Mobile data roaming results in a $62,000 bill for one customer

Oh Look, Another Insane 3G Data Bill [Broadband Reports]

Here's hoping that you're not relying on your mobile phone carrier to serve as your broadband provider. Otherwise, you may be in for a nasty surprise similar to what the customer in this story experienced - in the form of a $62,000 mobile phone bill. CNN and Broadband Reports profile the travail of a mobile phone customer who used his mobile data plan to download the entire Disney/Pixar feature Wall-E while he was traveling in Mexico.

Based on the international roaming charges for data usage, the next month, this customer was greeted to a $62,000 mobile phone bill when he went to the mailbox. A subsequent complaint to the customer's mobile phone provider yielding a reduction of the bill to a still stratospheric $17,000.

Bandwidth has a marginal cost that is higher on wireless networks than on their wireline counterparts. And while I don't recommend using your 3G wireless data card to download HD movies from iTunes (your Insight Broadband connection will be much faster) a $62,000 bill for a download of 2-4 GB of data sounds like a ridiculous error. It is important that when companies have consumption based billing plans for bandwidth usage that they make the plan terms transparent and easy to understand. If this customer realized that he was paying a data roaming surcharge for international data usage that would result in a $62,000 bill, he probably would have waited until he returned to his home broadband connection to download the movie.

Comments

[Steve Huff]

Make sure we remember this quote: "Bandwidth has a marginal cost", it might come in handy if Insight tries to follow Time Warner's lead in Bandwidth Caps.

[Rhett]

Wow. I have had some pretty steep bills, but that $62,000 is insane.