I need to block certain towers from accessing my iPhone (verizon).



Im near the border of mexico (Im in El Paso right now for the week) and I don't want to get nabbed for international charges. Ideas?

I don't believe your phone uses towers in Mexico 'til you cross the border. If you haven't gotten a message saying something like "Welcome to Mexico, cell phone rates are ridiculously fucking expensive here so completely ignore this message and we'll steal your money." you shouldn't be charged.

Airplane mode and use wifi? Otherwise, you're f**ked!

Email ftw!

Ive been told that is will use mexico towers if the signal from them are stronger, regardless of where I am at.


fml. anyone found any luck on google? I'm hitting only dead ends...

Worst case scenario, just put it in airplane mode and be done with it.

yeah, the problem is that I have to use my phone since I'm apartment shopping down here, plus using my data for GPS. And calling my Reserve unit to get some first ever face to face time while Im here.


I Think I have to bump up my plan, which will run me 94.99 for 900 minutes. damn it.

Call Verizon and ask them.

+1. Call them and tell them what's up. They should know what to do.

Turn roaming off in your phone. Most phones nowadays have an option in your settings to now allow your phone to roam. This would block all outside towers from your network.

Issues with turning off roaming:

I use a nation wide plan, and I get free roaming as long as its not international towers. I would hate to turn off roaming here, since, there are not a lot of verizon towers. I would probably lose all cell phone coverage.


I did call verizon, they told me they could not block international towers (I think that is dumb) and that i needed to get the "US/Mexico" package that would put me over $235 a month for the same plan I get now for under $65.

What I get for $65 a month currently:
2000 Minutes
1000 Text Messages
Unlimited Data


and the cost for those now when I take out a new plan:


2000 minutes $114.99
1000 messages $10
12GB (highest you can buy now) $100




This is why I don't want to take out a new plan to cover mexico. Anyone know of any Apps that could do it?

That's the only way to do it. I was a phone tech at VZW for a brief period of time. There are no apps since the transceiver (antenna/radio) can not tell the difference between cell towers like that. Your phone reads the information from it, and will accept it, and can read the ID from the tower. Unfortunately my little bit of info is all you can do to help it. It's not 100% fool proof though. It will still accept VZW towers, and other towers. VZW has agreements with other cell companies to share towers and sometimes does not count as roaming.

awesome, repped to all. Ill give it a shot here...

My fiances father works pretty close to Canada, but in the US. One time his phone picked up a Canadian tower, they ass raped him with fees. I believe it was resolved after a phone call.