iPhone on Rogers Data Roaming Results in $6000 Phone Bill

For those iPhone users on the Rogers/Fido network using data plans, let the following story be a quick reminder of what can go wrong! Whenever I’m traveling with my iPhone 3G out of the country, I always double check that my data roaming is turned off. How do you do this? It’s simple…

Settings–General–Network–make sure “Data Roaming” is OFF.

Now, I’m not sure what happened our fellow iPhone user Erik Lyneborg in Calgary, but he used data roaming in Mexico while on vacation for four hours. He was trying to maintain contact with clients while on holiday–a costly mistake. I can only imagine the shock and surprise when Erik received his bill from Rogers in the mail–$6000CDN for using his data plan!

rogers-iphone

We all know that data plans in Canada can be expensive. I can only imagine the rates on the data hungry iPhone 3G. So let this be a lesson for us all, if you’re going to use your iPhone’s data plan overseas via data roaming…make sure you have a deep enough wallet for it!

Here’s the CTV news article:

Erik Lyneborg is angry after receiving a phone bill for thousands of dollars. Lyneborg recently returned from a trip to Mexico. He used his Apple iPhone for about four hours during his vacation to keep in touch with clients back in Canada. When he received his bill, he was shocked to discover that he had been billed six thousand dollars for the service.

Rogers tells CTV that roaming rates are the same for all phones and iPhones have a setting to switch roaming on or off. But if the phone is switch to roam internationally, it may be accessing the network without its user’s knowledge. All the major cell phone carriers have different plans designed to limit charges for people using their phones overseas. Anyone thinking of using their phone on a trip should check with their provider before making a call.

So there you have it folks. I wonder how much data Erik used while on vacation. Anyone out there in Calgary know Erik? I’d love to hear more about his story!

[CTV]

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