No More Unexpected Data Roaming Charges?

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No More Unexpected Data Roaming Charges?

Postby jon » Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:11 am

There was a News story in the last year about a lady who went to Egypt with a smartphone and came home to a TELUS phone bill for data roaming charges in the tens of thousands of dollars. Rogers must have had some similar cases:

Rogers Launches Canada's First real-time usage alerts for worry free roaming
Canada NewsWire
TORONTO, Aug. 3, 2011

New data roaming passes give Rogers customers' greater choice, more flexibility and cost-savings when they travel

TORONTO, Aug. 3, 2011 /CNW/ - As roughly five million Canadians prepare to travel this August, Rogers Communications announced today the launch of innovative new roaming solutions to help Canadians easily manage their data use while traveling outside of Canada.

Starting immediately, Rogers customers on a Roaming Data Pass will be the first in Canada to benefit from real-time data usage alerts while roaming abroad, giving cost certainty and peace of mind. These new Roaming Data Passes start at $5 per day for both customers and small businesses.

The real-time usage alerts (up-to-date within five minutes) will be sent directly to a customer's mobile device allowing them to monitor and control their data usage. To provide further cost certainty, if a customer exceeds their time or data limit on a pass, they will be notified and then asked to make a choice to either continue at a pay-per-use rate or to purchase another roaming data pass.

"Customers have told us they're concerned about roaming costs because they don't have a true sense of how much data they use when travelling abroad," said Raj Doshi, Vice President of Mobile Product Management, Rogers Communications Inc. "We've worked with wireless carriers around the world to deliver this innovative solution exclusively for our customers. The real-time data usage alerts will take the guess work out of roaming while our new data passes will give customers more choice and ways to save money, creating a worry-free travel experience."

Rogers' customers can choose from a wide selection of new, affordable day and week Roaming Data Passes depending on their usage needs. Passes are available for both U.S. and International destinations. To make it even easier, data passes can either be pre-purchased before leaving Canada or purchased while roaming directly from a customer's mobile device.

Last month, Rogers also introduced new unlimited U.S. roaming text messaging offers. Customers now have the option to purchase an unlimited U.S. roaming text messaging pass for $10 (valid for 48 hours) or an unlimited U.S. roaming text messaging travel pack (valid for one month).

"These new options make roaming even more affordable for Canadians," said Doshi. "We're continually introducing new plans and new solutions to give our customers the freedom to use their mobile devices worry free when they travel."

All roaming offers can be added by texting "Travel" to 7626 or visiting http://www.rogers.com/m/roam directly on a mobile device. Also, customers are sent a text message when they first arrive at their travel destination with a link to purchase discounted roaming offers directly from their mobile device.

Please visit http://www.rogers.com/roaming for more information on roaming and roaming offers.
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jon
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Re: No More Unexpected Data Roaming Charges?

Postby PMC » Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:12 pm

$10 for 2 days of texting is a bit rich, unless you write hundreds of messages everyday, and then what are you on a holiday for ? :)

The other option is to buy a throw away phone in the place that you are going to be for awhile, if you are only going to be carrying a phone for emergency purposes etc.
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Re: No More Unexpected Data Roaming Charges?

Postby jon » Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:56 pm

It looks like even a trip to the U.S. can get very expensive:

Roaming charges leave Edmonton woman with $13,000 phone bill
Global News: Friday, July 29, 2011

An Edmonton woman has learned an important lesson about cell phone roaming charges after receiving a bill for more than $10,000.

"I received a phone call from TELUS saying that the account had come across the upper management desk for extreme roaming charges and at that time they told me that I owed them $11,000," said Gabriela Yates.

Yates' husband had been travelling in Florida, and thought that his phone plan covered calls made from the United States.

"My understanding was that we'd done everything we needed to do to make sure that (he) could use that while he was there," Yates said.

TELUS says they notify customers with message alerts when they are roaming into other countries. After discussing the issue with TELUS representatives, Yates’ fees were reduced to $500.

“Definitely call you phone company first,” Yates said. “If you have a data stick and a telephone make sure you ask specifically if the telephone is going to incur roaming charges as well as the Internet stick.”

Wireless charges in Canada are amongst the lowest in the world, but TELUS says it's important to research fees before leaving the country.

ref. - http://www.globalsaskatoon.com/Roaming+ ... story.html
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Re: No More Unexpected Data Roaming Charges?

Postby PMC » Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:45 pm

If the above fellow went to any AT&T outlet in Florida, he could have bought/registered his air card for a month, or three months, used it as a local resident, and saved alot of hassle and money.... if you make alot of phone calls get a Magicjack number. it works anywhere in north america and they have packages for other countries. I have a magicjack and it works great. Plugs into any Windoze computer via the USB. It can use an external regular phone, or a headset and mic plugged into the machine.

Before you travel give some thought to the communications that you use, and how it can work for you, and rather than against you.

http://www.magicjack.com/
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