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$4,800 iPhone bill
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OKay, now I'm going to totally make something up, and this could be completely wrong... But doesn't the phone download only headers when it checks email, or does it indeed download the entire email?? Because every time I click on an email, it takes a minute for it to contact the server and show it, even a simple email. So receiving big attachments wouldn't even matter if you were smart enough to not open them. But then again, why should someone have to know that? Nobody should ever be forced to be sensible on their own. It is up to the corporations to protect them.
I am going to London for a month in October, so hopefully things will be worked out by then. I certainly don't plan on doing ANYTHING with my phone other than answering a needed call and checking voicemail. Hopefully my company will reimburse those costs! I will not be reading email (that's what laptops are for), texting, checking weather (really do you NEED To check weather multiple times day?), and certainly not surfing the web!!
I doubt there are million and millions of idiots who travel abroad and are unaware of roaming and or data charges. Take personal responsibility.
You are really enamored with Steve and apple, aren't you? And that Apple has thought through everything in this first release.. Come on, there is always room for improment especially when such feedback comes from field experience. And it is free feedback.
No, not at all, I'm a realist who doesn't like whiners, and people who call developers stupid when every little thing they want is not incorporated into a piece of electronics.
My Story
I got the iPhone the weekend it came out and quickly fell in love. I knew I was going to Europe for 20 days in late August and called ATT regarding what plans were available. The Reps are not well trained on the international stuff. I was offered the .99 cents per minute (vs. 1.29) option for $5 per month. No mention regarding data was made and I did ask about data plans and phone usage. I was misinformed as the rep simply stated there were no data plans and the phone should work like here in the US.
Go to Europe and was amazed at how well the iPhone worked on voice, data, email. Used it frequently. Coming off Nextel (a 1998 i2000 and in 2006 an i930). The i2000 delivered as promised but the i930 s*cked. Needless to say, the iPhone blows both away. And from my Nextel experience, ATT was a better service.
Upon returning from a vacation in Europe and moving right onto a business trip out west, I thought all was well until ATT shut off my phone. I had to use an associate's cell phone to determine that I was now a high-risk new ATT customer because my bill had exceeded $3000. First thing was to get my phone working. In fairness to ATT, my prior bill for $149 was a day past due and in conjunction with my impending $3K bill, they shut down the phone to get my attention. They could have called though. I did get an SMS message but only after I reactivated my phone. All in all, 12 hours of downtime during a business trip that could have been avoided. Moral #1 - ATT, you have my phone number...if there is an issue...call me.
Upon returning from the business trip I went to task with ATT and I am happy with the overall support I have gotten from them. They have agreed to retroactively apply their meager international $25/20MB plan toward my 140MB used while roaming. The most important aspect is the reduction of the overage rate from .0195 cent per KB to .005 cent per KB. My remaining bill will be under $700 for data that I still have issue with. Had I been properly informed as to the data rates when I called ATT, I would have curbed my use of the Edge network. I am wiser now and won't make that mistake again.
But there are serious issues at hand here. One, not only is the ATT site poorly structured to inform potential users of international charges, their international support staff (whom I had to wait to be transfered to) are not adequately trained themselves. In dealing with this issue just last week, a support person I was dealing with thought the international iPhone data plan was just a few weeks old. Misinformation is part of the problem here.
Also ATT needs to offer a data rate plan that offers unlimited access as they do for other products. In the mean time, I will be paying ATT about $300 per year (25/mo) for 20MB of data per month that I may or may not use. So the most ideal international trips would best be planned over the end of one month and the beginning of the next month. I do not believe you can roll-over unused data like you can cell minutes. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
So I have done some unofficial testing this weekend. As for 20MB, in just two days of checking email, I burned through 2.6MB in downloads (about 100 emails). Of course there is a ton of junk. In the course of two weeks, 20MB goes quickly. Also, the 20MB and the discounted per KB rate of .005 only work in the 29 countries listed. So much for staying in touch while in Russia.
Like others I would like to see an Edge on/off switch. In selecting one of four major buttons at the bottom of the phone Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod, I can't tell you how many times I accidentally selected Mail or Safari. And once you press that button, downloading of emails or loading of a web page begins (Data$$$$). And even if you then leave that page, the process continues. If you haven't checked email for several days because of lack of access or for the sake of saving money, one accidental push can change all that. An Edge on off switch is about the only thing I can think of that would stave off that.
Alternately, I would love to be able to download only the first few KB of an email. I had this feature on my i930 (although only here in the states) and actually thought that is what I was doing when setting my email preview to 5 lines. NOPE...the entire email gets downloaded and boy that can build up to multiple MB quickly. On my recent trip, a simple email check loaded 12179KB for a whopping $237 most of which were viagra and mortgage ads.
Since this experience, I have educated myself on the advice of others scouring the internet for like experiences and solutions. Limiting email checking to free wifi-hot spots will help providing you can turn off Edge as it sometimes kicks in mid-download (or so reported). I will reset my usage counter and keep track of it. I will seriously try and not hit the Mail or Safari button. I will not check on weather and stocks (don't do YouTube anyway). And if I am facing an excess of remaining MB from my 20MB at the end of a month while abroad, I will download porn.
I got the iPhone the weekend it came out and quickly fell in love. I knew I was going to Europe for 20 days in late August and called ATT regarding what plans were available. The Reps are not well trained on the international stuff. I was offered the .99 cents per minute (vs. 1.29) option for $5 per month. No mention regarding data was made and I did ask about data plans and phone usage. I was misinformed as the rep simply stated there were no data plans and the phone should work like here in the US.
Go to Europe and was amazed at how well the iPhone worked on voice, data, email. Used it frequently. Coming off Nextel (a 1998 i2000 and in 2006 an i930). The i2000 delivered as promised but the i930 s*cked. Needless to say, the iPhone blows both away. And from my Nextel experience, ATT was a better service.
Upon returning from a vacation in Europe and moving right onto a business trip out west, I thought all was well until ATT shut off my phone. I had to use an associate's cell phone to determine that I was now a high-risk new ATT customer because my bill had exceeded $3000. First thing was to get my phone working. In fairness to ATT, my prior bill for $149 was a day past due and in conjunction with my impending $3K bill, they shut down the phone to get my attention. They could have called though. I did get an SMS message but only after I reactivated my phone. All in all, 12 hours of downtime during a business trip that could have been avoided. Moral #1 - ATT, you have my phone number...if there is an issue...call me.
Upon returning from the business trip I went to task with ATT and I am happy with the overall support I have gotten from them. They have agreed to retroactively apply their meager international $25/20MB plan toward my 140MB used while roaming. The most important aspect is the reduction of the overage rate from .0195 cent per KB to .005 cent per KB. My remaining bill will be under $700 for data that I still have issue with. Had I been properly informed as to the data rates when I called ATT, I would have curbed my use of the Edge network. I am wiser now and won't make that mistake again.
But there are serious issues at hand here. One, not only is the ATT site poorly structured to inform potential users of international charges, their international support staff (whom I had to wait to be transfered to) are not adequately trained themselves. In dealing with this issue just last week, a support person I was dealing with thought the international iPhone data plan was just a few weeks old. Misinformation is part of the problem here.
Also ATT needs to offer a data rate plan that offers unlimited access as they do for other products. In the mean time, I will be paying ATT about $300 per year (25/mo) for 20MB of data per month that I may or may not use. So the most ideal international trips would best be planned over the end of one month and the beginning of the next month. I do not believe you can roll-over unused data like you can cell minutes. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
So I have done some unofficial testing this weekend. As for 20MB, in just two days of checking email, I burned through 2.6MB in downloads (about 100 emails). Of course there is a ton of junk. In the course of two weeks, 20MB goes quickly. Also, the 20MB and the discounted per KB rate of .005 only work in the 29 countries listed. So much for staying in touch while in Russia.
Like others I would like to see an Edge on/off switch. In selecting one of four major buttons at the bottom of the phone Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod, I can't tell you how many times I accidentally selected Mail or Safari. And once you press that button, downloading of emails or loading of a web page begins (Data$$$$). And even if you then leave that page, the process continues. If you haven't checked email for several days because of lack of access or for the sake of saving money, one accidental push can change all that. An Edge on off switch is about the only thing I can think of that would stave off that.
Alternately, I would love to be able to download only the first few KB of an email. I had this feature on my i930 (although only here in the states) and actually thought that is what I was doing when setting my email preview to 5 lines. NOPE...the entire email gets downloaded and boy that can build up to multiple MB quickly. On my recent trip, a simple email check loaded 12179KB for a whopping $237 most of which were viagra and mortgage ads.
Since this experience, I have educated myself on the advice of others scouring the internet for like experiences and solutions. Limiting email checking to free wifi-hot spots will help providing you can turn off Edge as it sometimes kicks in mid-download (or so reported). I will reset my usage counter and keep track of it. I will seriously try and not hit the Mail or Safari button. I will not check on weather and stocks (don't do YouTube anyway). And if I am facing an excess of remaining MB from my 20MB at the end of a month while abroad, I will download porn.
I would think its common sense to turn off your cell phone when youre not in the states... Especially an iPhone with so much fumctionality based around data
WTF!! Are you serious? I hope not. Anyway, the easiest way to disable data is to remove (or incorrectly enter) the EDGE settings in the iPhone.
That is certainly not why I got the iPhone. It is an exceptional international device and I travel six times/year outside the US. I rely on my phone to stay in touch with my family and office. I limit the amount of time I spend on the phone but iPhone without an Edge switch is a problem.
Geez, why then bother to take it. Just take your Nano for music and pix. Oh....you don't have one? Sorry.
Seems the 1.1.1 iPhone update will allow one to turn off EDGE Roaming as seen in this pic on Engadget:
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There should definitely be an option to turn off the data-accessing aspect of the iPhone (such as email checking) but allow phone calls.
I plan on taking my iPhone outside of the UK and seriously do not want something like this to happen.
Ah well there you go. ( just read the post above )
I plan on taking my iPhone outside of the UK and seriously do not want something like this to happen.
Ah well there you go.
( just read the post above )Now, how will this work? If you turn off edge and don't luck into finding a free public WiFi net, what can you do with the phone? Does turning off edge only turn off data functions but leaves cell phone in operation? Otherwise, you would turn on edge only when you want to make a call, so it would be practical only for outgoing calls? Not sure how this solves the problems of incurring unwanted expensive roaming for data exchanges.
BB
BB
When you leave the AT&T network- the data stops working. You can use the iPhone as a phone, you can sends and receive SMS messages, and the iPod features. If you want to roam, you can - but you have the choice.
Just a quick update on my dispute with AT&T over intl data roaming charges. AT&T acknowledged that this was a serious problem for both them and Apple, and gave me a full credit for all my intl data roaming in July and the first week of August (which was a little less than $1000). The customer satisfaction agent said that the two companies were both surprised when these bills started poping up after the first month and that they are actively working on a long term solution, such as is available for the Blackberry with unlimited intl data for $70/month. The agent said that AT&T and Apple were working with companies around the world to put this type of plan in place for the iphone, and they appologized for the misleading ads that said "all rate plans include unlimited data".
I hope that with the new software release (1.1.1) we will be able to turn EDGE off, as that would be the best solution of all. Currently I'm sitting in my office in Shenzhen, China with my iphone in "Airplane" mode, but it would be nice to know if someone back home really needed to get in touch with me they could just dial my US mobile number.
Except for this intl data roaming issue I have been very happy with my AT&T service, and I definately will keep my business with them.
I hope that with the new software release (1.1.1) we will be able to turn EDGE off, as that would be the best solution of all. Currently I'm sitting in my office in Shenzhen, China with my iphone in "Airplane" mode, but it would be nice to know if someone back home really needed to get in touch with me they could just dial my US mobile number.
Except for this intl data roaming issue I have been very happy with my AT&T service, and I definately will keep my business with them.
I don't think this is necessarily what it means - at the UK iPhone launch the O2 boss referred to "roaming" as going from wifi onto EDGE, so turning EDGE roaming off may well completely disable EDGE and only let you use wifi. We'll have to wait until the update arrives to see.