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T-Mobile G1 Internet Access Can’t Be Turned Off

Categories: Android, GPhone, HTC, T-Mobile
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 PM

If you travel abroad a lot, you might want to leave your T-Mobile G1 at home… That is, unless you want to rack up a nice chunk of change in roaming charges.

A tipster recently dropped a note over to the folks at Gizmodo, telling them that his data roaming bill had reached $102.85… Even though he had data roaming, data sync and 3G turned off on his G1. Puzzling.

The tipster was from the US, and was bound for the UK on a trip. Naturally, he called T-Mo to inquire about international calling and data charges. After talking with a representative he was told that data roaming would be charged at $10/MB, however if he did not access the internet while away everything would be a-ok. In reality, while in the UK he was charged roughly $0.15 for every 3 to 7 minutes on average… and not all of it was from calls and texts… as he put it, it was ‘almost as if the phone is pinging’. Looks like it was.

Upon returning home he picked up the phone and called T-Mobile yet again. This time with a bit of a bee in his bonnet. Naturally things didn’t go too well, and after a few conversations a supervisor finally revealed that the T-Mobile G1 always accesses the internet… Even if you are not making calls or sending messages… and even if the data roaming features are turned off. The advice given at the end of the conversation from T-Mobile? ‘The phone should have been left in the USA to avoid these charges’.

My word. I’m speechless.

[Via: Gizmodo]

About The Author

James Falconer

James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in the tech blogosphere. Online community building and strategy is fast becoming one of his passions. Watch for James' no frills attitude, unique perspective and to-the-point comments here on IntoMobile!

  • will

    I wonder if there’s an app to monitor network traffic and locate and/or block network-enabled apps. (though you’d think the built in options would do that…)

  • Dan

    I was just in Asia and did not have this issue. Seems strange. Perhaps “tipster” is trying to scam he system.

  • fa

    Thank you so much for the link SA, I’ve downloaded the application so hopefully it’ll all be ok when I go away soon