Comments on: BEWARE: Mobile Data Roaming = $10k/hr!

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:08:53 +0000

One thing you can do to guarantee that you will not inadvertently use up and data while traveling is to remove the SIM card from your phone entirely.

Just make sure that you don’t lose it!

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:06:59 +0000

I love roll over minutes…. I just wish this also applied to text messages.

Ah well.

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:22:20 +0000

That sucks.. but at least your phone carrier is quite upfront about how many minutes you’ve purchased, and they give you ways to check them fairly easily. That’s is one thing I do appreciate about AT&T and their roll-over minutes. At present time, I have about 4000 minutes banked up (we hardly ever talk on the phone). It’s nice to know that if something came up and we needed to use our phones a lot – we have the stored up minutes to not worry about it.

I wish we could send you some of our roll-over minutes to cover your overage charges!

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:18:48 +0000

Adolfo – I had the same thing happen while in the Yosemite area last summer. I was just surfing away on my iPhone, and got the dreaded text message. They also switched my network indicator to show when off-network. I’ve been horrified now to know just how often AT&T is not the carrier, and how often I really don’t have unlimited data.

It’s quite devious of them to not be transparent with just how small their network is by defaulting to always showing ‘AT&T’ as the network you’re on – when you’re really not.

By: Adolfo Isassi

Adolfo Isassi — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:13:06 +0000

Another thing that I unpleasantly discovered while camping in Big Bend, is that AT&T advertises “unlimited domestic data” but id not quite true…

While in Terlingua TX, I received a text message form AT&T stating that I have exhausted my 24MB monthly allowance for “Off Network” data usage. (?? WTF??) “Off Network?” All this time, my iPhone displayed that I was -in- and AT&T network. I have traveled to places where I can see that I have entered another carrier’s area…this was not the case.

Well, long story short, after calls, emails and texts with At&T, it turns out that At&T uses other carrier’s towers to extent their already small network. When this happens you are “off network”. To “help me” know when I am “off network” AT&T updated my iPhone over the air (yikes!) with an “Off Network” status label.

All this crap would be somewhat fine if AT&T would let iPhone users -up front- about this…AT&T promotes the iPhone as with “unlimited data usage” for $30/mo

to find more about this just google:

“Excessive Domestic Off-Network Data Usage”
.-= Adolfo Isassi´s last blog ..2010-03-11, a date which will live in infamy… =-.

By: Mark Tisdale

Mark Tisdale — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:00:11 +0000

I’m so paranoid about this happening that I not only turn off data roaming, I turn off location services, push notifications, pretty much anything I could possibly use data for. Actually most of the time when I’m traveling my iPhone is essentially a touch, I put it on airplane mode and turn the wifi back on. It’s nice to have in a pinch, and I have made calls abroad, but luckily I don’t need to be reached faster than email most of the time.

There should really be a way to put a cap on roaming data or something to keep people blowing $10k on net surfing!
.-= Mark Tisdale´s last blog ..New York Skyline =-.

By: Tresna

Tresna — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:02:08 +0000

Crikey! Just reading about having a $10,000 bill sends me in to a panic!

By: Rasheed Hooda

Rasheed Hooda — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:47:04 +0000

I remember, years ago when we had SWB(now AT&T)as our home phone carrier, and we had a $300 limit on our long distance calls. Imagine our surprise, when we got a phone bill for $2,000+ when my wife made a few emergency calls to Pakistan. We simply refused to pay it. We had put a limit there for a reason. They disconnected our phone line, and we went mobile. I will never do business with AT&T. .-= Rasheed Hooda´s last blog ..Meet Brooke Ferguson, The Business Backpacker =-.

By: GotPassport

GotPassport — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:34:33 +0000

wow that's amazing story and a lot of money for a phone bill. Good tips. thanks for sharing! We recently made the mistake of my husband calling me on his cell phone while I was in Thailand using a phone card. We just forgot that we only had 700 minutes per month. We were charge .45/ minute for 150 minutes that went over. Ouch! .-= GotPassport´s last blog ..Why Chiang Mai Is Our Home! =-.