Tue 18 Dec 2007
Swisscom roaming GPRS data fraud
Posted by lynxman under Apple, Gadgets, Networking
[4] Comments
Recently as a good Apple geek I got an iPhone on my last trip to the US, and got it unlocked so I could use it with my Swisscom SIM Card.
I’ve been a happy camper all along, got a nice business data package (50Mb per month) and also the roaming preferential package (CHF 5 per month) so the price per Mb of transfer while roaming would be lower (CHF 3 instead of CHF 14).
The iPhone works wonderfully in Switzerland’s Swisscom network, the phone takes advantage of the extended EDGE Swisscom network so I can fully use Google Maps or check the weather or my e-mail no matter where I am, even in the middle of the Alps, all of this joy turns into a nightmare when roaming in foreign countries.
This last month I’ve been visiting the UK and Spain for business affairs, being confident of the iPhone’s ability to measure EDGE/GPRS traffic I used Google Maps to guide myself around London city center and to find good restaurants in Barcelona, all of this only consumed 1.9Mb of transfer (800kb upstream and 1.1Mb downstream) so I was expeting a 2Mb or a 3Mb charge maximum.
I’ve got a 28.6 Mb charge, which amounted to CHF 140 approximately.
To my disbelief I called immediately Swisscom customer line, even if the helpdesk was a bit harsh at first (calling me a liar for saying that the bill was wrong) I finally got them to pass me through to a technical support person, which helpfully investigated the matter.
I’ve got a call back from the technical support to confirm that the bill amounted to 28.6Mb due to the fact that Swisscom roaming partnerships force Swisscom to charge a minimum of 30kb per session (up t0 a minimum of 300kb per session in Spain!!!), and they consider a session each time the telephone connects to the GPRS network, so this means that each time that I was checking Google Maps in Spain I was being billed 300kb even if I was using 1kb or 2kb maximum, a shameful ripoff.
Even if I kept complaining about this fact pointing out that it’s not my problem that Swisscom has such a bad partnership deals of which I were not warned about at any time, I’m now forced to pay the full bill and I’ve been told by the technician that my telephone is defective and I should get another one that only connects into the GPRS network once and leave the connection open so I can avoid multiple charges, so it looks like now an iPhone is defective in Swisscom eyes, amazing.
This is the kind of treatment and very user unfriendly deals that screws up us European users, and the kind of torment that Canadian users of Rogers suffer as well, this telephone is clearly ahead of its time and it looks like it’s way ahead the comprehension of my mobile phone network, which is not up to the challenge of making a user friendly comprehensible charging data network.
Shame on you Swisscom.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Hi Marc,
I had a similar problem, but in my case with ATT US.
After a long and dummy discussion with both help desk and technical department, the main conclusions are:
1) My phone is like shit
2) My phone is not compatible with ATT US
3) It’s a ATT problem
It’s clear that last two points doesn’t make sense for an iphone bought in 5th Ave ;-)
Anyway, the main problem is in the concept it self… I can accept to pay 30Kb per “session” but then I did the following question…
“If in 1 minute or less my phone opens 3 connections, I will be charged 30 or 90 Kb ?”
And winner is 90Kb, so…
GPRS is a “data switching” protocol, there is no “circuit” switching”. So the protocol is designed to work “connecting” for every single packet.
Is like to say a packet minimum size is 30Kb…
So this rule is incorrect, as they are based on “common usage”, not in the protocol. They have to invoice packets, or bytes, but not connections as connection is not intrinsic of the protocol and can be done in different ways…
In my point of view, is an abuse of dominant position or a cartel situation and governments has to act and clearly say this is ILLEGAL! (or IMMORAL ).
As end users we do not have any “claim” method…
I can’t understand why Europeans or world GSM citizens we do not unite against abusive roaming practices.
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Thanks guys for those explanations…
I was wondering why my Swisscom online bill showed that i used “30kb” many times a day, even if i didn’t use any webservice at that time.
Unfortunately, most of the time my Carrier changes from Swisscom to SFR (France) as i live on the edge of Leman lake, which is close to the frontier.
Then i believe that my iPhone is just “checking” if GPRS works when i get connected to the new carrier. And then i’m billed 30KB :-/
I’m gonna check if it’s possible for the iPhone to “stick” just with 1 unique carrier. Otherwise i’ll proboably just switch off GPRS when i don’t use it… while fighting with Swisscom helpdesk.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Your phone shouldn’t be closing connections it still needs. Also, this is the price you pay for using a phone that’s designed for one network, and one network only (They can design for AT&T’s partnership agreements, because you are only supposed to be using the phone on their network). Your phone was designed with AT&T in mind, and AT&T probably has arrangements that don’t have such high per-connect minimums. You took the risk, you got burned.
February 17th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Sorry to disagree Mike, Operators should warn beforehand about this different metrics depending on the roaming operator, right now O2 UK (my actual operator) texts me when I’m roaming informing me of the data roaming charges per different connection, that’s the way it should be done!