That chick on Campbell Live

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gazbo

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#366698 12-Aug-2010 11:29

After travelling through 10 different countries in Europe recently over a 6 week period I can tell you for a fact that the Vodafone messages saying Welcome and outlining data charges only arrived in 3 out of 10 countries.

They do NOT send messages in each country at all (well, they did not arrive is more accurate). I was waiting for them in each country to see if the network I'd connected to was any more or less expensive than the last.

I was aware of the costs of data and it is a total rip off. It is almost pointless to use data so I turned off data roaming and scammed wireless wherever I could.

quickymart

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#366711 12-Aug-2010 11:43

They send them to America, I got three when I visited for a month last year.

The credit-bar-applied-by-Vodafone-to-prevent-this idea is interesting. You'd still get a billshock and it would be a few days behind, but at least there would be a limit. However I can imagine people getting upset at their phones being cut off, and then having to call back to NZ to find out what's going on.

How about some sort of text/usage alert system, that sends out three SMS's? "You've used $100...$250...$500...just checking you're aware of the charging, call XXX or visit www...for more info"?

BlakJak

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#366723 12-Aug-2010 12:00

I definately got them when I visited the UK in 2006.
Pretty sure I got them in Bangkok when I stopped over.
Definately got them in Aussie as recently as a year ago.
Definately got them in the USA every time I visited (and often when I switched networks for the first time) during the 2007-2009 period.

(Sadly my international travel is now reigned in somewhat... new job doesn't require it like the old one did)

Relying on an SMS when in-country is poor. It's obviously contentious so the Cellular Providers need to be spelling it out loud and clear to avoid any ambiguity.

And yes, traps on dollars-spent thresholds would be nice. I suppose there's reasons it's hard to do this, or they'd have done it already?

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corksta

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#366863 12-Aug-2010 16:58

Hopefully she'll refuse the offer and then be forced to pay it, and maybe throw in some court costs if she decides to waste the court's time trying to go that route.

freitasm

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#366867 12-Aug-2010 17:06

mikerussellnz: Not to defend Vodafone or anything but with roaming it is more difficult to handle credit limits.

I don't think it would be difficult - developers, developers, developers.

IIRC there is one thing that it seems everyone is ignoring: your roaming mobile data requests are actually sent back all the way to your operator, which then forward these requests to the proper servers, then returns everything on the same path. This is one of the reasons why mobile data roaming sucks for speeds too.

What this means is that even while roaming your data still goes through your operator. And if they were clever enough they would instantly know that you are using a lot of data while away.

Linuxluver

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#366924 12-Aug-2010 19:29

freitasm:
mikerussellnz: Not to defend Vodafone or anything but with roaming it is more difficult to handle credit limits.

I don't think it would be difficult - developers, developers, developers.

IIRC there is one thing that it seems everyone is ignoring: your roaming mobile data requests are actually sent back all the way to your operator, which then forward these requests to the proper servers, then returns everything on the same path. This is one of the reasons why mobile data roaming sucks for speeds too.

What this means is that even while roaming your data still goes through your operator. And if they were clever enough they would instantly know that you are using a lot of data while away.

Is that true for both GSM and CDMA? Or just one of them?

If it's true for both that would imply it's a very deliberate thing, perhaps related to billing/revenue/taxation. Unlikely to change if that's the case.....except perhaps in cases where the same company is operating units in a variety of areas. In that case, a global number with a regional / country base would be imaginable.

But legal and tax issues would make it a nightmare.....who earned what, where?

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sbiddle

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#366950 12-Aug-2010 20:58

Linuxluver:
freitasm:
mikerussellnz: Not to defend Vodafone or anything but with roaming it is more difficult to handle credit limits.

I don't think it would be difficult - developers, developers, developers.

IIRC there is one thing that it seems everyone is ignoring: your roaming mobile data requests are actually sent back all the way to your operator, which then forward these requests to the proper servers, then returns everything on the same path. This is one of the reasons why mobile data roaming sucks for speeds too.

What this means is that even while roaming your data still goes through your operator. And if they were clever enough they would instantly know that you are using a lot of data while away.

Is that true for both GSM and CDMA? Or just one of them?

If it's true for both that would imply it's a very deliberate thing, perhaps related to billing/revenue/taxation. Unlikely to change if that's the case.....except perhaps in cases where the same company is operating units in a variety of areas. In that case, a global number with a regional / country base would be imaginable.

But legal and tax issues would make it a nightmare.....who earned what, where?

There is no conspiracy - it's simply that routing data via your home SGSN/GGSN is the simplest way of your operator charing you for data while roaming. Remember that not all roaming services can be charged in realtime.

There have been plenty of proposals on how to avoid this however many people also argue that the system isn't actually broken. Routing traffic via the home network allows corporate users to lock down external access to systems to specific IP ranges for example, whereas if devices were used while roaming you would not be able to lock down access.

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Snowflake

#366985 12-Aug-2010 23:07

perhaps the roaming model should require users to view a T&C's page on their mobile browser - outlining the charges to be incurred - and require a checkbox and a "I agree" button to be clicked each time a user arrives in a new country and wants to use data.. much like you get with a public wifi deployment that requires a login/password.

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cyril7

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#367014 13-Aug-2010 08:04

Dunno know about the iphone but my Android has an option (which is set by default) to not allow TCP connections when on roam, you need to flick a switch to allow this to happen, do other smart phones not have this feature, might be a good idea.

Cyril

kiwitrc

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#367027 13-Aug-2010 08:41

cyril7: Dunno know about the iphone but my Android has an option (which is set by default) to not allow TCP connections when on roam, you need to flick a switch to allow this to happen, do other smart phones not have this feature, might be a good idea.

Cyril

+1 and you can use something like 3G watchdog to keep an eye on how much data you are using.

k1wi

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#367030 13-Aug-2010 08:52

$6k for things like google maps and skyping using Int. Roaming sounds like she got off easy given the costs of int. roaming.

And how hard is it to find out how many MBs a photo uses, or how many MBs a email uses? It's been on hard drives and telecom's broadband promotions for years now. Doesn't sound like she's very good at doing a google search.

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