iPhone 3G still accessed data roaming when it was turned off in Egypt. Why?

Just had the same experience 3 nights ago while overseas in tasmania (I'm based in UK, on O2 network), on my iphone 3G. Was woken at 0613 by a push announcement alert from the phone. Checked it and discovered that it had downloaded all email since last time i'd had data roaming on, and all data services were operational (could browse web etc).

Checked Data Roaming setting and it was still OFF as I had set it days earlier. Manually turned it ON then OFF again and as expected, could then no longer access data services.

Currently disputing the resulting £276 bill with O2.

Can't speak to O2, but I live in Chicago so use AT&T. I recently spent 3 weeks in Australia and I'm currently in Canada. When I enable flight mode I also reset usage statistics and verify roaming is off. I periodically enable roaming but mostly just use wireless through my Dell laptop (you can do this with Windows 7 FYI) when it has connectivity, the hotel wireless or most often an Apple Airport Express I travel with and use in the hotel room for my laptop and iPhone. I monitor the statistics and have never seen anything unexpected. Roaming charges are minimal because my data roaming usage is low.

FWIW...

If I take the SIM card out when I am abroad ( usa ) , will the phone just act like an iTouch, allowing me to connect to wifi when there is wifi avaialable ?

This issue with iPhone not been able to switch of internet/GPRS access completely has been around since 2008.

I believe the only way we will get a solution to this is when apple addresses this problem and gives iPhone uses the option to switch on&off GPRS connection as you can do now with 3G.

I'm just back from the USA and as with the other posts here, noticed a data roaming charge when I know I turned it off. I was using the free wifi in the hotel while I was away, so this tallies with the explanation about it dropping wifi and picking up any network to avoid interruption of service.

I also have multiple email accounts which are also set to push, so this figures as well.

I've just spoken to o2 who told me they are aware of the issue but will not refund the charges as I had a "bill shock" once before about three years ago. It is their opinion that this is Apple's issue and it's down to Apple to advise customers.

o2 do not accept that they surely have a duty to advise its customers of the potential issue which might be down to them making more money from this fault.

Just off the phone from Apple support who were not aware of this issue. His view was that it can't be happening to many people, otherwise they would know about it. My view is that it could well be happening to lots of people and they don't know it is and are just accepting the charges. Chap asked me to do a restore to see if that fixed it - but I don't know what's broken - and I can't replicate the issue until I leave the country!!! He actually asked me to speak to O2 to see what their fix was!

This is wrong and Apple or O2 need to do something about it.

Has anyone got the email address for o2 where it seems you've had a positive response from?

Cheers

dwk wrote:
If I take the SIM card out when I am abroad ( usa ) , will the phone just act like an iTouch, allowing me to connect to wifi when there is wifi avaialable ?

Yes.
It will say "No-Sim" in the top left and behave as an iTouch would do (except you still have microphone built in 😉 )

Hi all,

I have recently been abroad from the UK and also experienced the same issues on the O2 network both with my new iPhone 4 and my girlfriends iPhone 3G, both with data roaming turned off where we noticed that we were getting charged part way through the holiday, when our free wifi signal dropped and the phone went searching for a data connection.

However having played with the settings on both phones I think I may have found a solution (at least until they fix the data roaming option properly).

I went to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data and switched this off, also switching off with settings -> General -> Network -> 3G (though not sure this had much affect). After this point as far as I can tell neither off us were being charged for data and we could still use the phone as a phone.

I guess the real test will come later this month when we go on Holiday again, but thought I would post this here to help anyone else with the same problem.

Also to everyone else out there. Challenge your service provider if you do get charged. We managed to get a refund on the £34.05 that we were charged following this issue. So it is possible to get a refund.

Good Luck

Wow. I have been posting on the thread "Unknown Data Usage Early in the Morning" but my issue is more closely related to this thread. I was on an Around the World trip originating from Hawaii in the US. I upgraded to a 3GS right before I left the end of March and bought the 50MB Int'l Data Roaming plan.

I did carefully watched my usage meter on the phone and only used 3G when absolutely necessary, and never with Fetch or Push on.

In Spain last month I was suddenly hit with over 500 MB (yes, you read that right!! Five HUNDRED) usage while roaming with O2 as the carrier while I used Wifi on the phone in rural Spain (the hotel had free Wifi).

I'm still dealing with AT&T as they tried to tell me I owe them over $3000 USD for those unknown excess data charges.

Clearly there is something wrong with the phone and the signal and data and O2. The local Genius Bar didn't have a clue.

Then I reviewed my previous months bills and when I was in South Africa for 10 days I was charged 1 center per Kbyte for random data and for about a dozen Voice Mails which I never got. I have only had/received two voice mails in 4 months since I began my trip. I will be calling AT&T again Monday to go over the older bills.