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Nov 19, 2010
More suggestions to end data roaming woes
I REFER to the letters by Mr Ernest Chan ('Student billed $1,100 for 29 min of data use'; Tuesday) and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore ('IDA's advice on data roaming'; Wednesday).
The first letter tells about a Singaporean overseas who unknowingly downloaded $1,100 worth of data while he slept. The phone companies collect the fees from us but on behalf of whom? If they would tell us the suspicious sites, we could block them.
The IDA letter proposes a few solutions but missed a big one: The telcos could say to overseas data providers: 'Sorry, but we will no longer collect suspicious charges on your behalf.' They could also turn over all the evidence to overseas authorities and to the victims as well.
Telco customers can use the Consumer Protection Fair Trading Act to protect themselves but it would take a court decision to know for sure.
Big picture: It smells like a scam when consumers incur huge roaming charges for data they did not request.
SingTel, StarHub and M1 act as collection agents for whoever sends the unsolicited data. They should disclose on their websites who sends the data, the telcos' remuneration for collecting on their behalf, how much they have collected so far; and, most importantly, how the telcos justify not returning the money to customers.
Larry Haverkamp
========================================================
The other time, Larry is complaining about the casino displaying the odds, which the casinos clarified that the odds are stated clearly on the tables.
Now this time he is about high data charges from roaming overseas.
To summarise, if anyone goes to overseas and just switch off data roaming on their smartphones, there would be no data charges. Simple. The complexity of newer models of smartphones have made people who used them become more stupid and reliant on everything.
If roaming overseas, and do not want to incur roaming data charges, switch it off and that's it. What's the point of not switching it off, and gets slapped a big bill because of their auto downloads of mails, roaming, tethering and then come back and complain?
From here we can also realise that smartphones are smart but the people who use them wouldn't be smarter just by using a smartphone
Home > ST Forum > Story
Nov 19, 2010
More suggestions to end data roaming woes
I REFER to the letters by Mr Ernest Chan ('Student billed $1,100 for 29 min of data use'; Tuesday) and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore ('IDA's advice on data roaming'; Wednesday).
The first letter tells about a Singaporean overseas who unknowingly downloaded $1,100 worth of data while he slept. The phone companies collect the fees from us but on behalf of whom? If they would tell us the suspicious sites, we could block them.
The IDA letter proposes a few solutions but missed a big one: The telcos could say to overseas data providers: 'Sorry, but we will no longer collect suspicious charges on your behalf.' They could also turn over all the evidence to overseas authorities and to the victims as well.
Telco customers can use the Consumer Protection Fair Trading Act to protect themselves but it would take a court decision to know for sure.
Big picture: It smells like a scam when consumers incur huge roaming charges for data they did not request.
SingTel, StarHub and M1 act as collection agents for whoever sends the unsolicited data. They should disclose on their websites who sends the data, the telcos' remuneration for collecting on their behalf, how much they have collected so far; and, most importantly, how the telcos justify not returning the money to customers.
Larry Haverkamp
========================================================
The other time, Larry is complaining about the casino displaying the odds, which the casinos clarified that the odds are stated clearly on the tables.
Now this time he is about high data charges from roaming overseas.
To summarise, if anyone goes to overseas and just switch off data roaming on their smartphones, there would be no data charges. Simple. The complexity of newer models of smartphones have made people who used them become more stupid and reliant on everything.
If roaming overseas, and do not want to incur roaming data charges, switch it off and that's it. What's the point of not switching it off, and gets slapped a big bill because of their auto downloads of mails, roaming, tethering and then come back and complain?
From here we can also realise that smartphones are smart but the people who use them wouldn't be smarter just by using a smartphone
