Have you ever traveled out of the country just to come back home and get smacked upside the head by your AT&T cellular bill? Well one of our faithful readers, Mike, has a very unusual situation… he asked us to share his story with you in hopes of preventing this happening to any other readers.
Mike recently added a International Data Roaming Plan before a trip out of the country. It seemed like all was covered… until he got home and received his latest bill. Here is Mike’s story, in his own words:
I was informed by an AT&T service rep that AT&T had charged me the exorbitant per KB rate for international data useage because I had cancelled my International Data Roaming plan after I returned to the United States. The plan is available on a month-to-month basis, so cancelling it when I got home seemed like an obvious thing for me to have done, since I have no plans to go overseas again in the foreseeable future. But the service rep said that AT&T’s policy (unwritten, so far as I can tell) is that one needs to leave the roaming plan in place for 90 extra days, so that it is still in place when the foreign carrier finally reports the subscriber’s roaming back to AT&T. If the plan is not in place when the foreign data useage gets reported to AT&T, then AT&T’s billing system is incapable of recognizing that I had an international data roaming plan in place on the dates that the foreign carrier says I used its data connection.
Ouch, I could imagine this bill would have really hurt. Luckily for Mike, he spoke with a “very nice” AT&T rep and she credited his account for the appropriate amount. Mike is not alone either, for similar stories be sure to check out this thread in AT&T’s official forums.
And for more information regarding International plans be sure to check out the plans available here. Mike and all of us here at TiPb really want you to be aware of AT&T’s policy. So before you leave the country, if you have any questions be sure to call and ask a service rep! It may just save you a pretty penny… or two…
Thanks for the tip Mike!
It’s been a month since the iPhone 3G launched, and unlike the US and a few other countries, not every country — or every user — got unlimited data with their shiny new wonder toy. Some, like Canada and Sweden gave eleventh hour reprieves, but others remain bass akwards and incredibly stingy/gouging with their data rates to this day.
But regardless of your cap (or even if you have no cap), how much data are you using?
We already told you how to find your iPhone’s usage meter (even if Auntie TUAW rightly points out that it’s rough at best), and you can presumably check your bill for more exact numbers.
Me? Turns out VERY little. I’ve even turned off WiFi (which I have pretty much everywhere from home to work to friends’ houses) for long stretches, and I’ve still only managed to pull about 150MB, far short of the 6GB I really want to hit Rogers with. Then again, I haven’t watched almost any YouTube via 3G, or slammed on the streaming internet radio, so I guess I only really have myself to blame…
How about you? What’s your usage number? Is it more or less than you expected? And if you’re in one of the “countries of dread”, how worried are you about overage charges on that first bill?
The iPhone 3G is a data monster. With speeds of 400, 600 or more than 1400kps reported in some areas, it sucks down information faster than El Jobso does veggie smoothies. Unfortunately, not every carrier in every country provides unlimited data plans to go with Apple’s next generation revolutionary internet device, or even reasonable data. And even those that do typically have a “soft cap” (e.g. 5GB) after which they either throttle down your speed, or put a black mark in your record as a problem customer and eventually give you the boot.
If you’re in one of the Scandinavian countries, in Mexico, Belgium, or any other Pacific or European, Latin or African country with very expensive data, or if you just want to keep track of how much you’re using and when, Apple has provided you and easy way to do it. Read on to find out how!
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