Sudden Huge Phone Bill

[Wiggy]

I've suddenly received a bill for over 5,000 baht for "Internet usage" on my iPhone when my monthly bill for the last 6 years has been around 1,000. Now, I've had the phone (3gs) for 9 months, so am aware of push email, and how iPhones can connect without the user being aware etc. I've changed no functions on the phone (apps or otherwise) for about a month now. But, on the 15th September the charges started coming. DTAC say there is nothing wrong in the network (not surprisingly) and I am using the internet - but that's just it, I'm not - my phone is. I could go to the unlimited package for my internet but that's 999 baht/month with DTAC and I'm a really light internet user (or was!).

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[TheLaughingMan]

You changed something, something you think doesnt matter but does. You said you hadnt changed anything for about a month now, well what did you change a month ago?

[HDRIDER]

Hi

Go to general=usage and reset and then keep an eye on it, everybody without a data plan should do, know a guy, went to Europe and got a very very big bill

[prism]

Did you turn "Notifications" to on in your settings? Make sure they're off along with your push email. If your not using iOS 4.0 yet try changing your APN entries to a fake one in your Network settings. This will disable your internet. If you have iOS 4.0 or later you can easily toggle Cellular Data on or off in the settings.

[powderpuff]

So your normal bill is about 1000 per month yet you object to paying 999 for unlimited.

Curious.

[HDRIDER]

So your normal bill is about 1000 per month yet you object to paying 999 for unlimited.

Curious.

Hi

AIS 650 per month for unlimited data

[Wiggy]

So your normal bill is about 1000 per month yet you object to paying 999 for unlimited.

Curious.

But that would mean my bill would rise to 2,000 (1,000 + 999)

[Wiggy]

Did you turn "Notifications" to on in your settings? Make sure they're off along with your push email. If your not using iOS 4.0 yet try changing your APN entries to a fake one in your Network settings. This will disable your internet. If you have iOS 4.0 or later you can easily toggle Cellular Data on or off in the settings.

Thanks for the advice. Notifications have always been off, and I am aware of the cellular data toggle as it is now off, although I used to leave it on with no problems. I could disable the internet completely - but then what use is an iPhone without it? It's then just another phone, and an expensive one at that. I'll keep trying to sort it.

[Wiggy]

So your normal bill is about 1000 per month yet you object to paying 999 for unlimited.

Curious.

Hi

AIS 650 per month for unlimited data

Yes, I saw that but I don't want to change my number.

[Wiggy]

You changed something, something you think doesnt matter but does. You said you hadnt changed anything for about a month now, well what did you change a month ago?

I upgraded to iOS4 in the first week of September. These new charges started 2 weeks later.

[onnut]

To use an iPhone in the way it was designed to be used and to get more enjoyment out of it get an Internet plan.

My bill never goes over 3k a month and I use it for business calls, E-mail and looking at Thaivisa 24 hours a day. I also call home every week. My Internet plan with true is 699 baht.

[TheLaughingMan]

To use an iPhone in the way it was designed to be used and to get more enjoyment out of it get an Internet plan.

My bill never goes over 3k a month and I use it for business calls, E-mail and looking at Thaivisa 24 hours a day. I also call home every week. My Internet plan with true is 699 baht.

My bill is 500 baht per month and I leave internet on all the time, why would people like me want to pay 3k?! It always amazes me how rich people think things like 3k for a phone bill is normal or good?! This is THAILAND, its supposed to be cheap.

The op should be able to leave internet on all the time, something has changed.

[onnut]

To use an iPhone in the way it was designed to be used and to get more enjoyment out of it get an Internet plan.

My bill never goes over 3k a month and I use it for business calls, E-mail and looking at Thaivisa 24 hours a day. I also call home every week. My Internet plan with true is 699 baht.

My bill is 500 baht per month and I leave internet on all the time, why would people like me want to pay 3k?! It always amazes me how rich people think things like 3k for a phone bill is normal or good?! This is THAILAND, its supposed to be cheap.

The op should be able to leave internet on all the time, something has changed.

Like I said I use it a lot and call home a lot. But to have it on Internet unlimited plus 3G it costs 699 a month. So why not get a plan so the phone can be used with piece of mind?

[Wiggy]

To use an iPhone in the way it was designed to be used and to get more enjoyment out of it get an Internet plan.

My bill never goes over 3k a month and I use it for business calls, E-mail and looking at Thaivisa 24 hours a day. I also call home every week. My Internet plan with true is 699 baht.

My bill is 500 baht per month and I leave internet on all the time, why would people like me want to pay 3k?! It always amazes me how rich people think things like 3k for a phone bill is normal or good?! This is THAILAND, its supposed to be cheap.

The op should be able to leave internet on all the time, something has changed.

Like I said I use it a lot and call home a lot. But to have it on Internet unlimited plus 3G it costs 699 a month. So why not get a plan so the phone can be used with piece of mind?

I had a plan - it was 99baht for 20hrs/month and the most I'd ever used before was 202 minutes in a month. That was with Cellular Data - on, Data roaming - on, Location services - on. Then it changed without any input from me and it clocked up 138 hours in 6 days - difficult to believe I know.

[Lost in LOS]

check under the fetch data and turn all those off, beware there is a second page to it and it might be on there

i got tired of watching it and now have the unlimited Edge on Ais for around 700 baht a month. This will bring your phone bill way down since when it connects to the E network you phone bill will go up, with the package you will only get charged for phone calls and all internet will be free

[Lazy Sod]

Almost exactly the same thing has happened to me. Had the iphone almost a year with 20 hrs AIS data package, never went over that until last month. Thought it was a one-off, but then the same thing happened this month. I called AIS and the guy told me I had to turn off cellular data or buy the unlimited package. I asked him why when I only use it less than 20 hrs. He said that it was a quirk with the iphone, no choice, have to turn cellular data on/off as required or buy unlimited package. I'm familiar with the iphone settings, checked them all as far as I can tell. Can't figure it out. Something has changed for sure.

[Lazy Sod]

Oh, and another thing. Previously I was told that we are not using up the data time unless the little circle thingy is rotating (indicating data transfer), and that seemed to be the case for the last year. Recently the circle has certainly not been appearing/rotating any more than usual, but I've somehow used up more than 20 hrs. I mean there is data transfer happening in the background now.

[dominique355]

So your normal bill is about 1000 per month yet you object to paying 999 for unlimited.

Curious.

Hi

AIS 650 per month for unlimited data

My wife had (or has, nut sure yet) this package, but the latest invoice from AIS was over THB 7,700. So we went to the AIS service center and asked why. They explained that the data package was canceled, which is not true. Then they said, we did not extend it. Why do we have to extend it? Isn't it running until explicitly canceled? we asked, but the guy knew no answer. We refused to pay and he said AIS will contact us. But they didn't.

So let's see if and when they will cut us off.

[Lammbock]

Guys, guys, guuuuys...

Sign up for the Unlimited packet at your operator.

I got AIS for 650 Baht.

Internet, Push Email, Notifications ect ect, running 24 hour.

Just if you travel oversea turn your internet service of by using: *129*1# to turn Internet off and *129*2# to turn on

Thats for AIS.

Don't know DTAC or TRUE

[Wiggy]

Almost exactly the same thing has happened to me. Had the iphone almost a year with 20 hrs AIS data package, never went over that until last month. Thought it was a one-off, but then the same thing happened this month. I called AIS and the guy told me I had to turn off cellular data or buy the unlimited package. I asked him why when I only use it less than 20 hrs. He said that it was a quirk with the iphone, no choice, have to turn cellular data on/off as required or buy unlimited package. I'm familiar with the iphone settings, checked them all as far as I can tell. Can't figure it out. Something has changed for sure.

I'm glad I'm not the only one (I don't mean that in a nasty way). It does look though like I've sorted it. I did a complete restore of the phone back to factory settings on my Mac last night and restarted the phone like it had just come out of the box. So far, so good. I'm checking my usage hourly with DTAC and it's back to normal levels again. This is with cellular data, location settings and wi-fi all turned on. There must be a bug in there somewhere. I'll post any further developments.

[Wiggy]

Guys, guys, guuuuys...

Sign up for the Unlimited packet at your operator.

I got AIS for 650 Baht.

Internet, Push Email, Notifications ect ect, running 24 hour.

Just if you travel oversea turn your internet service of by using: *129*1# to turn Internet off and *129*2# to turn on

Thats for AIS.

Don't know DTAC or TRUE

Hmm. Sign up for an unlimited package and double my phone bill (DTAC is 999 baht/month). Good idea.

[bdenner]

Your contract expired and they charged you at 1 baht per minute. AIS did this to me several years ago and I refused to pay them as they did not give me warning that the 2 year contract was about to or had expired.

Back in the early 2000's one required a post paid account to get a GPRS package and it had to be in a Thai's name, in my case TW. After the shlt hit the fan then for some 3 years we received all sorts of threatening letters from all sorts of collection agencies and corporate lawyers but we refused to pay the 4000 baht. I had offered to renew the contract back dated to the expiry but the effin fools at AIS didn't want to know.

[Lost in LOS]

I have it monthly and several days before it expires it sends a message to me saying. your internet will renew in x days. they are waring you to have the proper amount of baht in your phone so it can renew. dont know what happens if you dont have the 700 baht in your account

before this package I used to get 2000-3000 baht phone bills. now, internet 700+- baht and 600 phone bill

[moneyshot]

I have also just experienced the exact same thing with dtac using an iphone 3gs!

I've had the phone for over one year and never had a data usage issue until this month... Im familiar with the iphone settings and don't use push or notifications etc.

After checking through my mobile bill online (skipping through the 106 pages!), edge/gprs has been clicking on around every 4-5 minutes for around 3 minutes of usage. My data plan is charged by the minute... In 10 days I have apparently used around 110 hours!

The thing is my phone is almost always in a wireless network and my wireless network has had no problems in the past month. I thought the iphone would only use a wireless network when available over any mobile internet..? The manager in the dtac shop claimed that an iphone will use both wireless and edge/gprs at the same time but I can't find anything on apple's website or others to support this.

Also what app or phone feature would use internet every 5 minutes?

I don't mind to pay if its a problem with my phone but I can't help but wonder if its a glitch on dtac's end...

Edited October 5, 2010 by moneyshot

[HDRIDER]

Also what app or phone feature would use internet every 5 minutes?

Check them out (the apps) a lot will go on line all the time for update, again why don't you guys get a data plan, its 650 a month and you don't have to think about it any more, surf 24/7 can it be much easier?

[moneyshot]

I probably will just go with an unlimited data plan now but it does seem somewhat of a waste as up until this past 2 weeks my usage has never been over 50 hours/month. I pay 200 baht for 50 hours or 1000 for unlimited with dtac...

I am still curious as to what has been using the internet every 5 minutes and also why the iphone has chosen to use edge/gprs over wi-fi... There are some reports that claim the iphone will turn off wifi whilst asleep thus using edge/gprs for any apps updating or accessing the internet. This could explain why my mobile data is up and I suppose an update to an existing app which now uses the internet constantly could explain the frequent data usage intervals...

[HDRIDER]

I probably will just go with an unlimited data plan now but it does seem somewhat of a waste as up until this past 2 weeks my usage has never been over 50 hours/month. I pay 200 baht for 50 hours or 1000 for unlimited with dtac...

I am still curious as to what has been using the internet every 5 minutes and also why the iphone has chosen to use edge/gprs over wi-fi... There are some reports that claim the iphone will turn off wifi whilst asleep thus using edge/gprs for any apps updating or accessing the internet. This could explain why my mobile data is up and I suppose an update to an existing app which now uses the internet constantly could explain the frequent data usage intervals...

Try to reset usage and then keep an eye on it to see what goes on settings=general=usage=reset

[Wiggy]

I have also just experienced the exact same thing with dtac using an iphone 3gs!

I've had the phone for over one year and never had a data usage issue until this month... Im familiar with the iphone settings and don't use push or notifications etc.

After checking through my mobile bill online (skipping through the 106 pages!), edge/gprs has been clicking on around every 4-5 minutes for around 3 minutes of usage. My data plan is charged by the minute... In 10 days I have apparently used around 110 hours!

The thing is my phone is almost always in a wireless network and my wireless network has had no problems in the past month. I thought the iphone would only use a wireless network when available over any mobile internet..? The manager in the dtac shop claimed that an iphone will use both wireless and edge/gprs at the same time but I can't find anything on apple's website or others to support this.

Also what app or phone feature would use internet every 5 minutes?

I don't mind to pay if its a problem with my phone but I can't help but wonder if its a glitch on dtac's end...

Very interesting.. I'm starting to think it's something to do with DTAC. Anyone else out there with the same issue?

[merijn]

I took a unlimited data package with AIS with my Iphone 4.

760 baht a month taken from my prepaid account and no number change.

My phone is online 24 hrs a day with every system turned on.

So if anything goes wrong I only lose the prepaid money.

I don’t think it is a bad price for this as I use it a lot.

[HDRIDER]

Tell them you got a Black Berry and its only 650 a month with AIS, they dont want to see the unit.