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Dear Auntie TUAW: Did I overstep my data limits?

Cara Tia TUAW,

I need your help please. I am in Mexico and have an iPhone with a 150 MB data plan and 300 minutes. My carrier says that I have passed my data limit and owe them around $150 usd. According to the Cellular Network Data on my iPhone, I have used 35MB and 83 minutes (Settings > General > Usage). My question is, is this information technically good enough to fight back these charges? I think it must be, but I have to be sure. Can you help me, please?

Love, Joe P

p.s. Why I don't have an unlimited data plan? because it costs around $110 usd a month, that's why. My current data plan costs about $55 a month. Thank you!

Dear Joe P,

Auntie wishes she had better news for you, but the usage meter on the phone is notoriously unreliable. If you've restored or updated your iPhone in the last month (2.0.1 anyone?), you may have accidentally reset those values. Personally, we at TUAW can sneeze through 150 MB just by loading our own home page (or maybe it just seems that way).

Of course, feel free to contact customer service -- but relying on the onboard usage stats isn't going to take you very far.

Sorry for the bad news, caro.

Love,

Auntie TUAW



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iPhone

Cara Tia TUAW, I need your help please. I am in Mexico and have an iPhone with a 150 MB data plan and 300 minutes. My carrier says that I...
 

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23 Comments

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jz

ugh, i just got charged equivalent of $200+ USD for a weeks worth of GPRS data usage in singapore (M1)...

August 17 2008 at 3:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
YM

I put myself on a limited data access plan when traveling in China with my US-based AT&T plan. I signed up for AT&T's International Data Plan which was something like 25MB per month for $25.00. I was able to get by with this by shutting off all email accounts and using iPhone's Safari to browse mobile email web sites like m.yahoo.com or gmail.com. This way, you're just accessing about 50K in WAP-like html screens and not downloading an unknown amount of email messages and attachments.

August 15 2008 at 2:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Juan Carlos

I had same problem (190 Dlls in data charges) for my first 40M. I got a hold of Telcel customer service and told them my plan for 70dlls included 200M so what gives? She told me I was right and my bill would be corrected, to call back in 48 hrs.

Try to give them a call. Also, there is now a new unlimited iPhone plan for about 140 that includes 600 mins and unlimited data. I'd switch, but until Movistar gets their 3G up, not much sense.

August 15 2008 at 11:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maverick

The best option here in Mexico is to buy a first generation iPhone, unlock it and use it with prepayed cards!
www.neltelcel.com

August 15 2008 at 2:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

Is there an iPhone optimized website for TUAW?

August 15 2008 at 2:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
B Blakely

Erica wrote:
"Personally, we at TUAW can sneeze through 150 MB just by loading our own home page (or maybe it just seems that way)."

Not only is TUAW one of the slowest pages to load on my iPhone, scrolling through the TUAW page is the most reliable way to crash Mobile Safari. Having seen similar complaints in other comment threads, I would think you guys would try to do something about this.

August 14 2008 at 11:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JKT

Trust no one. When I went to France last week, I removed the SIM card from my iPhone. I'd heard the horror stories about $600+ roaming bills and refused to even take the chance--turning off data roaming on the iPhone was not safe enough for me. With the SIM removed, as far as anyone was concerned, that phone was still in the U.S. Sticking to WiFi only (which, by the way, was sparse) enabled me to actually put the iPhone away and enjoy my vacation instead of being tethered to a communications device 24/7. :-)

August 14 2008 at 10:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Felipe

Not surprising, it's Telcel.

Only of Apple came up with an iDEN iPhone to get it working with Nextel. That's what a bunch of Crackberry addicts do.

August 14 2008 at 9:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sonicwind

I don't know how things work in Mexico, but if I had that problem in the US, I would call up customer service and say "hey, this phone has a feature on it that shows usage which I was going by. Since you sold me this phone with this feature, this is your responsibility" In my experience this will always work but you will have to be persistent, the first reaction to this will be for them to deny responsibility. Even if you upgraded the firmware, did they notify you that the information reported on the phone would be reset?

I had $500 taken off a bill by Cingular a few years ago under even worse circumstances I ended up having to go up 3 manager levels (partly because each level only has authority to credit so much.)

August 14 2008 at 8:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nbidgood

you can just click the "Reset Statistics" button to set the data usage counters (and call timer) to zero.

So, even if the iPhone's data meter were reliable, it's not going to prove anything about your data usage, since you could have reset the meter at any time. Sorry

August 14 2008 at 8:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to nbidgood's comment
macgirl

Yes you can reset the Statistics, but the phone says when you did it.

I have no problems so far.

And yes Telcel is awful but the other options are worst.

August 14 2008 at 11:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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