Wild Banchi wrote:
JuanGuapo wrote:
I didn't have or use Facebook. The phone only had two e-mail accounts (Gmail and Hotmail) and a Calendar (Hotmail). AT&T couldn't give me an explanation, if it was received or sent data, and when it was being used.
E-mail accounts could potentially contribute to phantom data usage because the servers are constantly scanning the phone for new e-mails you may have received. And when Wi-Fi is not turned on, guess what it uses? The 3G mobile data network. If your phone has the capability, I would suggest to turn 3G data off when you are not using your phone at night.
Thank you, I appreciate your advice and reply.
However, wife's iPhone 4 had this same exact issue a few months ago. She received a SMS that she was going over her data yet her phone was on WiFi, and maintained so both at home and at work. When it did finally go over 200MB, we looked at the odometer on the phone itself. The data charges on AT&T's side did not match the odometer on the phone, there was a sizeable difference in data between what the phone reported and AT&T reported.
When i called AT&T about it, they denied that the data was being billed inaccurately until I mentioned the odometer on the iPhone 4. They credited the overage when I told them the phone did not match the data count on AT&T's side, no questions asked. If you were to look at her data bill since last July, the data all hovers below 100MB yet for that one particular month, it went over for no clear reason.
Lastly, when I experienced this data billing issue with my Windows Phone, I never received a SMS from AT&T until after the phone had gone over the 200MB threshhold. I received the "your phone has gone over, we are charging you $15 extra" message, then two days later, I received the "your phone is approaching the 200MB limit." The former was confirmed by AT&T customer service and notated on my account.
As an anecdote, Windows Phone will only download the last 7 days worth of e-mail (not all unless you specify).
There is no other rational explanation except that AT&T's billing system for data is inaccurate. I will not purchase another smartphone on AT&T's network until they either offer a competitive unlimited plan (thereby removing data billing issues) or there is more transparancy in how data is billed (ex. accurate timestamps, sent data vs. received data, etc.)
I posted on this at length on my blog (link) with a copy of the data listings on the bill so I don't know what further I can add except what I have already mentioned.
