Shrygue
December 2nd, 2008, 20:41
via Gizmodo US (http://gizmodo.com/5100952/t+mobile-g1-net-access-cant-be-turned-off-results-in-huge-roaming-costs)
According to our tipster, taking your G1 abroad may not be financially wise. Apparently, his data roaming bill rang up at $102.85—even though data roaming, data sync and 3G were turned off.
How could this happen you ask? Well, after returning home from the UK, he called T-Mobile customer service to discuss his bill. After a lengthy series of conversations, a supervisor revealed that the G1 always accesses the internet whether you are sending text messages or calls—even when the data roaming features are off. In the end, his advice was that "the phone should have been left in the USA to avoid these charges."
Naturally, there was no mention of this when he made his initial call to T-Mobile before his trip to get international calling and text added. All they said was data roaming would be charged at $10 per MB and that if he did not access the internet everything would be fine. As it turns out, he was charged approx $.15 every 3-7 minutes on average—but not all of it was from calls and texts. In his words, it was "almost as if the phone is pinging."
In a situation like this I am compelled to ask whether or not any of you have experienced similar issues with the G1. Could it really be accessing the internet this much?
According to our tipster, taking your G1 abroad may not be financially wise. Apparently, his data roaming bill rang up at $102.85—even though data roaming, data sync and 3G were turned off.
How could this happen you ask? Well, after returning home from the UK, he called T-Mobile customer service to discuss his bill. After a lengthy series of conversations, a supervisor revealed that the G1 always accesses the internet whether you are sending text messages or calls—even when the data roaming features are off. In the end, his advice was that "the phone should have been left in the USA to avoid these charges."
Naturally, there was no mention of this when he made his initial call to T-Mobile before his trip to get international calling and text added. All they said was data roaming would be charged at $10 per MB and that if he did not access the internet everything would be fine. As it turns out, he was charged approx $.15 every 3-7 minutes on average—but not all of it was from calls and texts. In his words, it was "almost as if the phone is pinging."
In a situation like this I am compelled to ask whether or not any of you have experienced similar issues with the G1. Could it really be accessing the internet this much?