When travelling abroad, you may check your emails or capture photos for sharing with your friends by the smartphone. Users, however, should beware of the risk of an enormous bill with charges for data roaming running up to tens of thousands of dollars.
In a survey on data roaming charges in 8 countries / areas by 6 local service providers, the Consumer Council discovered that the rates ranged from HK$0.05 to HK$0.3 per KB. The cost of sending a 1MB photo (1,024KB) ranged from HK$51.2 to HK$307.2.
Even for the same country, tariffs may vary. The rates for Mainland China and Canada were found to have the slightest difference (HK$0.04 per KB) among operators, while for Australia, the rates could vary as much as 1.5 times between the highest and lowest rate (a difference of HK$0.18 per KB).
Consumers should also note that, while local service providers may charge the same unit-based price, the bills may turn out differently as the minimum charge unit as well as the charge unit thereafter vary among service providers.
For example, sending a 101KB file via a service provider charging at a rate of HK$0.14 per KB, with the minimum charge unit and thereafter charge unit both at 100KB, the customer will receive a bill of HK$28, but for a customer that patronized a service provider with the same price per KB with minimum charge unit and thereafter unit set at 1KB - the sending of the file will cost only half of the former at HK$14.14.
Unexpected charges may also arise when the roaming network is automatically switched over to another one when coverage of the chosen network is not available. As a local service provider is often teamed up with 2 or more networks in an area, this may incur a charge differential of up to HK$0.16 per KB between the highest and lowest charges.
Meanwhile, the 6 local service providers surveyed in the study also provide data roaming day passes.
These passes, covering 7 to 46 areas, enable consumers to enjoy unlimited data roaming at a rate of HK$68 to HK$168 per day in the specified areas.
But these so-called unlimited day passes could have restrictions on the amount and types of data use. In one of these plans, data usage is confined to sending and receiving emails and web browsing, and consumers have to pay a higher rate for file downloads and other functions like audio and video streaming.
In addition, as the Fair Use Policy (FUP) is also applicable to the day passes, consumers may face suspension or restriction of the unlimited roaming service if the data roaming usage of the consumer is considered unacceptable.
Given the limitations of these passes, the Consumer Council called on the service providers to amend the term "unlimited" as it deviates from consumer expectations and may give rise to consumer disputes.
In 2010, the Consumer Council received 172 complaint cases related to data roaming services, and in the first quarter of 2011, 56 cases were received, compared to 35 cases in the corresponding period of 2010, reflecting an increase of 60%. Most of these cases concerned about charges disputes or having the service for data roaming activated without the users' knowledge.
In one case, a consumer subscribed to a day-plan service for overseas data roaming last November. She was told by the operator that the daily charge for Mainland China was HK$75 and HK$120 for areas outside China. She later requested the operator to send her a SMS for confirmation of the service coverage but did not receive any. When she was travelling in Switzerland and Israel, she activated the day-plan service in accordance to the operator's instruction and received the confirmation message.
But after using the service for merely a single day, she got a message that the charges for her data roaming usage had already reached HK$16,000. When she sought verification from the operator, she was told that the two countries were not covered in the plan. The consumer queried why the operator still sent her the confirmation messages if these countries were not within the scope of service.
The service operator explained that overseas data roaming day-plan could be activated anywhere outside Hong Kong and the service would be charged according to terms of the plans. As their day-plan did not cover Switzerland and Israel, the daily charge did not apply.
In another case, a consumer made a request to the operator to disable the data roaming service when she subscribed to the smartphone service. But when she travelled to Macau a month later, she got a message from the operator, saying that the cost of her data roaming usage had exceeded HK$2,000. Though she switched off the phone immediately, she found that the fees had increased to HK$5,000 when she returned to Hong Kong. Later when she called on the provider for an explanation, she was told that the bill had already gone up to over HK$10,000.
The service provider stated that they could not verify if the consumer had actually filed the request for service cancellation, and that the consumer would have to pay for the bill or face service termination if she could not provide the evidence. The consumer later sought assistance from the Council. The service provider found that the consumer had activated the roaming service for web browsing and the complainant finally agreed to extend the service contract for partial exemption of the roaming charges.
Here are some tips when using data roaming services while travelling overseas:
- Check with the service providers the charges, terms and conditions for data roaming before you leave.
- Consider buying a prepaid SIM card for the country to which you are traveling.
- Turn off the automatic data checking when it is not necessary, this will prevent your phone from downloading new data and eating up data usage.
- Make sure your phone is not switched to GPRS or 3G services when you are using free Wi-Fi for data roaming.
- Go to the mobile phone settings and reset the network selection to a manual setting to avoid automatic switching.
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