or above (Settings \ General \ About and check Version field) make sure to set the Data Roaming option as per iOS 8 instructions further below.
If you are a eligible staff member, a quick way to check if Roaming has been enabled while still in Italy, is to try to call an international phone number: if succesful, roaming is enabled.
Data roaming is normally limited to 500MB per month. This is usually enough for emailing and using your calendar but may be depleted quickly if downloading and streaming contents (including email attachments and listening to music and/or watching videos from YouTube), calling and/or messaging over internet (such as with Skype/Lync and WhatsApp) and using social media (like Facebook).
When 80% of your quota has been used, you will receive a notification in the form of a Text message (SMS) from Vodafone informing you so. Once exhausted, connection will be inhibited.
The APN (Access Point Name) is the piece of information which tells the device how to connect to the internet via cellular data connection. It is usually stored directly into the SIM (not on the device) as it contains carrier specific information. Carriers have, however, the possibility to push and thus change such info through their network.
It is important for the APN to be correct otherwise cellular data connection may not work properly or at all. In the worst case, a wrong APN may as well cause extra costs (e.g. when using the APN of a carrier which has no partnership with Vodafone).
The APN can be checked and changed, if need be, in Settings \ Cellular \ Cellular Data Network \ APN. The APN differs based on the device you are using as follows:
- iPhone: iphone.vodafone.it
- iPad: web.omnitel.it
- BlackBerry with BES: blackberry.net
- BlackBerry with BIS: mobile.vodafone.it
- Internet Key and/or device other than the above: mobile.vodafone.it
Please Note: Username and Password should be left blank!
If your cellular data connection is not working and/or another APN shows up, try re-configuring your device with your SIM card's original information via Settings \ Cellular \ Cellular Data Network \ Reset Settings.
The carrier is the company which provides for your data (as well as voice) connection. This would normally be Vodafone or one of its partners.
Normally your device is configured as to search for the best carrier automatically but may fail under various circumstances (for example if you forgot to turn off and/or put your device into Airplane Mode when flying). If this is the case, go to Settings \ Carrier, disable the Automatic option and select a carrier from among Vodafone's partners manually.
The carrier should be chosen taking the following into account:
- if the signal is strong enough, choose a carrier which supports 4G
- if the signal is not strong enough, either connect via 3G only or choose another carrier
Before leaving the EUI, take note of the Vodafone partners available to your country of destination and what services they offer.
Please Note: Vodafone is not available in all countries and not all partners may offer the same services as in Italy!
Check Vodafone's Business Support webpage and choose your destination country from the "scegli la nazione" (choose your country) dropdown menu. Partners will be shown in the Informazioni Paese (Country Information) box (click the + symbol to expand) whereas services available will be detailed in the Operatori e Servizi Disponibili (Carriers and Availbale Services) box (click the + symbol to expand).
The above information is very useful if you need to select your Carrier manually: make sure to pick the best carrier available according to the strength of its signal (4G or 3G).
Your apps normally exchange data with internet even if they are not running at all. For example, you will continue receiving push notifications such as wheather forecasts or messages over Facebook and WhatsApp even if they are closed.
Especially social media applications are huge data devourers as they are constantly checking for status updates over internet. If you have bad signal, this could cause your connection to clog up and there may not be suffient bandwidth left for other activities like emailing...
Some Apps can be configured in such a way as to avoid data exchange over cellular data network: we strongly advise you to check in Settings \ Cellular if such a setting is available and disable use cellular data for all the non-work related Apps.
In worst case, turn off Cellular Data in Settings to restrict all data, including email and push notifications, to WiFi connection. Please note that if WiFi is not available, no data connection will be available at all!
As a general rule, WiFi should always be used in place of cellular data. If a WiFi connection is available, you can safely turn off Cellular Data. Remember to turn it on again when leaving a WiFi covered area!
Please note the EUI is member of eduroam: if you are visitng another eduroam member institution, you can login onto eduroam wireless network using your EUI credentials.
Other Hints
When flying, you should either turn off your device or put it into Airplane Mode (in Settings) in order to instantly turn off Bluetooth, WiFi and Cellular Network.
This has also the advantage of avoiding your device to remain stuck with cellular network settings of the leaving country (above all the carrier).
If this is the case, turning the device off an on again sometimes is not sufficient: instead, go to Settings \ Cellular \ Cellular Data Network and Reset Settings back to your SIM's ones.
In the worst case, you may need to search for a proper Carrier manually.
Normally your device is configured in order to automatically connect to faster 4G networks. However, if the signal of the carrier is too weak, you may want to try connecting in slower 3G mode only, above all if only a 3G-only carrier is available.
To turn off 4G Data Connection, go to Settings \ Cellular and disable the Enable 4G setting. Please note, however, this should be used only as an extrema ratio solution as the main purpose of disabling this option is to save battery life (4G consuming more power than 3G). On the other hand, it is true that letting your device constantly search for/connect to unexisting and/or poor signal 4G carriers all the way, may cause your data connectino to drop often. Downgrading to 3G may get the connection a little bit more stable, although slower.
If you are running iOS 8 or above, a new option which may interfere with proper data roaming has been introduced on your device. If this is the case, in order to keep roaming, you should:
- turn Data Roaming option on
- make sure to disable the underneath appearing option called EU Internet
Your device must NOT be used to setup a personal hotspot and share your internet connection with other devices as extra costs will occur.
Page last updated on 20 August 2017