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

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.
 
newyorksole said:
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.
Click to expand...

Maybe research these things next time.
Or, you know, READ the contract that you signed.
 
JBaker122586 said:
Maybe research these things next time.
Or, you know, READ the contract that you signed.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Cherimoya said:
Anyway the BBC iPlayer doesn't work outside the UK does it ? So that's a really crappy example
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
DisneyEcho said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
iphone roaming charges

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.
 
sadsack said:
MMS goes over the internet even when abroad and therefore cheaper.
Click to expand...

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
 
superleccy said:
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
Click to expand...

sorry my assumptions and mistake. That kind of throws my theory out of the window.
 
superleccy said:
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
Click to expand...

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

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

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.
 
sadsack said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Insane

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.
 
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