Here’s a great little travel tip from Marco Arment via his podcast ATP. When you don’t have cellular service but need to connect to Wi-Fi and can’t get your phone to get started, trying to connect to a non secure socket layer site will solve the problem. (This happens to me every time I go grocery shopping in the States and want to check with the better half if we need more milk).
Here’s the relevant ATP clip: overcast.fm/+R7DVAsQuw/12:17
And, as Arment points out, a sure address in which to connect that will always use just plain unencrypted http is Neverssl.com.