Help! someone who understands kbs. $7000 roaming bill! am i being ripped off?

[javperezr]

i would greately appreciate some help.
i have read many tales of people who face huge roaming bills because they did not know or misunderstood how much they where being charged for data services while roaming.
this is not my case for i'm a frequent flyer and i have learned the bad way that during travel bb should be used only for essentials.

on february i traveled to australia and got the following bill:
(excerpt)

101 E BlackBerry OPTUS-AUSTRALIA 21/02/2011 04:03:31 BAM 173145 $849.225
102 E BlackBerry OPTUS-AUSTRALIA 21/02/2011 18:11:45 BAM 75734 $378.670
103 E BlackBerry OPTUS-AUSTRALIA 22/02/2011 03:27:14 BAM 304676 $1.523.380

"BAM" stands for "banda ancha movil" which means movil broadband
and the values are in chilean currency (pesos), (but approximately 849.225 pesos are 1600 american dollars. 378.670 pesos are 750 american dollars. and 1.523.380 pesos are 3000 american dollars!!)
i believe the values right after "BAM" are the number of kilobytes i used in that session. looking at the rest of my bill i noticed that i had never used more than 2000 kilobytes in any given session, but here i am using more than 300.000 kb at a time.

does someone understand or know what kind of blackberry activities/apps/browser, could use so many kbs at a given time?
i believe i didn't use any kind of data services on my trip, could this be an app working on its own?

help or advise would be greately appreciated for the company is not giving me any payment facilities.

could i argue that that amount of kb is "impossible" to used at a time?


thanks in advance!

[Motorcycle Mama]

What apps do you have installed on the device?

[javperezr]

facebook, twitter, whatsapp, google maps, the first two i made sure to disable.

[Motorcycle Mama]

Google Maps can use a lot of data. Was it running during your trip?

You originally stated that you "didn't use any kind of data services on my trip".

[gedubraks]

whenever you're roaming out of the original country your blackberry is from, you're paying for the data that goes from country A to country B and that isnt going to be cheap... if you have apps in your bb that automatically connects to the internet in the background to update... you're paying for that as well... seeing your bill.. i feel for you but whats done is done....

my suggestion would be, in future.. simply have your bb unlocked and when you travel to a country... just purchase a local sim card from there... you'll avoid the hefty charges

[Pete6]

Talk to your carrier. In most cases they will waive these huge charges - once - if you play dumb and cry a bit.

[Seijuro]

Originally Posted by Pete6

Talk to your carrier. In most cases they will waive these huge charges - once - if you play dumb and cry a bit.

do exactly that, but dont cry : P
and keep us updated

good luck

[MobileMadness002]

Originally Posted by javperezr

facebook, twitter, whatsapp, google maps, the first two i made sure to disable.

Did you use Google Maps? That a terrible user of data, even worse when traveling abroad. No idea even what whatsapp is so I can't comment on it.

[javperezr]

hi! thank you all for your replies!
but i insist, this is not you typical "roaming fees are too high" thread. what's wrong about this billing is not so much the fees if the amount of kbs.
in simpler words what this billing states is that in a period less than 48 hours i used up way more kbs than what i use in a whole month!
i understand that during roaming each kb is much more expensive that in your home country, none the less, this doesn't mean that your kb usage should increase, to my understanding for the same activity (for example browsing) you should use the same amount of kbs here or in china, is the fee that varies.
so i kindly ask you, do any of you know how much kbs you spend in any given month? i dont understand this kbs issue completely, but i know there's somethig wrong here and i would love it if i had other values to compare this one to.
i apologise for stating i didn't use data services at all, i did use them (emails were received to my bb but not opened, send a couple of bbm messages) but MUCH less than i regularly do. thats why i dont understand how could i have used up more data than in an entire month of heavy use....
thankyou!

[javperezr]

additional info:
i added the amounts of kbs i posted before and it gave me 503555 kbs, which according to bit calculator is 540 MB.... in two days....
any one else thinks there is something wrong here?

[Klotar]

I know this post is over a month old; however, ran across this will searching for something else.

My guess would be Google Maps as at least one of the main culprits. If it was on in the background, it has the potential to consume a LOT of data.

First off, unlike many applications, Google Maps does not close when you press the Escape key or Back button, nor of course, does the red Hang Up button close Google Maps. You can test this by starting up Google Maps, and escaping out. Bring up your switch ribbon and you will find it's still running.

Now, what makes Google Maps consume data is that, while running in the background, it is constantly triangulating your position using GPS and/or Cell Towers. And that is just while you are sitting in one spot. Move around, travel across town, etc., and Google Maps is downloading updated map data as you go!

Add to that if you have a version of Google Maps that has "Latitude". Latitude constantly transmits your location to other Latitude contacts so friends/family can know where you are, update your blog automatically, and so on. As you can imagine, this can consume additional data.

I'm only throwing this theory out there because it's more likely one would use Google Maps when away from home than at home, and it's possible that at least one use of Google Maps without closing it properly (Menu -> Exit) could potentially use a lot of data over a two day period.