iPhone on Rogers Data Roaming Results in $6000 Phone Bill

by Gary on February 26th, 2009

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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~Anita~

Rogers is the only game in town if you have an iPhone... yes i realize this as I am a rogers customer myself... However there are different models of phones on the market and the fact of the matter is Iphone is the one that most or all of us here had choosen fully aware Rogers was the only Active Canadian provider with this phone, and those people (possibly yourself included) choose not to read the entire contract that had willingly signed to get this paticular model .
ignorance is bliss, not so much... this has been definitely proven to be 100% wrong in this case .

If someone has found enough time and put enough effort into commenting so negatively about a company and this all being done in such a lengthly manner, with a company who has been around as long as Rogers...

Why not take the time and use it to contact your provider and ask questions ... again educate yourself! You oviously have the time. I mean this in the most respectful way possible.....

~Anita~

~Anita~

Seriously Monty, have you been living in a cave? To be honest I think you are absolutely ridiculous ... It is your responsibility as THE CUSTOMER to make yourself aware of your service,costs,billing ...etc. Now, just because you don't FEEL you should have take whether it be a few minutes or a few hours to educate yourself of what your paying for or not and where and why ... doesn't mean it is in your best interest or that is not your responsibility.
I agree like anyone else has, $6,000.00 is alot of money, but come on what did he really think was going to happen when he was outside of Canada.
Rogers is a Canadian network... He was not in Canada, so common sense, the same fees WOULD NOT apply...
WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!

I bet all the people OUTRAGED in short form from previous comments are rogers customers to this day, ha...
and go ahead checkout other carriers, to see they are not the only ones.

P.s. To an earlier comment asking why rogers wouldn't send the customer a text message educating the customer of additional fees... News flash, they do.

lol

~Anita~

Monty

Respectfully, those people who are outraged are quite likely to be "Rogers customers to this day" and you can "ha" all you like, but we're talking about Rogers' gouging of iPhone customers... And unless you've been living in a cave, Rogers is the only game in town if you have an iPhone, we're all bound by three-year contracts with Rogers and the equipment they sold us is locked so it can only be used with them as supplier of services.

And if you think every customer has a responsibility to be intimately familiar with every aspect of every contract they enter into, I'd ask you to identify what your specific rights and obligations are under the EULA for the operating system currently on your computer. WELCOME TO THE OTHER REAL WORLD!! Fact is people have neither the time nor the inclination to read every detail. Corporations regularly notify when a customer's bills suddenly take a significant jump, why couldn't/shouldn't Rogers? If my regular monthly bill for the various services I use from Rogers regularly runs between $300 and $500 and suddenly I've passed $1,000 in a given month, I think it's very reasonable to expect that they would contact me to advise to that effect.

Marsh

What the hell? I work for rogers and know that the iphone is sent out with the data roaming disabled. It's done that way so when people call in inquiring about why their bill is so high and they deny using it down their we know they must have turned it on. He should have called in to rogers or went to a store or something, like come on, who in their right mind goes to another country and turns their phone and thinks they are getting regular rates. what was he smoking? If anything rogers is not in the wrong, the only wrong he was the customer not taking 10 minutes of his day to ask a simple question on what happens financially when i use my phone outside canada. In a rogers employee's eyes I upset that this was brought to the media. I would be embarrassed.

Monty

You don't think that maybe, just maybe, it might have published it in the media because the ultimate bill was ridiculously high in the view of any sentient being? I have the 6GB data plan ad can honestly say I don't come remotely close to using that quantity of data, but I honestly haven't a clue how much data I use in any given day until I get my bill. In a recent trip I accidentally arrived in Orlando with Data Roaming turned on [and when I bought my iPhone the first day they were available, it did not have data roaming disabled], as it happened My e-mail checking for and downloading mail was the only data use and it was a total of 251Kb, for which I was billed $1.51. Not exactly a disastrous bill, but this news had me concerned about what the bill might be because I had no concept of how much data had actually been used before I turned roaming off.

I'm sure your employer will think you're a good boy for toeing the company line, but here all you're demonstrating is their same lack of comprehension of their customers' irritation at their ridiculous billing structure.

For example: How can Rogers justify 60 cents per text sent while roaming in the U.S.? Or even better: Why are roaming U.S. texts billed as "US txt msgs - sent" and texts sent to the U.S. as "US Text Messages - sent"? Why should a consumer have to decypher their bill to know what they're actually paying for? And how can it possibly be justifiable to charge such rates for a text sent from anywhere in the world? The idea of what they charge as roaming data rates disgusts any iPhone user, with reason.

Rob

This is the year 2009. You can't tell me roaming rates are that high. If Rogers has the ability to just 'forgive' a $6000.00 you know the charge is total BS to begin with. If they actually had reasonable roaming rates or made it a wash, they would probably sell more phones.

Mike

No way in hell anyone should have to pay that much money for $600 MB of Data. Or any amount of data for that matter.

mbpowell

I got burned while travelling in Europe (A lot, but not that much.)

Brian

I thought there was some sort of cap to how much someone could get charged for data =S? Maybe that's just going over your domestic data and getting charged extra for going over...

Mr. Speedy

Yikes! That's like a down payment on a house! For what? ~200 Mb of data? Crazy!

Monty

I went to Florida a couple of weeks ago. When I arrived I remembered to switch my data roaming off, but my iPhone screen went black. I tried to reboot, but didn't know how long to hold down both buttons and it didn't reboot because I didn't hold down the buttons long enough [first time I've ever needed to do so and wasn't entirely sure what to do anyway - I'll remember if there's a next time]. A few hours later, I found an Apple store and they fixed it, but my phone had been checking for and downloading email all that time. I'll be interested to see what charges are reflected on my next bill.

I don't think I'll have any problem getting the charges reversed, Rogers has been reasonable in the past.

Gary

This is definitely an isolated incident...but man, makes you wonder what he was thinking to use his data for 4 hours in Mexico though. You learn from your mistakes right? At least this isn't at our expense! ;)

~Anita~

lol.. this is very true :)

James

I do think that the $6000 is a bit much but I'm sorry, this guy should of had SOME idea that what he was doing was going to cost him.

If the guy is any type of business man he should of looked into using his phone internationally as far as the rates are concerned. You NEVER make any assumption that when going to some other country and 'think' there is going to be a 'little' bit of a charge.

I mean if anyone has ever called internationally from a landline which has been around for a long time they know how expensive it is, let alone using a cell phone internationally. geez :)

dave

so what if he was to have rented a car down there and used his gps? would he be paying data for that too?

generalinq

can you get a data pay as you go data plan in the states?

Terry

With Rogers you can pay $10 for a Data roaming package. Then they will charge you $1 per MB used while in the US. That is a lot better than 3 cents per kb.

Tim G

The best thing to do is to make sure data roaming is turned off on your phone and with Rogers/Fido...that way if you are on a border you won't accidently roam. Then jailbreak and unlock your phone and get a local sim. Simple!

Tim B

What's the advantage of having Data roaming on?? Mine's always been set to "off". Should I be turning it on since I don't travel much?

Terry

The only advantage is that, when you are in another country, if you want to get Internet services, you have to turn it on, unless you have Wi-Fi where you are. It should always be set to "off" to avoid accidentally paying roaming charges if you are near the US border (e.g. Niagara Falls).

mike

I'm on the 6gb plan.. so what's the coverage area for data plan... is it all of canada or just in my area code? if im in Niagara falls should I be careful so that my phone doesn't switch to a us carries?

Terry

Your data plan will work anywhere in Canada there is a Rogers network. If you are near the US, just make sure "data roaming" is turned off and you'll be fine.

Rick

1. If you own an iPhone, be smart enough to know what's included. Everyone knows that using a cell phone out of country can be expensive. Everyone knows that using data is even more expensive. It's his own fault.

2. Lesson learned about not taking your work on holidays. Or, every single hotel here has wireless. Turn off the data, use wireless. It's not rocket science.

3. I'm glad I'm not one of his clients. I prefer someone who's actually able to think.

Conrad

I used my iPhone while on vacation in Mexico (in November). I used it to check emails (3 times). My emails usually have attachments (Bid Documents...PDF's, etc.) that I need to review. When I got back I received a call from Rogers "Unusual Usage Department"....I never even knew something like this existed. Anyhow they asked me if I had used my phone in Mexico and I told them what I said above. They said that my bill is "rather high". I was thinking it couldn't be anything more than $200 dollars for the data but, the total data roaming charges were....well guess....$6000. I told them there was no way in hell that I was paying that. They said they assumed so, gave me a warning and told me that they would take care of the charge. Anyhow, although I didn't have to fork over the dough it was an eye opening experience to say the least. I would like to know if Erik had to front the bill or did Rogers offer to cover it with a stern warning?

Dhawma Mayonnaise

Oh, ignore my last comment. I guess cell phone providers do have processes in place for unusual usage. I had no idea.

ruffdeezy

The guy looks even more dumb by going to the news. Everyone knows not to use roaming data.

Guest

Lol true true :p

Dhawma Mayonnaise

Sure all of us do but I bet there are tons of people (in fact I know many myself) who either don't know about or have no idea of that setting on their phone. And if they rarely travel, it mightn't be something they think about.

Credit cards alert you if your spending habits are out of whack. Maybe cell phone providers could do the same. Maybe an automated text message??

Greg

The same thing recently happened to me. My bill was about $600.00 for data roaming in the US. After pushing my way through the customer service phone line, I was able to speak to a supervisor who actually knocked the $600 fee down to $75.00. In January Rogers released a $10.00 a month Data Roaming plan that lowers the data roaming fee from $6.00 MB to $1.00 MB. If you do any traveling this plan will quickly pay for itself.

Dude

Have a question - having an unlocked (yellowsnow) phone with data roaming turned off with a rogers SIM in the USA: will this lead on to problems??

I have jailbroken and unlocked my phone. I have a O2 SIM for the UK but haven't bothered with a US SIM for a 2 or 3 hour visit - this is why I ask the above question.

Guest

Ouch, now that sux!

Terry

When I bought my iPhone, they warned me at the store about this. They told me to call Rogers CS if I was going to travel. There are options to enable cheaper data rates. I am not sure of the rates for Mexico, but if we assume it is the same rate as is used for the US, this guy would have paid about $210 for the same amount of data instead of $6000. Yes, it is high, but we have to remember that we are using the network from another country so Rogers is probably at the mercy of whatever rate that provider charges them and then they add a profit on top of that.

Harry

wow, that amount of money is fo shizz up the spout.
I'd yellowsn0w my phone but I can't jailbreak as my mac wont let me do it (easily)

Rick

Sure it will. Just use a USB hub, and you'll be jailbreaking in no time (I'm assuming you're on 10.5.6).

Tony

what about using quickpwn thats pretty easy

Squirmy

What clients? He was probably sending porn clips.

ds7777

this is a clear indication on how the networks rob you.
data roaming charge is just ridiculous in this day of age. no wonder i just yellowsn0wed my 3g.

taintedbeef

How is this even news? He knowingly turned data roaming on. Erik should just pay the bloody money, instead of making a media fuss about it.

By my estimates, he used about 200mb of data.

ihavnoname

are u retarted. who has that kind of money to pay six grand

Mark

dude you are accepting the fact that we should pay this much money for data roaming? clearly you fail to see that this is robbery, IDIOT.

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