Huge O2 GPRS Charges

kevinleesmith

I have started this thread as a realted one was so out of date.

I am interested in hearing frmo anyone who is getting huge O2 GPRS charges on their account. Particulary if they were around the end of 2007 and the begining of 2008.

The tell tale sign is that you will have a large charge on one day (e.g. over £400) for GPRS usage.

I am gathering together details from anyone affected as O2 think their systems are not lying even though their systems are telling them that we have downloaded an impossible amount of data over gprs (e.g. 260MB in 16 hours)

Please email me at [EMAIL="kevin@notleyit.com"]kevin@notleyit.com[/EMAIL] - the more people we gather together the more chance we have of getting O2 to think a little bit.

Cheers,
Kevin.

weegie.geek

I'm not sure what flavour of GPRS O2 offer, but this site lists GPRS speeds, and I've seen several people say they've had 70kbps via GPRS.

That makes 260MB in 16 hours very possible. Maxing out 70kbps (and this is only downstream, not upstream as well - i assume both are chargeable) you can theoretically do 492MB in 16 hours.

260MB in 16 hours is @37kbps - well within the realm of possibility, especially when upstream is considered.

I'm sure you didn't actually use this amount of data, because really, who in their right mind would use GPRS, with the ludicrous costs involved, for that amount of transfer? Especially when you could do that in a few minutes with broadband.


Just don't use the "it's not physically possible to DO that" defence with O2, because you might get the one CS agent who knows something.

[Deleted User]

It really is worth paying the 7.50 for 200mb of GPRS usage a month.. much better than 1mb for a quid

kevinleesmith

I take your points, but as the site you refer to points out

"while GPRS theoretically could deliver 172.2kbps by using all 8 timeslots without any error correction in practice network configurations will allow up to 40kbps"

The problem is because of the large amount of data and the time it was used in, you would need perfect conditions of excellent reception, access to all timeslices, no other network traffic, and no network latency none of which would all happen together.

I don't disagree that it maybe theoretically possible (although even then I am not completely convinced) but it seems to me that in real world conditions it would be impossible.

One other nugget of info which I failed to post was that the other 2 people who have so far contacted me have also had exactly the same problem and all three of us the dates were 30/12/2007 and 31/12/2007.

I would also hasten to add that one ladies phone was physically turned off!

kevinleesmith

ringo_24601 wrote: »

It really is worth paying the 7.50 for 200mb of GPRS usage a month.. much better than 1mb for a quid

Not when they claim that you are using 260MB a day!

Cavey

ringo_24601 wrote: »

It really is worth paying the 7.50 for 200mb of GPRS usage a month.. much better than 1mb for a quid

I rarely use the GPRS data (which I have 1Mb free with O2 online) as I know how expensive it can be and the phone I have can use WiFi instead, but I kind of want to get into the anywhere-email system. (See below).

At one point with my old phone I was getting charged GPRS data to recieve MMS messages - it was connecting incorrectly to collect them and being seen as data traffic and therefore got deducted from my 1Mb quota and then cost me money when that ran out rather than making the MMS specific connection (although this only cost me a total of £9, so I chalked it up to experience). I don't know if it could sit there chatting to itself over the network to rack up 260Mb in a day, but it might be a thought (in which case I would guess it was incorrect billing). What phone have you got? How do you get your bills? How well are they broken down?

And a related question of my own.....

Now I've seen these bolt-ons which came in since my last upgrade/contract extension (which was late june early july) but they seem to require a change of contract. At the moment I get free voicemail (which I don't really care about - if it becomes not free I will disable it) and my minutes rollover (which is the the thing I really like - choice between this and GPRS and I'd most likely take the roll over). It's now the £30 O2 online 12 month contract (500 texts, 200 minutes from June 2006), but I pay £25 for it (following O2 retntion June 2007).

Any idea what, if anything, I would have to forgo to get onto one of the more reasonable GPRS packages?

vickib1984

Hi there,

I have received a huge bill from O2 which is the result of using GPRS. I cannot understand their justification of charging such massive prices, especially when my usage would have been well within the limits of a 'bolt-on' (if I had had one! :embarasse). I have absoutely no idea about how kb/mb would translate into real time and I can't quite remember exact details regarding how long I would have used it for.

Kevin, I have emailed you directly. Please help!!!!

proplusplus

GPRS in an EDGE enable phone can get upto around 240mbps.

in a 3-G enabled phone, you can get upto 384.4kbps.

in a 3g+ phone, you can get 1mb+ speeds.

so all depends on your phone +SIM.

common connections to GPRS include:

email set-up on phone to check every 1-5mins.
being on a page which auto-refreshes.
using handset as a modem.
using GPRS when you think you are using WIFI.


proplusplus

d123

Have a look on the forum at What Mobile magazine, there are people on their complaining about the same problem.

kevinleesmith

d123 wrote: »

Have a look on the forum at What Mobile magazine, there are people on their complaining about the same problem.

Thanks - I'll take a look...

FYI - I am building up a list of people who are experiencing the same problem from O2 and gathering data into a spreadsheet.

If anyone else is experiencing the same problem, please contact me at [EMAIL="kevin@notleyit.com"]kevin@notleyit.com[/EMAIL] as the more information we gather together the more chance we have of proving to O2 (for that is what we have to do) that there is a problem on their side.

As an aside my SIM has been removed from my phone since 3rd jan and today O2 has categorically told me that a certain other mobile number has been called using my sim in my phone.....another impossibility.

kevinleesmith

UPDATE - I am speaking with someone from O2 is intelligent (yes, they do exist!!!:rotfl: ) He is digging into this for me. One thing I have found out (which I believe will lead to the ultimate problem) is.... (Pedantic techies please refrain from picking little holes in this as it's the main thrust of this that is important. OF course, if it is fundementally wrong then please let me know ASAP as I will also have to put O2 right!)

This is how it works on a normal GSM call...
When your phone connects the call, the O2 network knows your number/sim card, the number you are calling and its sim, as it needs all this info to actually connect the call. When you hang up it knows how long the call was and therefore records this on your bill. The important thing here is that it's the network that does this not your phone.

GPRS is very different........(Note this has not been corroborated so may not be 100% correct but it is what the O2 guy told me) Since GPRS is an always on service the network doesn't monitor when you use it. THE PHONE DOES. The phone/sim card records information on data transferred and then once in a while uploads that information to the O2 network this is why your GPRS charges may appear on your bill way after you actually used it. Obviously since the information is recorded and stored in this way it is wide open to any number of possible phone/software/virus problems that may corrupt this information....

As ever, please email me on [EMAIL="kevin@notleyit.com"]kevin@notleyit.com[/EMAIL] with any details/data on your problems.

Cheers,
Kevin.