US Data Charges - be aware

[Anonymous]

Does anybody else find the US data roaming charges of £6 per MB excessive, just arrived in the US and quickly checked something on the internet, found out this has cost me £32.

Is this O2 recovering revenue it's now lossing on EU roaming charges.

Make sure you switch your data services off before you land stateside or you could end up with a big bill, I only realised that i was using so much data when I got the txt to say I'd gone over £20.

I've just changed from a Blackberry Bold to a Q10 and on my previous contract I never spent more than £15 per month on data while in the US, seems that the data rates ofr the US have gone through the roof.

[jonsie]

Yes outside the UK and Europe, data is ridiculously expensive. Just use wifi where possible.

[Bambino]

Best thing, in fact the only thing to do if you're in the US is take your O2 sim out of your phone and use a local sim, or find free WiFi and use that. Roaming charges while in the US have always been expensive.

[Anonymous]

There should really be a limit on the amount they can charge £6 per mb in this day and age is daylight robbery I wonder if ofcom could get the charges made sensible

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've just changed from a Blackberry Bold to a Q10 and on my previous contract I never spent more than £15 per month on data while in the US, seems that the data rates ofr the US have gone through the roof.

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There is your problem! If you had an old Bold 9900, you would be using the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) which compresses all data. This is why you would appear to use very little data at home and abroad.

The new BlackBerry 10 devices like the Z10 and Q10 dont use BIS any more and so handle data in the same way as other smartphones. So, where your normal usage wouldnt amount to much on BIS, it quickly mounts up and costs alot when you dont use it any more.

For example, when I had my Bold 9900 I would use around 55Mb of data in a month...sicne getting my Z10 I am averaging around 750Mb of data every month. Thats also connecting to WiFi at every opportunity!

Unfortunately O2 do make it clear how much data is going to cost you when abroad, and even send a text detailing how much it will be, so they arent at fault. All you can do when in the US is turn off Data Roaming and only connect to WiFi where its available.

[adamtemp64]

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@Anonymous wrote:
There should really be a limit on the amount they can charge £6 per mb in this day and age is daylight robbery I wonder if ofcom could get the charges made sensible

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O2 do limit the £6 per mb to max £40 inline with eu cap (but do not have to) and the £40 gives according to the international pages

* O2 will automatically cap your data usage to £40 (50 MB) a month whilst you're abroad

So if you use the 50mb it is not £6 a mb but 80p a mb

@Anonymous It has for as long as I can remember been £6 a mb in the usa nothing to do with eu caps as this old thread on here will confirm pre eu caps http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Apple-iOS-Devices-iPhone-iPad/What-does-6-per-Mb-mean/m-p/40095#M22090

[Anonymous]

I didn't mean a limit to the amount I meant a limit on the price per mb surely no one can justify £6 a mb it's a total con

[jonsie]

It's a case of think of a price and then treble it!

[Anonymous]

Seems that way surely ofcom would have some say on this

[perksie]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Seems that way surely ofcom would have some say on this

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What could Ofcom do about prices charged by USA operators or any other country?