One major pocket draining source of owning a Smartphone is the exorbitant international roaming plan. An attractive offer is on the way if you are an AT&T customer and own an iPhone 3G. Starting from Wednesday (August 28, 2008), two new international roaming plans will be rolled out that will let customers save hundreds of dollars compared to the existing pay-per-use rule.

The new plans cover 67 countries and will be available for $119.99 and $239.99 for 100 MB and 200 MB data access respectively. At present AT&T customers can place calls from more than 200 countries, send text messages and browse the web in more that 150 countries, use 3G in about 60 countries and now this sort of cheap plan. ‘Cheap’ in comparison to the earlier pay-per use rate of $0.0195 per Kb, which costs 2MB almost $40. Good for people who travel outside US very often.

To make best use of the plan and to save money, iPhone users can follow some best practices to reduce data consumption such as, using Wi-Fi only when it is necessary, turning off automatic e-mail checking etc. Customers can just opt out of the plan anytime, this is not as rigid as the iPhone contract. Look here for detailed information.