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Did I get charged for WiFi? 5.3MB = $80? RIDICULOUS!

mrat93

mrat93

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 30, 2006
2,340
3,383
Early last month I took a vacation to Canada. I used EDGE ONLY once to check MySpace because I actually needed to. Somehow, I was charged a little over $80 for one use of EDGE. I checked MySpace on Tuesday. There is NO way I used EDGE this much on vacation.
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mrat93 said:
Early last month I took a vacation to Canada. I used EDGE ONLY once to check MySpace because I had to. Somehow, I was charged a little over $80 for one use of EDGE. I checked MySpace on Tuesday. <IMAGE>
Click to expand...

It looks like you got charged for using EDGE while you were roaming in Canada. Wi-fi connections shouldn't even show up on your bill as far as I know.

I can't believe how expensive that is though...5.3Megs cost you $80.00!!! :(
 
Do anything other than web browse?

Yes, roaming data transfer is ridiculously expensive.

Did you do *ANYTHING* other than that one web browsing incident?

Was your phone checking your email every half hour, hour, etc?

Did you ever use the weather, map, or stock widgets?

YouTube?

All of those use data. It sounds like you may have left email checking turned on. (Also note that every time you go into your email box, it checks your email, even if you have it set to 'manually check'.)

Based on the few KB of data every hour, I'm guessing it was checking your email. But, the big one is the $60 for 4 MB on 7/9 at about 11:00 AM. Either you got a very large email, or else that's your MySpace visit. Does the MySpace page you went to have a lot of pictures, or any video or audio you loaded?

I wish there was a way to turn of EDGE without turning off the phone, for just such international traveling situations. But there doesn't appear to be.
 
ehurtley said:
Yes, roaming data transfer is ridiculously expensive.

Did you do *ANYTHING* other than that one web browsing incident?

Was your phone checking your email every half hour, hour, etc?

Did you ever use the weather, map, or stock widgets?

YouTube?

All of those use data. It sounds like you may have left email checking turned on. (Also note that every time you go into your email box, it checks your email, even if you have it set to 'manually check'.)

I wish there was a way to turn of EDGE without turning off the phone, for just such international traveling situations. But there doesn't appear to be.
Click to expand...

Question 1: Yes, sent a 214kb email one day.
Question 2: I manually check for email, only in WiFi.
Question 3: Weather, Maps & Stocks, all in WiFi
Question 4: YouTube only in WiFi.


EDIT: Also, all I checked in MySpace were my Bulletins. And in case anybody's wondering why I had to check MySpace, my friend called me to tell me that someone (known to be incredibly stupid and knew I had the iPhone) posted a bulletin saying "Mike's not home and neither is his family, so we're throwin a pool party at his house. Call me." I had to see it to believe it.
 
Rooskibar03 said:
Doesn't Visual Voice use EDGE to check and download messages?
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For some reason, for the whole trip, when I checked for Voicemail, it said "Visual Voicemail is unavailable right now." So it wasn't that.
 
This is pretty scary. This is why I want to be able to disable EDGE and not WiFi. Example: Planning a trip to Mexico next week and I want to check email while on WiFi but not on Edge. However, if I turn on my phone it will try to check EDGE first before I have a chance to make sure WiFi is on. My plan is to disable my EMAIL Account and then maybe enable only if I am sure I am on WiFi. But this is pretty crazy. I should be able to disable EDGE.

Anybody else have a sure fire way to handle this?
 
d21mike said:
This is pretty scary. This is why I want to be able to disable EDGE and not WiFi. Example: Planning a trip to Mexico next week and I want to check email while on WiFi but not on Edge. However, if I turn on my phone it will try to check EDGE first before I have a chance to make sure WiFi is on. My plan is to disable my EMAIL Account and then maybe enable only if I am sure I am on WiFi. But this is pretty crazy. I should be able to disable EDGE.

Anybody else have a sure fire way to handle this?
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Remove the SIM card. Everything else should still work. You obviously won't be able to make calls, though.

The iPhone SCREAMS for VOIP!

-steve
 
I think actually, it isn't even just a ripoff of roaming by your service carrier... EDGE in Canada is expensive even to Canadians. It's a prime reason speculated for the delay in iPhone availability to our beloved Canucks. See here.
 
sorry man but the big issue that was announce even before the phone was out was that you needed to buy a data plan for it. your phone is constantly sending out and receiving data while its on. Thats how the widgets work.

your best bet is to call att and ask for a courtesy. and next time don't bring your phone to canada or turn it off.
 
Looks like you got charged $0.015 per KB for data in Canada, which seems about right for what Blackberry and Smartphone users are charged.

Here is a clip found in the iPhone Agreement about Int. Roaming:

-International Roaming: Substantial charges may be incurred if phone is taken out of the U.S. even if no services are intentionally used.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/iphone-terms.jsp

Looks like a data plan is offered for $25 a month that allows 20MB data transfer, with $0.005 per KB overage.

International roaming is expensive since your provider gets charged whatever the other countries provider wants to (in this case, it was probably Rogers).

Live and Learn.
 
Holy bajebus!

Well now I know not to use EDGE when I head to Montreal next month.

Man that really sucks. I suppose it is also in the fine print somewhere and getting AT&T to reverse them would be next to impossible.
 
sJv said:
Remove the SIM card. Everything else should still work. You obviously won't be able to make calls, though.

The iPhone SCREAMS for VOIP!

-steve
Click to expand...

Thanks. Ex-Verizon customer so no SIM Card before. Just removed it and my Wifi worked great for all applicatoins and actually seemed faster. However, after re-inserting the SIM Card Wifi does seem to be the same speed (maybe just excited everything was still working).

And you are right, VOIP would be great. But at least I can do SMS and EMAIL while in WiFi. I can also use IM if needed (MSN IM works in my browser) but not that well.
 
slick316 said:
Looks like you got charged $0.015 per KB for data in Canada, which seems about right for what Blackberry and Smartphone users are charged.

Here is a clip found in the iPhone Agreement about Int. Roaming:

-International Roaming: Substantial charges may be incurred if phone is taken out of the U.S. even if no services are intentionally used.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/iphone-terms.jsp

Looks like a data plan is offered for $25 a month that allows 20MB data transfer, with $0.005 per KB overage.

International roaming is expensive since your provider gets charged whatever the other countries provider wants to (in this case, it was probably Rogers).

Live and Learn.
Click to expand...


I live in Chicago and last week I took a trip to Galena, IL where ATT service was spotty. I was able to make some calls and noticed when I came back home that those calls took a few days to appear online in my call log. I was told by ATT that the reason was because those calls took place outside my local calling area. I wasnt charged extra for those, they just came out of my minutes pool. My question, I also used EDGE for email and surfing the net (when I was able to get a signal in Galena). Im assuming that I would not be charged anything extra for EDGE also. Is that correct?
 
Angelo921 said:
I live in Chicago and last week I took a trip to Galena, IL where ATT service was spotty. I was able to make some calls and noticed when I came back home that those calls took a few days to appear online in my call log. I was told by ATT that the reason was because those calls took place outside my local calling area. I wasnt charged extra for those, they just came out of my minutes pool. My question, I also used EDGE for email and surfing the net (when I was able to get a signal in Galena). Im assuming that I would not be charged anything extra for EDGE also. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Different ball of wax entirely. You don't pay for voice or data roaming in US, but international is a much different story.
 
synth3tik said:
Holy bajebus!

Well now I know not to use EDGE when I head to Montreal next month.

Man that really sucks. I suppose it is also in the fine print somewhere and getting AT&T to reverse them would be next to impossible.
Click to expand...

As the OP found out, "Don't use EDGE" is not the solution. "Don't turn the phone on" is the solution. The iPhone transfers data on a regular basis, even if you have all 'regular checking' turned off. The only way to guarantee that the iPhone doesn't transfer data over EDGE is to have it off, the SIM removed, or in airplane mode. Obviously, you can't send or receive even phone calls in any case. There is no way to allow phone calls while having EDGE off.

So when you go to Montreal, play it safe and don't have the iPhone ever in a situation where it is connected to the cellular network.
 
I've checked by data usage online at wireless.att.com - there have been multiple instances of multi-MB transfers at times like 1am. I was definitely sleeping at those times, so it's something the phone does on its own. No idea what for, though.

So yeah, taking an iPhone out of the country seems to be a bad idea, even if all you do is keep it in your suitcase and never use it.

I guess Apple needs to implement a "Phone Calls Only" or "No EDGE" mode in addition to Airplane mode. Or, ATT stop charging for international data usage when you have the iPhone plan. (Yeah right, like that'll ever happen. :) )
 
elistan said:
I guess Apple needs to implement a "Phone Calls Only" or "No EDGE" mode in addition to Airplane mode.
Click to expand...
I've been thinking the same thing for a while. I'm a bit scared to take my iPhone abroad after reading stuff like this.
 
Agree with the post a few above this. The only way to not run up a huge bill, is to turn off your e-mail account, and leave the phone in airplane mode until you want to make a phone call or send a text message.

That's exactly what I did on a recent trip to the UK for a week. I used the phone at MIA, but once in the air, put the phone in airplane mode and left it like that. We made one phone call, and sent 5 text messages from the UK.

My data usage is .1 mb and I'm still waiting for my bill to see how much that will be. I already called and asked, they can't tell me until the bill is cut, but the girl said it will probably be $5.

It's really too bad the data usage rates are so high, and there's no wi-fi only option yet. I've already written Apple asking for it. People are going to stop using the phone overseas because of the huge bills.
 
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