Android can be Dumb Too

Here's something you would expect if you were coding on the BlackBerry platform but this is most definitely on Android. Android doesn't implement roaming itself.

What? Yes, it's true. If you enable roaming in global system settings, it doesn't actually stick unless each and every single application you use honors the flag. Furthermore, if you don't implement it, Google states that it's the application developer's problem if your users complain about very large data bills.

So to implement it in every application, you need to check ConnectivityManager to see if you're allowed to use the network, e.g.,

final ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager) getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);

// TODO check the connection to see if it's allowed

You also need to check for the CONNECTIVITY_ACTION intent in case this changes later on. Honestly, this should just be blocked by the system. They're afraid someone won't be able to get to emergency services. It should just support an emergency level flag for network connections instead of getting all developers to implement this in their apps.