iMessage loophole on pay wifi?

As a Canadian visitor to Vegas...using my cell phone while there can cost a fortune. I typically find myself trying to find a free wifi connection in order to use iMessage on my iPhone to text friends and family back home (pretty much everyone I know has some sort of iOS enabled device). This usually brings me to a McDonald's if I want to use wifi.

However, when I was flying home from my last trip, I had a layover in Minneapolis and the wifi there isn't free. So as I was walking the airport looking for anywhere with free wifi, I realized that if I connected to the pay networks but didn't put my billing information in on the pop up screen in my web browser...I could still use iMessage even though I hadn't payed yet. I tried this on the USO and Boingo hotspots in the airport and it worked for both. Now I'm wondering if this will work for the hotel wifi as well? I don't really care about having wifi while on vacation...but it definitely comes in handy for enabling text messaging for foreign visitors through iMessage. Has anyone tried this with the hotel wifi and had any success?

 

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say here... I use iMessage all the time and it does not require WiFi. It works just fine over a typical 3G Network.

 

He's Canadian and would get hit with major roaming charges if using his 3G here in the US.

 

He can purchase an upfront Int'l text bundle package for a very low cost. I just spent 3 weeks
in Europe and I texted - voice memos, picts & videos back to the states almost everyday.
As long as you stay within the limits of the text messages or MB used it's really cheap!

 

are you sure it was actually using the wifi connection and not roaming on your data plan? unless you specifically disabled your data plan while in the US, you might end up with an ugly bill next month when you thought you were getting free wifi.

 

It definitely wasn't using roaming. iPhones have an option to turn off data roaming and that option never gets turned on Plus I've already received the bill with no surprises.

 

well, that's good. then it's worth a try at the hotel next time and see. iMessage may use a port/protocol that's not properly blocked by the paid wifi providers.

 

This isn't a loophole. iMessage can be used anywhere there is wifi for free. You can now send messages from an iPod to someone else with an iPod, for instance, all without any kind of a data plan.

With the outrageous text message pricing, considering how little data it actually is, Apple probably pissed off a lot of major carriers. Oh well.

 

The OP indicated he was not able to find free WIFI. He said he imessaged over PAY wifi and not logged in.

 

You can do iMessages direct from the Mac now too!