Using Edge On Iphone

[cowman1]

Hi,

I recently purchased some Interent hours from dtac, for using with Edge on my iphone. It is all working well, however, it seems to be sucking up hours even when i am not using it. As the "E" is constantly on in the corner of the phone display, does this mean that I am paying for it all the time, not just when I connect to the internet?

Is there a way to make it connect just when I want to ust the net? I would like to use this service on my phone, but can't seem to figure out how to turn it off when I am not using it. Is anyone succesfully using edge with dtac on their iphone? Is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks if anyone can help,

[garyh]

If it is anyhelp I just setup with AIS but not 3g as there is no coverage here. I get unlimited internet for 999 baht per month I think 30Gb of 3g data is around 1500 baht.

[cowman1]

Thanks for the quick reply! Well, I have wifi at home, but just bought some net hours for when I am not near a wifi spot. I have researched a bit on google, and it looks like it cannot be turned off, something to do with the 3.0 update (which I recently did). However I have downloaded a toggle for sbsettings called fake apn, which apparently means the iphone cannot wend / receive data, or something like that.

I'll have to keep checking the hours used and see if they stop running down.

[garyh]

Bloody phones are not simple anymore you need a degree to get them to do what you want.

[bledu]

Hi I' ve an iPhone 3GS (bought in France, desimlocked officially by Apple and also jailbreak with Redsn0w 08).

I was using Dtac before with the iPhone V1 but I decided to change when I got 2000 bahts bill mostly of data costs (I had a 20 hours Eged for 50 baths/month promotion, but my iphone V1 was going cheching mail by itself too many times despite I installed the Edge toggle for SBSettings.

When I got the 3GS and flew back to Thailand, I brought the phone to True Airport Plazza Chiang Mai and got an unlimited GPRS/EDGE connxion for 300 baths /month (taxes included) – it is 500 bahts/month if you want Wifi too – but I have wifi at home and there are no many and interessing True Wifi spots in Chiang Mai for this option be valuable.

So now I have Egde all the time on, with no bill problems.

This option works for prepaid (we buy a special 300 bahts each month), or with postpaid contract (like me).

[wimpy]

With AIS, my windows phone shows an E when edge is available. I only get charged when

i connect to the net.

Edited August 2, 2009 by wimpy

[Abrak]

Hi I' ve an iPhone 3GS (bought in France, desimlocked officially by Apple and also jailbreak with Redsn0w 08).

I was using Dtac before with the iPhone V1 but I decided to change when I got 2000 bahts bill mostly of data costs (I had a 20 hours Eged for 50 baths/month promotion, but my iphone V1 was going cheching mail by itself too many times despite I installed the Edge toggle for SBSettings.

When I got the 3GS and flew back to Thailand, I brought the phone to True Airport Plazza Chiang Mai and got an unlimited GPRS/EDGE connxion for 300 baths /month (taxes included) – it is 500 bahts/month if you want Wifi too – but I have wifi at home and there are no many and interessing True Wifi spots in Chiang Mai for this option be valuable.

So now I have Egde all the time on, with no bill problems.

This option works for prepaid (we buy a special 300 bahts each month), or with postpaid contract (like me).

I have been receiving similar bills from DTAC. I dont think the problem is limited to mailing - I think that the iphone must also update things like stocks and weather fairly recently. If you were paying Bt5/minute for data then you used some 400 hours or over 10 hours a day.

It really seems to me that the iphone data connection being used whenever the phone is on and you are not connected to wifi.

What that tells you is that you should definitely toggle off edge when roaming. Incidentally I cant get used to sbssettings it always appears accidentally. Have gone back to using Boss prefs which is now available for 3.0.

[billp]

This is a big issue internationally with iPhones. The devices go online automatically to check mail and "push" data and you can't turn that off. What you CAN do is buy a package based on data volume rather than time ie 50 MB rather than 60 minutes. The amount of data downloaded is actually negligible.

[willyumcr]

I recently got an iphone older version 2. I had it unlocked at Tukcom. I use AIS and it also kept using up my phone minutes with Edge connection. I contacted AIS and was told this: Go to Settings, General, Network, Cellular Data Network, under APN type "multimedia" (no " "). You do not need username or password. It worked for me. No more Edge connection.

[mjperry]

This is a big issue internationally with iPhones. The devices go online automatically to check mail and "push" data and you can't turn that off. What you CAN do is buy a package based on data volume rather than time ie 50 MB rather than 60 minutes. The amount of data downloaded is actually negligible.

That's not true, if your truly roaming internationally you can go into the general settings and disable data roaming, this will stop the phone using any data services at all when your abroad from your home network. The E sign will even disappear to prove it's not using any data. Of course if you swap out your foreign SIM and put a Thai one in your no longer roaming and are using a home network so this toggle will do nothing for you.

Martin

[TheLaughingMan]

Yes since the 3.0 upgrade its been a bit of a problem, the main thing to do is use sbsettings to turn off edge AND also make sure you have turned off PUSH for mail and contacts etc. If you do both these things it should stop completely, however, I have a sneaking suspicion that certain appstore apps also suck minutes automatically even with both those turned off, I had to uninstall a few to stop it.

300 baht for unlimitted edge with True? Is this for real? Thats 30% of the price of AIS.

[cowman1]

Well, since I installed the "FakeAPN" widget for SBsettings, my minutes have remained the same. When I want to use edge, I just disable this. It seems to be a good fix, so I am happy now.

I paid 200 baht for 100 hours a month with dtac, this is only for the first 3 months though, then it drops down to 200 bht / 50 hrs. I am also interested in this 300 baht for unlimited edge through true, so I will have to look into this. Does anyone jnow if you can keep your old number if you move from dtac to true?

[bledu]

300 baht for unlimitted edge with True? Is this for real? Thats 30% of the price of AIS.

Yes that's true… The package is 250 baths for unlimited EDGE/GPRS plus taxes. And 450 bahts with unlimited True Wifi network usage.

A very good deal in Bangkok sure, not bad but less interesting in Chiang Mai.

Also the True Edge network is very limited at the city inside. You get only GPRS very quicly.

Perhaps the AIS EDGE network in Chiang Mai is a lot larger, I don't know.

[MKAsok]

Yes since the 3.0 upgrade its been a bit of a problem, the main thing to do is use sbsettings to turn off edge AND also make sure you have turned off PUSH for mail and contacts etc. If you do both these things it should stop completely, however, I have a sneaking suspicion that certain appstore apps also suck minutes automatically even with both those turned off, I had to uninstall a few to stop it.

Good advice. And I believe if you turn off 'notifications' (assuming you have any) in settings (under 'carrier') this should solve most of the app problems... Oh, and switch 'fetch' to manual...

[Abrak]

To be honest, I hope you dont mind me saying that toggling on and off edge to save money is fairly ridiculous on the basis that we spend so much buying the phone in the first place and one of the reasons we do this is that the phone takes advantage of edge - pushing data, pushing email surfing the net - than other phones. To me if you cant really afford an unlimited data connection (up to Bt1,000 a month) you are probably not going to be able to afford an iphone.

I do agree though that the extent it uses data must be ridiculous. I can pay Bt399/month for 150 hours of GPRS or over 4.5 hours a day. Excess is charged at Bt90 an hour. According to my secretary it is cheaper to buy unlimited at Bt999/month. It must use a lot and far more than it should have to. The price of roaming abroad can exceed Bt1000/day so I am not saying you should keep it on while travelling.

The true unlimited package at Bt300/month is 3x cheaper than DTAC/AIS. The cynical side of me says it is probably bundled with expensive calls. My guess though is that they are making a package to sell iphones. I dont use True or have any intention of but it is probably the best way to buy an iphone.

[MKAsok]

^I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's not an issue of expense, it's an issue of control over something you own, or rather lack of it. It's a pity, because Apple, as a company, are crapping all over what's basically a brilliant piece of hardware with their disingenuous methods and phone manufacturer/service provider axis of greedy corporate <deleted> (see latest issue with Google Voice apps - could this possibly have anything to do with AT&T?).

[cobra]

You can also just enable "Airplane Mode", (general settings),

This automatically disables all rf services, (network hand-shaking, phone, location service, email, data, etc), then when you want to make a call, check email, or access the web just disable it again, (also extends battery time between charging).

Of course if you want to be able to still receive phone calls only disable Data Roaming as previously mentioned in earlier posts.

[bledu]

The true unlimited package at Bt300/month is 3x cheaper than DTAC/AIS. The cynical side of me says it is probably bundled with expensive calls. My guess though is that they are making a package to sell iphones. I dont use True or have any intention of but it is probably the best way to buy an iphone.

That's NOT correct, the TRUE EDGE/GPRS package is independent from any voice calls package.

In the Prepaid way, you can choose any prepaid voice calls True offers.

In the Postpaid way, like me, then you can choose any postpaid True offer that is convenient for you.

[phazey]

Bossprefs???

Just turn EDGE/GPRS off when you are not using it.....

Edited August 7, 2009 by phazey

[Gary A]

Maybe the best way to use your iPhone is to take out the SIM card and put it in a Nokia. That eliminates the problems 100 percent.

[edwardrake]

That’s very good Gary A.

Twice so far on an iPhone AIS burned EDGE & CALL accounts down to zero by stealth, knew nothing about it till I tried to make a call which was impossible seeing as they’d nicked all available baht balances in all accounts.

When at home, WIFI, EDGE & PHONE all switched on by default, if it doesn’t lock onto the WIFI signal for whatever specific neurosis at the time it switches to EDGE. Like many, surfing for hours on end, day & night like a deranged nitwit without a life so it doesn’t take long to use up the whole EDGE account. Not too serious, 100 baht for the 30 hour package, all I need for tootling around town surfing of course true to my obsession.

Next. At the house again when it can’t get a WIFI signal, if EDGE account is empty or switched off it gamely switches to the CALL account & eats that. WIFI in this location not perfect, erratic, line-of-sight from an antenna 400 yards away on a 30 storey condo block roof which in turn comes 5 km from an antenna in town so maybe that’s why it’s patchy WTFK. WIFI is fine most of the time, when it’s not it allows account raidings, passing control to AIS without informing Master. A collusion of interests?

Installed SBSettings Very nice. Toggling EDGE off stops AIS raping your EDGE account when you want to use WIFI & the signal is weak/dead. But one fatal flaw, some of this has been posted elsewhere I think, sorry if I'm repeating stuf ....

With PHONE on & EDGE off it’ll attack the CALL account and use it up if the WIFI signal dies. Only way around this as far as I can see is toggling PHONE off as well rendering your iPhone a non-phone & a surf only gadget. SBSettings should have an option to block outgoing calls & accept incoming but they seem to have forgotten about this Catch 22.

Time to buy a watch phone riveted to the wrist & graduate to multiple iffy tech device carrier status? Some of them look nice, sort of stylish StarTreck lumps, wonder if they’re any good … I’m pretty good at wrecking things. Had this iPhone for 10 months, it now looks 10 years old, cracked screen, multiple water damage blemishes under the glass from face sweat when making calls making it hop to random pages when it feels like it (someone should get a class action suit going against Apple for selling phones with screens that sweat ruins), bulge on the aluminium housing near the bezel exposing interior lights from sequential drops onto tiles, scratched all over back & front.… you could say it has some character… or otherwise… now & again it writes characters in the SMS field all by itself, occasionally attempts to self-insert a phone lock code. My theory is Thailand & technology are a dodgy combination & hold myself blameless.

I talked to an AIS rep about the account auto-switching & after a long struggle she promised to restore both accounts, 500 baht on the call account & 30 hours on EDGE, which she did with a severe warning she would grant this on a one time basis only. Strangely a few days later she added a further extra 30 hours to EDGE. Maybe she felt guilty, if so a first for me in 10 years in LOS.

Debiting CALL accounts for internet use is a hostile manoeuvre IMO. Why bother with a call account on a NetSim card if they debit call accounts without distinction when EDGE is used up? No mystery there, pilfer all accounts as fast as poss by any means & render to top-up status.

Do True & DTAC work the same way I wonder. Anyone know? On a per case basis trivial but annoying, threat of serial pick pocketing. Apple’s sleazy call-sharing business model must rake in a fair bit with 30 million users from the switching method alone. People with locked phones are more or less screwed. Apple designed the switches & the carriers take advantage of them with the usual non-disclosure policy. The AIS rep said something about people taking legal action against AIS.

cobra, in airplane mode mine still gets WIFI.

Also discovered from a helpful AIS shop rep if you do multiple EDGE connects say on the STOCKS app you get dinged for each connect even if it’s a couple of seconds each. You can easily do 20 chart lookups in a minute, 100 lookups in 5 minutes, 100 minutes debited for the use of 5. Nice work if you can get it.

Abrak, what the carriers are doing is toggling your phone account the way they like with your assumed consent, I think without disclosing. I doubt they view toggling your phone as ridiculous as they tot up the extra revenue it brings in.

whether we can afford it or not is hardly the point. Case in point, I had a bank account at a well known Swiss bank for a while till I discovered them helping themselves to 1000 francs a month under certain non-disclosed circumstances for doing virtually bugger-all (for executing PAPER gold transactions, the non-published 1000 francs was in addition to the published array of commissions, fees & misc admin friction charges). The last I had to do with them before bidding them farewell was after ordering a number of kilo bars to go into safe custody. They informed me they didn’t have any actual bullion on hand in the vault to sell me & I’d have to wait 2 weeks & no I couldn’t lock in a price b/c banks don’t take risks preferring the surer certainty of fees. This by the way was the purpose of opening this account we’d discussed in detail in Bangkok previously at an expensive lunch which they paid for. At the time I thought it must be pretty costly flying bank execs around the world to lunch with would-be clients. The initial expenses are soon recouped. On another occasion when all the banks were going bust a while back I asked them to close my account and put the balance in PHYSICAL BANK NOTES in an allocated vault account. First they said they’d never heard of such a request before & talked as if I was insane. Furthermore to do such a thing I’d have to fly over to Zurich & personally walk the cash (which they would have to order in from some other mysterious source) from one ugly banker’s desk to another in the same building, same office & sign off in the presence of a certain named senior official all of which must be set up in advance with booked appointments etc. They couldn’t do it because they didn’t have any PHYSICAL CASH in the bank worth talking about, just digits on a screen. Somewhere along the line they billed me 175 francs for transferring the money from a fiduciary account to a current account, in their view worth a 175 franc gouge for something I hadn’t asked for. I found this out by accident a few days later & after a barrage of well chosen expletives they removed the charge. All I’m talking about is the infinite volume of bs we’re confronted with all day long.

In AIS case they filch small amounts by devious means. In the bank case they just make up crap as they go along & see if you fool enough to buy stupid stories. A lot of people need a bang round the side of the head as they say in South Central.

===

now have Boss Prefs & SBSettings. what happens if Boss has EDGE on & SB has EDGE off? Will AIS rip my accounts off then send an extra bill for being a stupid farang?

Edited August 14, 2009 by edwardrake

[edwardrake]

P.S. We simply want a phone to more or less do what we want not what Apple & the carriers want or have to enter awkward lines of code in the APN field which btw some carriers will destroy, one known to do so is Vodaphone. No billing to call accounts for data unless permission is given with a toggle to switch off outgoing data via the call account & still receive calls. fairly simple stuff.

now using SBSettings, EDGE is down 200 minutes in 2 days without any EDGE use & CALL account's down 100 baht after one local call in same period. I'll uninstall Boss & see if that does any good.

Somehow I doubt it. Maybe time to knock this particular Apple model on the head & go with the Gary A idea. I bought if at MBK. Took it back after a month or so for some software thing & the little b swapped my pristine screen for a damaged one, didn't notice till i got back, by then too late. So it goes. in spite of which i must say i like the iPhone even though the one i have hates me. A new screen is 4000-6000 baht without a doubt a copy, new back is 6000 baht guaranteed copy. when my kid comes over at Xmas i'll get him to bring a used 3G & we'll have a 6 inch nail driving ceremony for the old one right through its tiny little CPU. that'll learn it.

Anyone happy with their wifi, 3.5" non-Apple phone?

Edited August 14, 2009 by edwardrake

[nikster]

^I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's not an issue of expense, it's an issue of control over something you own, or rather lack of it. It's a pity, because Apple, as a company, are crapping all over what's basically a brilliant piece of hardware with their disingenuous methods and phone manufacturer/service provider axis of greedy corporate <deleted> (see latest issue with Google Voice apps - could this possibly have anything to do with AT&T?).

I don't know what you guys are talking about.

I disabled MobileME, and I turned off automatic email checking. Now the iPhone doesn't connect to the network = unless I check email of course.

I use my phone quite a bit and I have a 20 hour/month package that I never exceed.

I just checked with *139 - I have 17.9 hours remaining. The package last renewed August 9th, today is the 16th, that means I have used 2.1 hours in 7 days, and that was with tons of twitter posts via Tweetie, photo uploads to Tweetie and mobile me, web surfing via Safari, and checking my email several times a day.

I have considered the possibility that this is because the iPhone is connected to WiFi at home or at the office most times. But that's not it either because for one, I am out every day, and also I spent the last month in Chiang Mai with no WiFi at the apartment. Didn't exceed 20 hours either...

So does it seep data? No.

I don't have any special software to turn EDGE off or anything - all I did is turn off automatic email checking, and I never set up my MobileMe account for push. That's it. This is on a 1G iPhone - maybe this is 3G only? Maybe you have some Cydia or other hacked apps installed that use background threads? The way my iPhone behaves is what I'd expect from Apple - they are well aware that there are a lot of users limited data plans, and if they'd just secretly connect to the network there'd be an outcry.

Edited August 16, 2009 by nikster

[MKAsok]

The way my iPhone behaves is what I'd expect from Apple - they are well aware that there are a lot of users limited data plans, and if they'd just secretly connect to the network there'd be an outcry.

What I'd expect from Apple is a simple toggle in 3.0 to turn off all data through EDGE. That's not provided (unless for international data roaming). Why could this possibly be? I'm sure there's an explanation that's not related to the profits of mobile carriers, but I'm still yet to hear it. The fact remains it's up to me if I want to use data services through EGDE. It's not up to Apple, or my mobile provider, any more than it would be up to them if I turned off my phone and it turned itself back on while I wasn't really paying attention and started making expensive phone calls.

[hughden]

I'm with Nikster. I have no problems using Edge. The iPhone connects to mail/web when I tell it to, and not at any other time. I rarely use it with wifi and I use Edge a lot during the day, and have never exceeded my package allowance. You don't need a toggle to turn off Edge if it is not being used unless you access the service.

[bkkmick]

I'm not losing any AIS minutes through my iPhone either. One thing about my set up is that I don't use the built in email client. I use IbisMail...much better application (in my opinion anyway). It allows you to set up various folders for filtering your emails into and there's a anti-spam functionality as well.

[losworld]

Just go to settings and make sure push is turned off and also location services otherwise you will be constantly checking these things and eating minutes. Hope this helps.

[dharter]

So reading through all of this, it appears that the only solution is to Jailbreak my phone (which I don't want to do) and install the BossPref or SBS settings.

Or I can completely turn off my phone (airplane mode), which essentially makes it useless.

Or I can pay for unlimited data each month despite barely needing it since I have wireless access at work and home where I spend MOST of my time.

Is this only AIS that's screwing over it's iPhone users for money or do TRUE and DTAC users have this problem. My DTAC friends with iPhones never seem to have this issue.

I went to lengths to get a phone from HK that was legally unlocked and now my only solution is to hack it anyway. Great.

Would love to know what else I can do, to stop this milking that AIS is doing. Maybe a news article needs to expose this extortion!!!

[Abrak]

So reading through all of this, it appears that the only solution is to Jailbreak my phone (which I don't want to do) and install the BossPref or SBS settings.

Or I can completely turn off my phone (airplane mode), which essentially makes it useless.

Or I can pay for unlimited data each month despite barely needing it since I have wireless access at work and home where I spend MOST of my time.

Is this only AIS that's screwing over it's iPhone users for money or do TRUE and DTAC users have this problem. My DTAC friends with iPhones never seem to have this issue.

I went to lengths to get a phone from HK that was legally unlocked and now my only solution is to hack it anyway. Great.

Would love to know what else I can do, to stop this milking that AIS is doing. Maybe a news article needs to expose this extortion!!!

I think most of your basic explanation is right.

I am a dtac user and find that if I dont want to toggle anything I have to pay Bt999 a month for unlimited edge use.

I dont really consider it a scam. I have push email, use the internet, stocks and charts in Thailand and on Bloomberg. There are probably a lot of etcs. You can get unlimited edge etc through true for Bt399 thats better value. (BTW I think you can turn off edge without jailbreak.)

But you probably paid Bt25,000 for your phone that will be worth Bt7,000 in 2 years time. If you can afford to do that then take advantage of what it can do.

[dharter]

So reading through all of this, it appears that the only solution is to Jailbreak my phone (which I don't want to do) and install the BossPref or SBS settings.

Or I can completely turn off my phone (airplane mode), which essentially makes it useless.

Or I can pay for unlimited data each month despite barely needing it since I have wireless access at work and home where I spend MOST of my time.

Is this only AIS that's screwing over it's iPhone users for money or do TRUE and DTAC users have this problem. My DTAC friends with iPhones never seem to have this issue.

I went to lengths to get a phone from HK that was legally unlocked and now my only solution is to hack it anyway. Great.

Would love to know what else I can do, to stop this milking that AIS is doing. Maybe a news article needs to expose this extortion!!!

I think most of your basic explanation is right.

I am a dtac user and find that if I dont want to toggle anything I have to pay Bt999 a month for unlimited edge use.

I dont really consider it a scam. I have push email, use the internet, stocks and charts in Thailand and on Bloomberg. There are probably a lot of etcs. You can get unlimited edge etc through true for Bt399 thats better value. (BTW I think you can turn off edge without jailbreak.)

But you probably paid Bt25,000 for your phone that will be worth Bt7,000 in 2 years time. If you can afford to do that then take advantage of what it can do.

Abrak, thanks for the reply. I would love to know how to turn off Edge without jailbreak as you mentioned above. That would solve my issues. I don't disagree with you on the using the phone's capability., but I am around wireless almost constantly during my day and yet any temporary interruption in wifi connection as I walk around my building, suddenly kicks in Edge and I am running through balance while doing nothing. I don't need unlimited data...I probably won't even use the 20 hours I paid for. So to commit to 1000 baht a month, while affordable, is still a "scam" because they are charging me for data I'm not getting. For example, I used 20 hours up in less than 24 hours, without doing anything myself, but only had usage of just over 1MB of data transmitted.

That's cheating me.