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Comments on news posted 2009-06-26 17:17:45: It's been a few months since the last time a mobile broadband user received a roaming bandwidth bill that required a second mortgage, so we were clearly overdue. ..
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
|  What's a data session?
DATA TRANSPORT IS BILLED IN FULL-KILOBYTE INCREMENTS, AND ACTUAL TRANSPORT IS ROUNDED UP TO THE NEXT FULL-KILOBYTE INCREMENT AT THE END OF EACH DATA SESSION FOR BILLING PURPOSES. AT&T CHARGES A FULL KILOBYTE OF DATA TRANSPORT FOR EVERY FRACTION OF THE LAST KILOBYTE OF DATA TRANSPORT USED ON EACH DATA SESSION. »www.wireless.att.com/learn/messa···ices.jsp
Which leads to this question... what is a data session?
Is it when I sign on and sign off again (it's not, AT&T does not have a direct way to track this)? Is it a distinct period of inactivity? Is it every new type of activity? Is it every single download initiated? I don't know, because it is not defined anywhere in the services terms and conditions.
Not in the page above.
Not at »www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-···erms.jsp.
Not here »www.wireless.att.com/businesscen···able.jsp.
Not here »www.wireless.att.com/businesscen···8308.pdf.
And this is not even getting AT&Tcharging you for network overhead and packet resends (even if they never reach you). Which means that even if you monitor your usage at the laptop, you have no way of knowing how much that usage has inflated from bad packets on the network. Imagine getting a network timeout the first time you try to access google maps. The google maps base page is 320KB. You might have just spent $4.80 on a page you never even saw. Get a greyed out tile? It still cost you 35 cents, and will cost you another 35 cents to reload it.
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| | | | pika2000
join:2005-10-13
Seattle, WA
| More reason to demand unlocked phones This is another reason we should demand providers to sell phones unlocked, just like other countries. One can simply get a cheap local prepaid plan and switch the SIM chip. But no, regardless of the ridiculous stuff AT&T is doing, people are still lining up giving AT&T money. Mind boggling.
Before anybody whining about having to pay full price for phones, unlocked != no subsidy. In countries like Singapore, all subsidized and under-contract high end phones, including iPhones, are sold unlocked out of the box. | |
| kmm454
join:2000-06-05
Dayton, OH
| my experience: AT&T's charges can't be audited My experience is not directly relevant to 3G, but similar....
I spent a few weeks in Toronto, Canada with an Edge-based iPhone and AT&T's International roaming plan. When I got my bill, I discovered that:
1. AT&T's data plans are pro-rated (my bad for misunderstanding this)
2. AT&T's charges defy any form of reasonable audit
The second point is the rub. Despite the fact that I was only and always in Toronto while in Canada, AT&T's data roaming charges showed locations from Vancouver to Nova Scotia -- often within minutes of other data roaming charges. As I pointed out to AT&T, it just isn't possible to travel 3,000 miles in 20 minutes. The Canadian roaming charges also included times when I was at an airport in the USA -- and despite my offers of evidence to AT&T that I could prove where I was, AT&T's CSR claimed that all the charges were accurate. I eventually had to escalate the dispute to my local Better Business Bureau and it took many months to get straight. 
My opinion: AT&T's back-end billing systems are a big part of the problem, coupled with the fact that AT&T's front-line service reps have no authority to over-ride charges that clearly defy reasonable logic and evidence to the contrary. | |
| john262
join:2003-09-26
Elko, NV
 ·Wireless Beehive
| I have an idea. Why not lower ridiculous overage charges? The bandwidth that consumers use when they go over their 5 GB caps doesn't cost the carriers anywhere near what they charge for it. The solution to this problem is simple. Lower overage charges. What a concept, huh.
Such obscene profit levels generated by these huge overage charges should be made illegal if the carriers won't voluntarily lower these prices. Consumers shouldn't have to take it anymore. We own the airwaves that these 3G signals go over. The carriers only lease that spectrum and have to agree to use the spectrum in the public interest. Clearly, the carriers are not operating in the public interest, and they should be made to pay for violating the public's trust. | |
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donner
@shawcable.net | Roaming ... I am clear of roaming fees in the us, but, I guess Canada is considered international once you are out of the us. It is outrageous, but at&t make it clear on this, that is what I was taught. | |
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