iPhone 3G Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

TimesOnline warns (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/consumer_affairs/article4187006.ece) that iPhone 3G owners will be able to rack up large wireless bills faster than ever. While the UK carrier for the Apple iPhone offers an unlimited data plan, this only applies when you are located in the UK. Once you travel abroad, the cost to download 1MB of data can be as high as £6/megabyte (~$12 US). This means an average BBC iPlayer program could cost as much as £1,800 when roaming in the U.S.

Of course, this is true for all mobile phones, but iPhone users do tend to take more advantage of their data plans. A number of stories emerged after the introduction of the original iPhone about inadvertently large roaming bills.

Fortunately, the iPhone firmware now allows you to turn data roaming off, which avoids accidentally walking into this problem.

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/06/21/iphone-3g-users-can-run-their-bill-up-faster-while-roaming/)

[shadowfax]

Well, as you say--fools can leave data roaming on. It's great that the iPhone makes it really easy to turn off data roaming.

[TimothyB]

This phone is going to put data plans into the hands of so many users that have no experience or knowledge of the costs for transferring data outside of your plan (abroad or no data plan sometimes). Like in one case, either it was a news story or a friend told me a family member downloaded a ton of songs through their phone as a tether to a laptop and had no data plan or something and got an ungodly dollar amount next bill.

Funny how these cell companies can charge people for this data. How does it go from unlimited for low $30 a month to the cost of a new car if you had no data plan or went abroad? There's sort of a discrepancy between those prices.

My 2nd and current cell phone has some data capabilities to check news, download games, etc. I didn't want to pay the monthly fee and shocked at the price with no data plan. It seems like they make it all or nothing. I still check news which has small photos now and then, only adding $3 to my bill, but if I were to buy a game through the phone, that could make it more expensive than a PS3 game just to transfer it. Really bugs me too that one of the main buttons on my cell phone takes me to the internet page, which gets bumped so many times, once I found it like 6 pages into the net.

[MojoWill]

common sense tells you that roaming is expensive only stupid people ever get big bills!

[taylorwilsdon]

How is this news? As far as I know, the data roaming option is DISABLED by default, so you would have to go out of your way and explicitly allow data roaming for this to happen, and nobody could say it was an accident if they did that.

Common sense must prevail...

[shadowfax]

common sense tells you that roaming is expensive only stupid people ever get big bills!

Well, in all fairness, not all companies make this all obvious. I know my Razr had multiple buttons that would take you straight to the fakernet, and couldn't be disabled. So, anytime I accidentally hit one of those buttons it added several cents (at least) to my phone bill.

It's a significant step forward that the iPhone is the way it is--the data plan is more like internet at home, and roaming is (really?) disabled by default/easy to disable.

[JBaker122586]

common sense tells you that roaming is expensive only stupid people ever get big bills!

100% agree.
If you get a huge bill from overseas data usage, you're an idiot and deserve to pay it in full. I said as much dozens of times when a bunch of morons were crying about the "unfair" charges they got just because they watched a few YouTube videos on a Mediterranean cruise. :rolleyes:

[kamm]

And why TF is this news, seriously?

Any phone can do the same:

Sony Ericsson 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
Nokia 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
HTC 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming

etc.

This is such a pathetic 'news-mfr'ing' now that I can smell sweating... :rolleyes:

[superleccy]

Stupid... morons... whatever... is this news... whatever. It never hurts to remind the world of this little con. I know some people who would probably fall for this if they had an iPhone and I wouldn't call them morons... just naive.

This phone is going to put data plans into the hands of so many users that have no experience or knowledge of the costs for transferring data outside of your plan (abroad or no data plan sometimes).

Exactly.

Another "gotchya" to watch for is that with some networks you get charged a hefty fee for just opening a data connection - even if you transfer little or no data - and even if the reason you have to open a data connection is because your last one was dropped due to the crappy network.

Therefore, even light & casual data roaming can lead to shocking bills when you get home.

SL

[Sbrocket]

Meh, this is the kinda thing I'd expect from Digg, not Macrumors. :(

[tomjleeds]

And why TF is this news, seriously?

Any phone can do the same:

Sony Ericsson 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
Nokia 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
HTC 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming

etc.

This is such a pathetic 'news-mfr'ing' now that I can smell sweating... :rolleyes:

On top of that, why is this a '3G' thing? OK, you can run it up 'faster' by having a faster connection, but the prices are the same.

[Chupa Chupa]

This phone is going to put data plans into the hands of so many users that have no experience or knowledge of the costs for transferring data outside of your plan (abroad or no data plan sometimes).

Ah, C'mon. It's a freaking phone, not Taser. People understand the concept of international roaming. And Blackberrys and Treos have been putting data plans in the hands of MILLIONS of people worldwide long before "iPhone," was part of the phone lexicon.

The issue with the roaming charges on the early iPhones was due to the fact there was no way to turn roaming off and people with email set to automatic got pinched, but Apple fixed that issue.

[tasset]

On the subject of roaming, if you turn off the data roaming does this make the GPS feature useless because the Maps app can't pull info from Google?

[Chupa Chupa]

On the subject of roaming, if you turn off the data roaming does this make the GPS feature useless because the Maps app can't pull info from Google?

If you are using wireless data yes. Nothing on the data side that isn't in RAM will work. Wi-Fi will still be available though, so you could use the GPS that way. I don't think the iPhones GPS uses real-time tracking anyway. Tom Tom is working on an app, but apparently can't release it b/c it violates the terms of the SDK license, which prohbits real time guidance or turn by turn guidance.

[bentmywookie]

I'm sorry did everyone on MacRumors suddenly become 13 years old? Why are people "stupid" or "morons" if they were to get roaming charges? Yeah, a lot of people nowadays know about this stuff but I'm sure many other do not.

We all know cell phone companies are out there to make money and of course they always advertise everything in BIG BOLD letters right?

This post was pointing out something that most likely will not be well advertised to many iPhone users and could result in them paying an exorbitant amount of money they did not have or did not want to part with. Why is that so bad? Certainly you'd warn your parents or grandparents about phishers on the internet right? You wouldn't just call them morons and laugh at them when $10000 got taken out of their bank account.

Also - many more "non-smartphone" users are getting the iPhone and using the data plan where they wouldn't have before. I don't see what's to be gained by simply making fun of people that would fall into this trap.

[Yvan256]

Why is that so bad? Certainly you'd warn your parents or grandparents about phishers on the internet right? You wouldn't just call them morons and laugh at them when $10000 got taken out of their bank account.

Except that phishers and scammers are doing illegal things to try to rip people off. Telecom companies, on the other hand, are legal businesses selling a service while at the same time being sneaky about it (hidden fees, completely insane prices, etc).

I see this more as a reminder than as news. My next phone is going to be pay-as-I-go, since it seems to be the only way to pay the least amount possible every month (I talk maybe 30 minutes a month on my cellphone, at the most).

[dohspc]

Is this an iPhone rumor or really any news?

[GutBomb]

I don't think the iPhones GPS uses real-time tracking anyway.

Get directions.
Get directions to wherever from wherever. View turn-by-turn directions or watch your progress with live GPS tracking.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/maps.html

There used to be a video of the maps in action on that page. It is now gone. It showed someone pressing the locate button, then entering a destination, it drawing a map on the screen, and then the blue dot representing them was being tracked along the map.

No idea why it's not there anymore.

[jonny]

Forgive me if someone said this already... but say you're from Canada or the USA, and you travel between those two countries... Both have Edge still, is there not a switch to disable 3G and use the slower EDGE speeds to "preserve battery" and subsequently "preserve wallet". :P

[Tallest Skil]

On top of that, why is this a '3G' thing? OK, you can run it up 'faster' by having a faster connection, but the prices are the same.

You just explained why it's a 3G thing. They run it up faster because they can download more in the same amount of time.

[Cherimoya]

Anyway the BBC iPlayer doesn't work outside the UK does it ? So that's a really crappy example

[3247]

Any phone can do the same:

Sony Ericsson 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
Nokia 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While Roaming
HTC 3G Phone Users Can Run Their Bill Up Faster While RoamingExcept that those phones are available without simlock or netlock. With an iPhone, you can't insert a local SIM card to avoid usurious roaming charges.

[jb510]

Is it worth reporting on... YES... is it a well written clip... NO...

This is the kind of crap that gives "blogs" a bad name. Why not actually talk to a couple carriers and report something... anything about their international data plans and why astronomical data roaming fees persist? Questions like, "Is the price increase for roaming data proportional to the increase in wholesale costs for the carrier?" and "Do you have any plans to be more responsive to customers who regularly travel internationally?" Ok that questions is a bit leading and AT&T would likely claim they already do have plans for frequent international travelers referring to their international discount plans. However those plans are very limited and ridiculously over priced compared to local service over seas.

I digress a bit from my point but US domestic service is fairly expensive to being with, so when I go to Thailand or India or China which I do regularly why should I pay a 10-15x premium to roam on my US service when local service rates are 1/10th what they are in the US?



Newworthy... yes, lot's of people these daty

[bluebomberman]

People need to calm down. There are a lot of stupid people out there - I remember reading about legions of people who ran up hundreds of $$$ on their cell phone bills through SMS messages and didn't realize they were paying by the message.

Just because you have good sense doesn't mean there won't be a sucker born the next minute.

[ParishYoung]

I thought it was pretty good timing (for me at least)

I'm currently Roaming in America from the Uk and had the feature disabled.

While out walking somewhere I needed to know how to get back to my motel so I enabled data and then used the maps feature, but it couldn't find me so had to ask in a garage anyway. Quickly checked my email (no new ones) and updated Facebook status then put the phone back in my pocket.

Foolishly I did not disable the Roaming Data again. Less than 24 hours later my network (Orange UK) sent me a text saying I had used "5Mb of Roaming Data"!!!! I have no idea how this happened as I only performed the above.

While in the motel in the evening I used the free Wifi service.

It's crazy to think that the iPhone is capable to sending / reciving 5Mb in 24 hours by itself. So a warning like this article is probably a good thing, especially due to the number of people getting the new iPhone 3G. There will be a whole heap of the customers with the first gen one upgrading, plus with the new pricing there will be even more people getting one.

Just my 2 cents / pence

[newyorksole]

Went to Canada and used my iPhone for about 4 days. Turns out that when I got home my bill was about $2,100. I almost was about to break down. I was sooo scared lol I was a nervous wreck for the next 2 days until I called AT&T and told the guy that I had nooo idea that I would be charged so much for roaming. I explained to him that when I got the iPhone I was not told about this.

After a few minutes he told me that he would try his best to get my bill lowered.

That guy got my bill down to $204 !! I was soooo happy, I wish I could have thanked him.

[JBaker122586]

Went to Canada and used my iPhone for about 4 days. Turns out that when I got home my bill was about $2,100. I almost was about to break down. I was sooo scared lol I was a nervous wreck for the next 2 days until I called AT&T and told the guy that I had nooo idea that I would be charged so much for roaming. I explained to him that when I got the iPhone I was not told about this.

After a few minutes he told me that he would try his best to get my bill lowered.

That guy got my bill down to $204 !! I was soooo happy, I wish I could have thanked him.

Maybe research these things next time.
Or, you know, READ the contract that you signed.

[jb510]

Maybe research these things next time.
Or, you know, READ the contract that you signed.

Not sure what that contributed to the discussion.... but there are a few problems with the system. Some of those the customers fault, namely so many thinking of Canada as the 51st state. Some of those however are the providers fault. When you roam over into Canada the network doesn't tell you or prompt you in anyway to advise you you're now on an international network. Phones come setup to automatically connect to Rogers and seamlessly keeps working even though you've actually changed networks and are now paying exorbitant charges for doing so. That's the providers fault. There ought to be some sort of user intervention required to enable international roaming each time it begins for both data and voice. Not a one time switch, but switch that is turned on and then resets automatically when you return to your home network.

[DisneyEcho]

Anyway the BBC iPlayer doesn't work outside the UK does it ? So that's a really crappy example

That's right: iPlayer doesn't even work in the U.S., because the BBC doesn't allow it (licensing issues).

"News" article writer: Try using iPlayer yourself on your iPhone and you'll see that's true. Then revise what you wrote.

[zorinlynx]

What I'd like to know is who comes up with these ridiculous rates.

$12 per *megabyte*? A megabyte is *nothing* these days. Charging that much to transfer a meg is ridiculous. Such a high price makes mobile data usage completely useless. Hell, a meg worth of bandwidth used on a voice call costs much less and it goes over the same wires.

Why not charge more reasonable rates? Rates that people are actually willing and capable of paying? I know that these companies want to make money, but this is sort of equivalent to charging $500 for a banana. It makes no sense in any market.

It's almost as if they just don't want you to use roaming data, period.

[suzerain]

Man...what a bunch of vitriolic crap from the people here.

I think it's about time cell phone companies realized that the world is...umm...global, and started adjusting their rates accordingly. For those of us who travel internationally frequently, or who live in multiple places, these rates are way out of whack with reality.

I can't believe more people here don't see how they are being screwed over. What, it costs a few cents to transfer data in the USA if you're an American citizen, but if you're a UK citizen the exact same data costs $20?

Doesn't anyone here think that those rates are utter ********, and maybe perhaps instead of jumping all over the "morons" who leave data transfer on...maybe, just maybe, aim a little bit of anger at the cell phone jerks who set up these rates purely to gouge you?

Man, people are sheep...while you're all bent over getting reamed by your idiotic "contracts", not only are you willing to let your own company give it to you, you're ready for them to let their friends (i.e., companies in other countries) give it to you, too. Be sure to thank them and ask that they do it again while they all laugh at you for being the real moron.

IMO, these rates are utter crap, the cell companies are leasing time from each other and splitting the bills, and they're laughing all the way to the bank with your money. It's about time these companies joined the 21st century and realize that it's a global marketplace.

Contracts are bogus; phones should be unlocked, so people can put in local sim cards anywhere they travel, period. Some of the countries who will have the new iPhone have mandated unlocking, so I know where I'll be buying my iPhone, and where I won't.

[superleccy]

That's right: iPlayer doesn't even work in the U.S., because the BBC doesn't allow it (licensing issues).

"News" article writer: Try using iPlayer yourself on your iPhone and you'll see that's true. Then revise what you wrote.

If you are a UK subscriber and data-roam out of the UK, you'll still be accessing the Internet through your provider's UK APN. iPlayer won't be able to tell that you're NOT in the UK, so it should work.

I could be wrong because I've not actually tried it. Have you? :)

SL

[sadsack]

Ok this is nothing new and not anything major, however, i understand that people can make this mistake - of using data outside of the uk.

For me, i think apple should make operators that provide the iphone to negotiate roaming charges between themselves and provide it at a reduced rate if not free whilst abroad. In return the operator will get a travelling customer that makes calls off their network and the iphone continues to be a product that differs from the rest.

Please note that i know people will say this is not possible...however, it is. A UK customer is more prone to sending a mms message when abroad as it is cheaper than a normal text message. o2 standard text from abroad is 4 out of your normal bundle, once the bundle is finished .40p each compared to mms .20p . MMS goes over the internet even when abroad and therefore cheaper. All UK operators suggest using MMS when overseas. So if that is cheaper why cant surfing be reduced too. Just my two pence to confuse things.

[superleccy]

MMS goes over the internet even when abroad and therefore cheaper.

MMS never go over the Internet. The service does use an IP connection between your handset and your provider's MMS server - and this may be the same connection that you use to connect your phone to your provider's Internet gateway. But at no point does an MMS go over the Internet (unless you specify an email address as a recipient).

SL

[sadsack]

MMS never go over the Internet. The service does use an IP connection between your handset and your provider's MMS server - and this may be the same connection that you use to connect your phone to your provider's Internet gateway. But at no point does an MMS go over the Internet (unless you specify an email address as a recipient).

SL

sorry my assumptions and mistake. That kind of throws my theory out of the window.

[Grasbak]

If you are a UK subscriber and data-roam out of the UK, you'll still be accessing the Internet through your provider's UK APN. iPlayer won't be able to tell that you're NOT in the UK, so it should work.

I could be wrong because I've not actually tried it. Have you? :)

SL

you can only use the iPlayer over WIFI anyway (I think).... be interesting to see if they allow it to work over 3G....

[superleccy]

you can only use the iPlayer over WIFI anyway (I think).... be interesting to see if they allow it to work over 3G....
Yes... O2 could block it altogether if they wanted. Maybe they already have.

[toomuchmac]

I know this was originally a UK article, but one thing I do wonder is, if our state-side partner AT&T will have different international data roaming plans when the 3G iPhone is available.

Currently you can get 20MB for like $25/month or 50MB for like $60/month. The 20MB works fine if you're taking a week or less trip abroad and still want to do some data or show off your iPhone (ok, most people have seen them now, but at first this was true). It won't be enough if you want to use email or web like normal. On a five day trip last year, I did something in between and used about 22MB.

The 50MB plan would be great for a week to ten day trip with regular data usage, except that AT&T requires a one-year contract! Guess they figured that one out! For regular travelers abroad it's still works out ok, I guess.

SO, with the data plan going to $30/mo for 3G data, it will be interesting to see if AT&T puts in a new international 3G data roaming plan or if the same ones exist and 3G users hit the limit sooner.

[lamadude]

This really sucks for people traveling a lot or living in small countries or near borders. I live in Belgium about 5km away from France and maybe 50km from the Netherlands, I'm abroad just to go grocery shopping and I even pick up French networks just driving around in my home town sometimes. There should at least be some kind of EU wide tariff for data roaming.

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Thank goodness you are able to disable data roaming.

[yellowsub]

I live in the Netherlands and travel frequently within Europe and to the US and I agree with the previous posters that the problems are:

a) In Europe, it's easy to find yourself crossing a border and roaming.
b) Some people travel. A lot. These people may often be the ones who really want an iphone. Like me and others I know.
c) The phone companies are scamming you with outrageous data roaming rates
d) The iphone is locked so that you cannot switch to a local SIM and get "normal" rates
e) The iphone uses lots of data. It is addictive. Switching roaming off means that travelling across borders is like losing a limb.

The solution?

My opinion is that Apple should use their bargaining power with the phone companies and sort this mess out with a single global data plan rate (preferably the same rate as your local rate). The phone companies can do this, the economics do not make it several times more expensive to give data service to people with foreign SIMs who are on your network. It's just shameless profiteering.

It's normal with cellphones to switch SIMs and play with the tech, just as in the PC world it's normal to mess with the OS and the hardware. And it's normal to find this a pain in the ass after a while.

Apple have locked the platform. With great power comes great responsibility, which means smoothing over the issues with different telcos to look after the customers who are inside a walled garden.

A space in which you can focus on your task without unnecessary worries. Isn't that what the Apple experience is all about?

[123]

Apple have locked the platform. With great power comes great responsibility, which means smoothing over the issues with different telcos to look after the customers who are inside a walled garden.


Apple didn't try to understand the European market last year and I guess they're as ignorant as ever. Excellent idea though.

[tomjleeds]

You just explained why it's a 3G thing. They run it up faster because they can download more in the same amount of time.

Well...yeah...but why is that news? It really is 100% common sense.

[wanchaiman]

A week's roaming in China with my Blackberry getting about 10 - 20 emails a day cost me US$5....

So roaming is not always expensive!

This is one of the reasons why I am so hesitant to change to the iPhone.

[TonyHoyle]

For me, i think apple should make operators that provide the iphone to negotiate roaming charges between themselves and provide it at a reduced rate if not free whilst abroad. In return the operator will get a travelling customer that makes calls off their network and the iphone continues to be a product that differs from the rest.


O2 does have reduced roaming charges for the iphone - so maybe they did. You can also buy a roaming data bundle.

The price of voice roaming within the EU is capped by law now (they were originally talking of abolishing roaming charges altogether but backed down, alas) - unfortunately they didn't extend it to data.. otherwise we wouldn't need this discussion.

[Mixalis]

Let's face it, data roaming charges are a rip-off. But we also have to acknowledge that O2's £3 a megabyte in Europe is actually quite cheap! On my current (non-O2) contract, I think I'm paying £7 a megabyte if I'm stupid enough to leave it switched on when abroad. Since I'm based in two European countries it has always paid me to have a contract in both countries. The difference with the iPhone is that I'm now forced to have two phones. Up to now I've simply switched SIM cards at the airport.

[jabbawok]

Amazing news. Porsche 911 turbo drivers find it easier to get speeding tickets. Fortunately Porsche fitted a pedal to allow you to slow down..
But seriously.. Data is overpriced, particularly roaming.

[netdog]

Turn data off when you roam. I always carry an unlocked phone along as well and pop in a local sim. Soon that spare will be my Gen 1 iPhone.

[WestonHarvey1]

From some of these comments, you'd think these people are actually on the phone company's side. Regardless of what a "stupid moron" someone may be for data roaming, can you at least acknowledge those rates demonstrate horrible customer service at a minimum, absolute psychotic near-criminal insanity at max?

I suppose you would all be just fine with the roaming charge to be $1,000,000 a megabyte, and force these "idiots" into bankruptcy or prison as some sort of punishment for their "stupidity".

Grow up.