Iphone: Mysterious Charges With Data Roaming Off

[Optimodo]

I recently purchased a iPhone in england from O2 on pay + go. After arriving back in Thailand for a few days i finally got it unlocked and have now found that all my credit on my pay and go sim with one2call has been eaten up by something. And i am now getting regular messages saying i don't have enough credit to call the dialed number. Whatever that number is i don't know.

Now before someone says the obvious "turn data roaming off" it is off and always has been (as is default with iPhones). Secondly which is possibly what i find strangest is that i have been connected to my local wifi router and accessing the internet on my iPhone through that since i have arrived so i would have thought that even if their was some strange data roaming going on that it would be done through my normal internet connection from True.

Anyway to say the least i am stumped, i have gone through all the settings and turned off push, turned on and off data roaming to make sure it wasnt being displayed incorrectly, have disabled 3G and anything else i can think off including mLive and even wifi.

However the messages persists:

Test from 022719000

Your account balance is insufficient for calls to the dialed number. Please recharge first, dial *120 to recharge your account.

So if anyone can give any insight into what the problem may be that would be great.

Mike

[webfact]

Moved to mobile devices

[phazey]

You've got something using data discreetly. Check to see if push notifications are enabled. If you've got am IM client like ebuddy or beejive, these stay open in the background waiting for incoming messages.

[clokwise]

I was on one2call when I first got my iphone. The morning after I bought my iphone I woke up to discover over 400 baht of credit had mysteriously vanished overnight and my credit was depleted. Being that I didn't want to cripple my iphone and wanted to use data services fairly frequently, I switched to True unlimited data plan. It's actually worked out well and I'm now spending about the same amount per month on a fixed fee as I was on all the prepaid fees just for calls alone on one2call.

[nikster]

Make sure notifications and email fetching are off:

Settings -> Notifications -> Turn OFF

Settings -> Mail -> Fetch New Data -> OFF

I bet it's one of those two. More likely the former.

The weird "not enough credit to connect" message means your phone is trying to open up a GPRS connection but not allowed for lack of credit.

[HDRIDER]

HI

The phone dont eat anything if you turn everything off, or get a data plan, its 650 a month

[Optimodo]

thanks for the replies, however i have done the the things suggested, push and notifications are off, so is location services and e buddy signs out immediately. And everything else that looks remotely suspicious is turned off and the messages still come! Woke up this morning with 30 of them!!! The thing that i don't understand most is that most of the things that could use data over one2call should be over-ridden by the fact my phone is connected to my home wifi and uses that for all of the normal things.

I am considering calling one2call to see if they can trace the source of this. But may be interested in setting up some data plan. But how do these work is it like a 12 month contact or just a bolt on that you can add or remove whenever you want to a pay + go sim? As i only spend 6 months of the year in thailand and dont want to be paying for a phone I'm not using 1/2 the time.

Whats the situation with transferring numbers in Thailand, if possible i would like to keep my number if i was to change to another network. Ideally however i would like to stay on one2call because everyone i know is on that.

Mike

[HDRIDER]

Hi

You can not keep your number if you change provider

AIS has BB plan for 650B a month works fine on iphone, i am sure you can get it for a few months

[Optimodo]

i finally solved the problem, I am not sure exactly what solved it but as i said in my previous posts i had done all of those and still had the problem but the final 2 things Ive done solved it:

i read one person mention about push on emails that you had to disable push for each mail account independently which i didn't know i assumed turning it off on the main mail settings screen and setting it to manual globally would be enough. However going into the advanced settings on the mail settings and turning off push individually may have contributed towards it.

However i noticed when i used apps that had adverts that connect to the internet to get were causing me to get messages, so its my understanding that Edge could have been a contributing factor. Even though i thought turning off data roaming meant that Edge shouldn't work?? Anyway i downloaded SBSettings from Cydia and turned off Edge in that and now my credit has stopped being used for no apparent reason.

Thanks for all the help.

[nikster]

Yes, somebody else said this too - they turned everything off - but then they used games and apps that connect to the internet. Well - what do you expect... in that case, the Cydia option is the only way to go. Or don't use those apps/games.

[motoyen]

I have the exact same problem on my iPhone as well. I've turned everything off and still my 12Call credits keep declining even when I'm at home and the phone is connected through wi-fi. I'm off tomorrow to see if I can get a monthly data plan because I'm going through these scratch cards like crazy.

[Sabum]

I just posted a thread about apps that secretly use edge. Some apps are checking the net even if you never use them.

Data roaming does not turn off edge, you didn't realise this op. Sbsettings works for the majority of the time but there are some apps that will not be stopped by that. ALSO, even if you mostly use wifi, when your iphone goes to sleep wifi turns off automatically, and it reverts to edge. So if you have an app that checks internet without you knowing it will use edge instead all night.

[n210mp]

I just posted a thread about apps that secretly use edge. Some apps are checking the net even if you never use them.

Data roaming does not turn off edge, you didn't realise this op. Sbsettings works for the majority of the time but there are some apps that will not be stopped by that. ALSO, even if you mostly use wifi, when your iphone goes to sleep wifi turns off automatically, and it reverts to edge. So if you have an app that checks internet without you knowing it will use edge instead all night.

Hi everyone and could I just put my pennyworth in on this thread.

During the course of the last two weeks I have twice lost all my internet credit and also call credit on the AIS package to the tune of about 950B.

I can understand why from the posts that I can be unknowingly using my internet time but not also my call time. Anyway after being bitten by this usage I have now consigned the Iphone to the drawer and gone back to my Samsung with DTAC.

Just for interest the call charges on the AIS 1 2 call are also high for domestic usage at either 3 or 4B a minute

[johnh101]

I had the same problem with my iphone, eating credit every very time I topped up, I would put ine 300 baht, not even use the phone and in the morning I would have no credit.

I have now turned everything off, the credit remains but I am probably going back to my old Nokia. With that I never had any of these problems.

[n210mp]

I had the same problem with my iphone, eating credit every very time I topped up, I would put ine 300 baht, not even use the phone and in the morning I would have no credit.

I have now turned everything off, the credit remains but I am probably going back to my old Nokia. With that I never had any of these problems.

Hello Johnh101

From what you and others have said on other forums including a You-tube video on this subject I feel relieved that it is not some thing that I have been doing or not doing that has caused this problem but while I am pleased that it is not my fault I feel as though I have been ripped off by AIS and despite trying through their "Support" system (What a laugh) to get some help feel that AIS must know about this problem and that makes it worse!

[Sophon]

From what you and others have said on other forums including a You-tube video on this subject I feel relieved that it is not some thing that I have been doing or not doing that has caused this problem but while I am pleased that it is not my fault I feel as though I have been ripped off by AIS and despite trying through their "Support" system (What a laugh) to get some help feel that AIS must know about this problem and that makes it worse!

I don't understand why you feel you have been ripped off by AIS. The problem is almost certainly one of how your phone is/was set up and works and has nothing to do with your AIS account. AIS support cannot be expected to be able to help with local settings on your phone, that would require them to know the workings of every one of the thousands of different phones out there.

Sophon

[richsilver]

AIS has a code which will allow you to turn off or on GPRS (Edge) on non-jailbroken phones.

*129# for checking status

*129*#1 turns it on

*129*#2 turns it off

[n210mp]

From what you and others have said on other forums including a You-tube video on this subject I feel relieved that it is not some thing that I have been doing or not doing that has caused this problem but while I am pleased that it is not my fault I feel as though I have been ripped off by AIS and despite trying through their "Support" system (What a laugh) to get some help feel that AIS must know about this problem and that makes it worse!

I don't understand why you feel you have been ripped off by AIS. The problem is almost certainly one of how your phone is/was set up and works and has nothing to do with your AIS account. AIS support cannot be expected to be able to help with local settings on your phone, that would require them to know the workings of every one of the thousands of different phones out there.

Sophon

I will explain why I have been ripped off it is "simples" really Sopon.

The "Mobile Net" is an add on to the call credit, why would you have to buy this credit separately if it wasn't?

Logically then if this Mobile net runs out,expires or you exceed your data allowance should you then lose all your call credit which is purchased separability?

In other words balance of call credit (In my case) 600odd Baht first time, 400 Baht second time, possibly my fault but never the less is it right that should I lose all my call credit because the add-on has expired?

If you look on "Youtube" you will see references to Iphones that have had all their Push turned off their settings and Apps stopped and still have had this problem.

After contacting AIS support I was unsympathetically advised that when the Mobile Net runs out so does your call credit, this is why I feel I have been ripped off!

[Sophon]

The "Mobile Net" is an add on to the call credit, why would you have to buy this credit separately if it wasn't?

I'm not sure I understood your explanation, but you do not "have to" buy mobile net as an add on. You can use the internet without buying any internet package, but it's normally cheaper to buy a package (I don't use AIS buth with DTAC the internet cost is 1 baht per minute if you don't have a package). If you don't have a internet package, or if the credit on your package runs out, the system doesn't cut you off but instead defaults back to the standard price (which for DTAC is 1 baht per minute).

So when your internet package has been used up, then you will start using up your call credit. That's just how it works, and I think most people prefer this to not being able to connect to the inernet anymore, I know I do. It sounds like you are suggesting that all the call credit was just deleted when your internet package ran out, and if that is true I agree with you that it's unreasonable. But I don't believe that's what happened, I believe your call credit was used up (not deleted) by your phone constantly connecting to the net.

Sophon

[H2oDunc]

From what you and others have said on other forums including a You-tube video on this subject I feel relieved that it is not some thing that I have been doing or not doing that has caused this problem but while I am pleased that it is not my fault I feel as though I have been ripped off by AIS and despite trying through their "Support" system (What a laugh) to get some help feel that AIS must know about this problem and that makes it worse!

I don't understand why you feel you have been ripped off by AIS. The problem is almost certainly one of how your phone is/was set up and works and has nothing to do with your AIS account. AIS support cannot be expected to be able to help with local settings on your phone, that would require them to know the workings of every one of the thousands of different phones out there.

Sophon

I will explain why I have been ripped off it is "simples" really Sopon.

The "Mobile Net" is an add on to the call credit, why would you have to buy this credit separately if it wasn't?

Logically then if this Mobile net runs out,expires or you exceed your data allowance should you then lose all your call credit which is purchased separability?

In other words balance of call credit (In my case) 600odd Baht first time, 400 Baht second time, possibly my fault but never the less is it right that should I lose all my call credit because the add-on has expired?

If you look on "Youtube" you will see references to Iphones that have had all their Push turned off their settings and Apps stopped and still have had this problem.

After contacting AIS support I was unsympathetically advised that when the Mobile Net runs out so does your call credit, this is why I feel I have been ripped off!

I will explain this very " simples " for you , ( Whatever the f#$k that means )

There is no separate internet credit just credit so when it is gone it is gone whether you use it on internet or calls.

I have also found the call centre to be very helpful and efficient. Far better than any od the mobile providers back home by far.

It is also yet another reason to stay well clear of Apple products

[smiling mantis]

Went through this myself a little while back.

The setting you're interested in is Settings->General->Network->Cellular Data. Turn it off, and all data transfers over 3G/GPRS/EDGE stop.

It's a pain to get to when you just want to check mail or use Google Maps, so I relented and went with the AIS Unlimited Data plan. Nice if you do want push email. You're paying 799B@month for this though.

I think for most usage you can get away with one of the cheaper by-the-MB packages. I was on the 200MB plan for 299B@month... this would've probably worked well for me but I didn't understand that the phone was always talking to the net over EDGE and so I ended up tethering it to the laptop to avoid paying hotel wifi charges and yeah, once you burn through your data allowance it just sucks the baht right out of your account.

Probably the first thing I would do if/when unlocking my iPhone is to get whatever it is off of Cydia that lets me turn cellular data on or off quickly and easily.

[n210mp]

Went through this myself a little while back.

The setting you're interested in is Settings->General->Network->Cellular Data. Turn it off, and all data transfers over 3G/GPRS/EDGE stop.

It's a pain to get to when you just want to check mail or use Google Maps, so I relented and went with the AIS Unlimited Data plan. Nice if you do want push email. You're paying 799B@month for this though.

I think for most usage you can get away with one of the cheaper by-the-MB packages. I was on the 200MB plan for 299B@month... this would've probably worked well for me but I didn't understand that the phone was always talking to the net over EDGE and so I ended up tethering it to the laptop to avoid paying hotel wifi charges and yeah, once you burn through your data allowance it just sucks the baht right out of your account.

Probably the first thing I would do if/when unlocking my iPhone is to get whatever it is off of Cydia that lets me turn cellular data on or off quickly and easily.

Thanks for an informative,helpful and practical reply, will try what you say but think that if if I do use the Iphone here again it will be on an unlimited package because at least your call credit is never lost.

[n210mp]

The "Mobile Net" is an add on to the call credit, why would you have to buy this credit separately if it wasn't?

I'm not sure I understood your explanation, but you do not "have to" buy mobile net as an add on. You can use the internet without buying any internet package, but it's normally cheaper to buy a package (I don't use AIS buth with DTAC the internet cost is 1 baht per minute if you don't have a package). If you don't have a internet package, or if the credit on your package runs out, the system doesn't cut you off but instead defaults back to the standard price (which for DTAC is 1 baht per minute).

So when your internet package has been used up, then you will start using up your call credit. That's just how it works, and I think most people prefer this to not being able to connect to the inernet anymore, I know I do. It sounds like you are suggesting that all the call credit was just deleted when your internet package ran out, and if that is true I agree with you that it's unreasonable. But I don't believe that's what happened, I believe your call credit was used up (not deleted) by your phone constantly connecting to the net.

Sophon

Thanks Sophon for your reply and I am now sure that this is what has happened to me.