What's the worst thing that can happen when you take an iPhone on AT&T roaming to Europe? read here: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/31/att_iphone_intl_roam.html

boy what a bummer. AT&T really dropped the ball on that one. i'm reminded of my own P24,000 (that's eventually what i paid) GPRS horror story, but $3,000 is no laughing matter.

Yikes! What a huge price to pay, literally, for benefiting from the iPhone's fantastic features. But good thing AT&T waived the fee. That is actually very cool of them.

yeah, that bill could buy you a brand new Mac Pro already. :)

hmm, i think AT&T just chopped $400 off the $3000 charge.

Yikes! What a huge price to pay, literally, for benefiting from the iPhone's fantastic features. But good thing AT&T waived the fee. That is actually very cool of them.

Actually there is an update at the top of the page, Sir Butch.

'UPDATE, 12:18PM PT: Dave says, "AT&T just called and agreed to waive all charges due to the 'miscommunication.' I think they have a customer for life now."'

Happy ending! :)

I don't see a reason how a web developer does not have an idea or at least an approximate how many KB a webpage has, considering that he signed for a plan which will charge him on a per kb basis.

It's like using that Globe P0.15/kb charge when using your phone as a modem. You do some surfing galore only to find out that reading just one e-mail will cost you P20 already. Good thing that happened in the States and not here.

$3000 may have been a "miscommunication" but if the bill was anything like $1000, then that's more due to his ignorance rather than AT&T's fault.

I don't think he's saying he does not know how many KB a website has. He was probably just saying that he deals with so many of them in varying sizes that he just takes them all for granted and just assumes that he deals with a whole lot of KBs, which should qualify him for an unlimited usage plan.

At least that's what I get.

"I couldn't even tell you how many KB the average web page is, no less a text message to my son, an e-mail with a photo to my mother, or a quick check of Google Maps."

In this context, he just means "I deal with a whole lot of KBs." Besides, he makes sense to me, and apparently he made sense to AT&T as well, since they waived the whole $3000.

i had a GPRS horror story too, with globe, but with a happy ending.

i racked up around P10,000 in data charges as i kept the YM on my phone online for a week. i called up the platinum hotline and explained that their charging scheme was unclear, hence my 'mistake'. in the end, they agreed to waive the charges for my first offense :)

Good thing AT&T waived off the $3k! That's pretty decent customer service. :) Hannibal's right, 3k is enough for a Mac Pro already... or a couple more iPhones for other family members :p

i partly agree with aragorn on this one.

but then again, its easy to get carried away browsing even while roaming, which results in these scenarios. for instance, i was in hong kong for a weekend and had to do some email over 3G for some work, using my macbook. that session cost 24K! good thing it was work related.

note that some carriers can offer that type of plan for blackberry because the risk to them is more contained, ie, blackberry uses a specific APN and very few people know that you can actually use it as a modem for internet access. thus, the kb counts are lower.

with regular internet access, any sort of unlimited roaming plan would be a huge loss for the carrier given that roaming charges are levied by the visited network and the home network gets only a very small amount (usually from 5% to 20%) of the charges only.

it is unfortunate at this point that GSM roaming agreements are setup such that it is extremely difficult to lower roaming rates for the customer.

it is unfortunate at this point that GSM roaming agreements are setup such that it is extremely difficult to lower roaming rates for the customer.

I simply buy a local prepaid SIM whenever I go to another country. No roaming charges, local rates. Sometimes I bring my philippine SIM to receive messages but I don't use it for texting back.

In Malaysia, most telcos (Maxxis, Digi) have a cap on data charges for ALL users.

Consumers have a choice of subscribing to an unlimited data package costing around P1,500/month. or a pay per use plan that has a maximum cap of P2,000/month. Any use above the cap in a month is effectively free.

This is more sensible because more subscribers are willing to try out the data services. After all, if they've made the investment in 3G cellsites, they need to encourage their consumers to use it. Another benefit is that it is easier to manage credit risk for post paid account. Customers are going to contest unexpected data charges above P10,000/month and the company is going to have a lot of writedowns.

I've used this data service while in Malaysia, the charges are really cheap, and I don't have to worry about a ridiculously high data rate charge.

"I simply buy a local prepaid SIM whenever I go to another country. No roaming charges, local rates. Sometimes I bring my philippine SIM to receive messages but I don't use it for texting back."

That's why it's riduculous that international travellers use the iPhone which is sim-locked to AT&T. No option to buy a local SIM.

AT&T was very generous in refunding the charges, especially since it was entirely the users fault for not knowing that per KB charges will always result in huge bills. I'm pretty appalled that a "web developer" would not consider bandwidth at all while designing sites.

that's right, and that's why i'm really hoping the hackers find a way around the SIM problem; they've already done it in a few countries, i think, so it's only a matter of time.

no fair for such a nice phone to be locked to one service ;)

"I simply buy a local prepaid SIM whenever I go to another country. No roaming charges, local rates. Sometimes I bring my philippine SIM to receive messages but I don't use it for texting back."

That's why it's riduculous that international travellers use the iPhone which is sim-locked to AT&T. No option to buy a local SIM.

Personal experience but not exactly iPhone roaming.....

I used to remember when my AT&T account supposedly had a nationwide coverage across US but was surprised when I got my bill and charged with long distance calls amounting to $500. After complaining over AT&T customer service and explaining my side, all of my long distance charges were reversed and corrected my voice plan immediately. :rolleyes:

'was able to use my K800i to surf yesterday, now my heart starts beating fast reading this thread.

Well,

I am writing from Japan after coming back from North America with a 3340.00 bill.....I fought this morning for five hours and yesterday for another 3 hours and was faced with th comment you signed the contract...they got nervous from the head office with a fight using the media/tv and pressure from other foreigners here........After the battle this morning, I received a call this morning...510.00 of telephone charges will be paid by me the remainder...2820.00 will be cut in half and I only have to pay 1400.00...so a fairly good result.......it was a good lesson in a iphone lesson........I also taught the office about what is running on UTUBE on what to do to make sure no charges wll be done while you are sleeping or being over seas................so the total damage is actually only 1400.00...guess a few less sushi and a trip to thai in spring not christmas.................

Paul

Wow... Now I find it scary to use 3g @_@ Prepaid please? lol

hmmmm... roaming aside, without a local unlimited plan we will be hearing a lot of these cases of globe iPhone 3G users learning, the hard way. that's my forecast.

After reading this story, I will probably use the prepaid sim to use with my iphone 3G when I get it from globe.

call up your telco and set a credit limit to your acct.

btw, smart has tie-up across asia for data at $10.00 per day..

Hi,

This is the same guy from Japan...can you fill us all in on the SIM situation and cheaper ways instead of using a $5 phone card...............

Cheers Paul

Hi,　This is the guy from Japan again. I just recently found out that the people called with an estimate last Saturday of 1770......instead of 2820...they have halved it to 1400 on the second number but should it have been halved on the first number due to not understanding ESTIMATION in Japanese......I will find out the result tomorrow...but still 1400 is not that bad for a lesson in iphoning....the people were even hostile on the phone yesterday regarding renegotiating....when that is the case...I believe that the company are being hassled by other cuswtomers....I saw a fight the same day at the phone shop form another customer with the same lady who did my contract.......hmmmmmmmmm..........ironic????????? ?????

Any opinions???

call up your telco and set a credit limit to your acct.

btw, smart has tie-up across asia for data at $10.00 per day..

Does Globe allow credit limit for data charges? I'm using a flex or Gtalk plan I believe.

After reading this story, I will probably use the prepaid sim to use with my iphone 3G when I get it from globe.

my friend who has an iphone found out she couldn't use it on Smart without incurring huge data charges so she ended up using her iphone on a sun prepaid. hehe.

i made a mistake as well as applei said checking email and a little browsing. learned my lesson though i paid almost P3000 for my sun bill. i used my edge around 8pm and my line got d.c. the next morning exceeding credit limit hehe.

sorry not applei aragorn my bad.

Worst I got was a P 32,000 pesos Globe bill voice and data.
I made a mistake of using my Globe while I was in the US for schooling. Least to say I got a T-mobile kit now.

i'll be going out of the country in a few weeks. been reading up on this and other similar threads.

I know that I should bring an unlocked phone and get one of them prepaid sims in whichever country i'll be going.

That being said, I'd still like to be able to use my iPhone while I'm there, even just as an iPod Touch. To to avoid roaming charges, should I:

(a) keep the iPhone in flight mode perpetually? will this keep me from using wifi as well?
(b) just buy a globe prepaid sim?

Hi tonedeaf. I'm assuming your international roaming is already activated. In that case, you will only be charged with roaming-related fees only when you use your phone: receiving and sending text messages, making or receiving calls, using data, etc. However some of your contacts may not know that you are abroad and so may contact you one way or the other. So I suggest that you just you do option (a).

What I suggest is bring 2 phones if you can. This is what I do whenever I go abroad.

Phone #1: This is your roaming phone with your globe/smart/sun sim. Usually, you don't get charged for incoming messages but this varies from provider to provider. Incoming calls are usually charged. Before your flight leaves for abroad, turn on call forwarding. Then have calls forwarded to a non-existent postpaid line of the same network. You can just make up the number. Why call forwarding? For 2 reasons. First, whenever someone tries to call you while you're roaming abroad, you get charged even though you don't answer the call. For as long as your phone rings, you are charged. Second reason is because I don't want to use call-barring. With call barring, not only are you barred from receiving calls, but from incoming sms as well. This defeats the purpose of roaming since you'd want your contacts to still be able to get in toch with you via sms. Since all numbers will be forwarded to a non-existent number, you will not get charged.

Phone #2: This is where you insert your prepaid sim of the local network. Make sure your phone is openline. In case you're travelling to the USA, T-mobile as a good offer. They have the "Pay by the day option" that for only $1 a day, you can get to call any other phone in the t-mobile network for free. Pay as you go is also available which is similar to our prepaid system in the Phils. Prepaid simpacks are around $10-$12 dollars.

Now if you need to call the Phils, you would save a great deal if you use prepaid calling cards, or use VOIP.

Hope this helps.