Just wanted to bump this some. I've had the same problem described repeatedly above, and am wondering if it has something to do with the region I'm in. I just moved to NYC from the Midwest, and suddenly I'm blowing through data much, much faster than normal, including the phantom early morning charges. This despite the fact that I actually use my phone for data less here because I'm almost always connected to wifi or at my computer. Is it possible the iPhone uses more background data in some areas than in others?

I don't think that's it.  I've always lived in NYC, and only had this happen to me once.  I didn't have early morning charges, but huge data "sends" that were unexplained at various times of day.  I now keep data turned off except when I have to use it.  I also close all apps that may connect to the internet as soon as I'm done with them.  With just 3 days to go on my billing cycle, I've used all of 22 MB, or 11% of what I'm paying for.  This is fairly typical for me, and shows how ridiculous it is that I would ever have gone over my allotted 200 MB.

Bump it up again. I will be leaving AT&T and the iPhone behind as soon as our contract runs out. My wife is a stay-at-home mom with the 200MB data plan. On one certain day, she dropped our son at school and went to the grocery store (less than 2 hours away from our home and wifi). AT&T says she used 162,131KB of data that day. For reference, the days the rest of that week were all easily under 1,000KB. She doesn't stream any video or audio. AT&T gave the same BS runaround they gave us the last time it happened and the only solution is to shut off the data altogether. I don't know if it's AT&T's fault or Apple's fault, but it is one or the other.

I finally figured out what was using so much data on my wife's iPhone 4. In our case it is the Mail app, and specifically when it has trouble connecting to an IMAP mail account that she has from her website (imap.secureserver.net). the phone gets in this mode where it can't connect to the imap server apparently, and when it's in this mode it is sending about 5MB of data per minute. I have seen it happen twice while I was trying to figure out what was using the data. When it happens, the busy icon next to the 3G icon just spins continuously and if you check your data usage (Go to Settings->General->Usage and reset the stats), you can see it sending about 5MB/min and receiving nothing. It can do this on her phone for several hours straight. It sent 1.2GB one day and 725MB the next day. This is clearly an iPhone bug that Apple needs to fix. there is no reason the phone should be sending that much data trying to connect to a mail server. Something is very wrong. It's not ATT's fault, the phone is using the data they are charging for. I updated her phone from 4.3.3 to 4.3.5 iOS and it still does it every couple days or so. She can tell when it is in that mode becasue she won't get mail on that account for a couple hours straight. Sure enough if you go to the inbox for that account the busy icon is just spinning. Check if you have an IMAP mail account, you might have the same problem happening. File feedback to Apple so they will fix it.

Great! That actually makes sense. I'll see what I can do about it. In the meantime, we got an email from AT&T this morning that she's over her limit and charging us $15, even though she turned off the data several days ago.

I was told by an ATT in store rep that a phone call to ATT support should enable a cancellation of the overage charges.  We haven't tried it yet, but that's what we were told.

Personally, I think joining the class action against Apple is becoming more of a possibility.

Ted Landau at Macworld.com has an article about this subject and quotes this thread:

"Bugs & Fixes: AT&T (over?)charges for mystery data usage"

http://www.macworld.com/article/162603/2011/09/att_overcharge.html#lsrc.nl_mwwee k_t_cbstories

Here we are, back again for the 3rd time in a year.  Checking the dates on my previous AT&T Case IDs for this problem shows that it has been almost 6 months to the day that the excessive data use has reared its ugly head.  Fortunately, I saved all email correspondence from the first two and was able to send another note off to a valid email address at AT&T detailing the current overages, some 1200+MB in a 72 hour span, and got a response saying they were going to look into it.  The last time this happened my case was elevated to the National Urgent Case Team.  Problem went away and we were credited with the data wrongly charged.

My question is, if back in May or June of 2010 when AT&T instituted the 200MB plans, there wasn't a problem with the billing server software re-write.  I am by no means a software person so I haven't a clue what goes into an undertaking such as that.  It is interesting to note that this "Phantom Data Use" began shortly after the 200MB plan became an option to the Unlimited plan.  Back on or near page 83 or 84 of this thread I made my first entry outlining a discussion I had with Rasheed at Apple and James at AT&T.  It was during that long conversation that the reconfiguration of the server software by AT&T was first mentioned.  Could it be that something is still being overlooked?  If I knew a call to a knowledgeable person in their software engineering department would get it resolved, I would make that call.  However, it would probably be shunted off to a lower level "gopher" or a "manager" who hasn't a clue as to the inner workings of it.  Too typical of big business and our dearly beloved Federal Govt. (spent 32 years with the D.O.D. and never had a "manager" who knew what the mission was about!!)  Anyone else out there with the knowledge and understanding to make that call and try and track it down??  Any AT&T software weenies reading this thread who might be interested in checking on it??......Jack

By the way, here is the AT&T email address that has worked for me.

icare3@amcustomercare.att-mail.com

Jack,

Does your phone usage stats (Settings->General->Usage) show the 1200+MB usage? In my case, the phone usage always shows the massive data usage when it happens. If yours does too, then it's not an AT&T problem, it's an iPhone problem (as in my case where it's casued by Mail connection problems to the IMAP server). If your phone isn't reflecting the usage then you have a different problem than I have and may be right to go after AT&T. Good luck.

Bruce

hi just sharing the information that this is a problem occuring here in Australia with a number of ISP's. Personally I can't see how so many ISP's can be having the same problem with their billing systems. In addition I have been with the same telephone & ISP here with eveything combined on a single bill for around 12 years. I have never seen this kind of unexplained data usage with any of the phones I have used in this time. On the 3rd October 2011 I purchased my first iphone a 4 unlocked from the apple store. I also purchased as a gift for my husband his first iphone a 3gs. We both have an ipad 2, mine just with wifi and his with 3g and don't seem to have any problem with unexplained data usage in relation to those devices as yet. Our new iphones were opened, charged and our our original sim cards used. Our telephone & internet accounts have not been changed in any way, the existing mobile phone plans are technically "expired" and operate under the original agreement by default. So what we see here are incredibly long periods of time showing as wap/internet usage, on an irregular basis but more than once a day since the minute the phones were switched on. No estimated charge for the time is as yet showing in my account, although I am worried there will be, and there are no details as to the size or content of any data that may be being transfered. The ISP customer service operator is perplexed as am I. It is not physically possible for me to spend 31 hours and then 15 hours using the internet on the same day. I have wifi as default service and spend 23 hours per day with my phone within range of wifi either at home or work with a 10 minute commute between the 2. I have no life I know but run my own business. I know I have not accessed the internet intentionally for long periods of time .These are 2 of the more absurd entries I noted the day after the phone was first switched on. I am very concerned as to what kind of information may be being transfered, how it is being initiated and where it may end up. I have a 12 year history with same company to prove that these wap/interent usage reports are very unusual to say the least. I am in the process of requesting whether I can get a report from Telstra and bigpond that try to match the times/dates to usage. I am happy to provide any information that is required to apple in order for an explanation and rectification of the problem, including my personal phone records if that will help. I want to point out also that most of the "culprits" for the excess data mention overseas cannot be responsible in my case as I don't have them. I would also like to know if there is anyway these transfers can be intercepted and their contents analysed. I am happy to volunteer for that as well if apple feel it will help. At the end of the day I think everyone just wants to know what's going on? Thanks Trish

Trish,

If you would break your messages up with paragraphs, they will be much easier to read.  I had to quit reading yours about half way through because it was all running together.  Just a suggestion.

AT&T isn't any help at all.  They just want me to pay extra fees for usage I didn't use. If they don't fine a remedy, they just make a lot more money.

OK, I am a Telstra user and this thread is exactley my problem, It has been going on for months, I don't know if it the Imap getting stuck but that sounds reasonable to me. It is obviousley accross multiple carriers, However as my carrier is Telstra and they provided their phone to me I think its their Issue. They are trying to charge me thousands of dollars... The phone started to do this when I was overseas and resulted in $2,000 in charges in 2 days !!!!

I have upgraded IOS and does not seem to be happening however that may be coincidental - Don't Know

Gregory,

Does your Usage stats on your phone show "Send" like 10x higher than "Recieve"? That is what I see when the IMAP issue is happening. If you are seeing that kind of usage, then you probably are having the same IMAP Mail issue. If you aren't seeing usage like that then it's prob something else. We need to separate this thread to help focus on what other issues could be in play here.

bruce