Things are tough for the business traveler – but even more so for the business traveler with an iPhone.

There I was in Canada, visiting from the US – and the thing was practically a brick. You know when AT&T actually warns you that traveling can cost you and your iPhone bunch of money, it must be expensive. Obviously, AT&T would love you to spend your hard-earned dollars – so I would take heed.

Let’s skip the .79 cent per minute rate for international travel, and the fact that by paying an extra 5 bucks for the month I could only knock it down to .59 cents per minute, let’s talk about data.

AT&T forces you to have an unlimited data plan for your iPhone – probably because without data – you’re iPhone is an iDoorstop. The visual voice mail doesn’t work, you can’t get the map function to work – forget any thing like Pandora, and kiss your email goodbye. All the coolness that is my iPhone is dependent on data.

Apparently in the international cell phone circles, Data is an expensive commodity. People are hungry for data, and cell phone companies will gladly hold your wallet hostage for you to get some. And if you don’t know a kilobit from a kilobyte from an overbyte – you best turn off all the fancy bells and whistles – lest you learn why the love of money is the root of all evil.

On the iPhone there are two basic things that have to render useless:

• Head for the Settings icon, click on General, then Network, and turn off data roaming. This stops the data hungry apps from reaching out to touch someone without your knowledge. It’s like Cell roaming – when your phone automatically links with a compatible provider to handle your calls while traveling.
• Head back up to the main settings, and this time click the mail options, Turn off Push, so your email won’t automatically send you to the poor house by checking for mail every fifteen minutes.

This problem is not reserved for the iPhone – any “smart” phone can give you this trouble, consult your carrier and maker to make traveling better for your wallet, but, unfortunately, worse for all your cool features. Take advantage of wifi whenever you can – the hotel, a restaurant, a friend’s house, an unlucky local who hasn’t password protected their server – after all, we’re talking your hard-earned cash…

I don’t know if it’s like this on all phones with turn-by-turn maps – but the basic Maps function in the iPhone uses the satellite to pinpoint your position, and the data plan to load the maps. I found that out then we got lost and I tried to use the feature to get us un-lost – I received a warning that I had turned off the data function, then a blank map with our position on it. After I restored the data function – and the local area loaded in – I turned it off again.

Perhaps I sound a bit data-paranoid, but this iThing is already not cheap (the bane of all iPhone users is AT&T’s current plan cost), and you don’t want to be caught with your pants down, and your wallet empty.

Heck – no one wants be caught with their pants down, but I’ll leave that for another time and topic.

Oh, and in case you are steaming and ready to defend Canada to your last breath – it’s where I was at the moment. If I went to Europe – I would have titled this “France Makes My iPhone Suck.” So be nice, will ‘ya? I had a hard trip…