Very high GPRS usage (O2)

[Guest efission]

Hi guys,

I got my O2 bill this morning. Ususally its a nice round

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

51MB and 52MB? :)

That sounds like a fault really, unless your device did something REALLY odd with an email or something?

P

[Guest efission]

51MB and 52MB? :)

That sounds like a fault really, unless your device did something REALLY odd with an email or something?

P

Yeah, I'm certainlly hoping so unless as you say something got stuck in a never-ending loop somewhere. Think it would be quite a feat to download that much in a day. :D

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Yeah, that sounds dodgy, assuming you weren't streaming or anything.

P

[Guest efission]

Certainly not knowingly. My WMP history is empty.

[Guest newtonmj]

Whate is the significance of the times on the bill? Do they refer to when the data connections were made (or perhaps the billing point for that day (last time of access for example))? Either way, midnight bang-on for both of those biggies seems rather bizarre does it not?

Mathew

Edited February 5, 2007 by newtonmj

[Guest chucky.egg]

Do you switch your phone off around 10:00-10:30 each night?

If so, I'd say the 00:00:00 time is the start of the Billing Day, and 10:00-10:30 is when you switched off.

Does look a bit odd.

(If that's your mobile number you might also want to obscure it a bit!)

There is/was a bug in WM somewhere that can cause data up/downloads to get stuck in a loop, which doesn't end until you restart the device. I had this a while back with a GPRS Monitor and some blogging software. The bug is actually in WM, but the only solution I found was to disable GPRS monitor.

[Guest hunyango_uk]

Do you switch your phone off around 10:00-10:30 each night?

If so, I'd say the 00:00:00 time is the start of the Billing Day, and 10:00-10:30 is when you switched off.

Does look a bit odd.

it does.

everytime you use the big amount of data connection the time showed on the time table was= 00:00:00. :)

it's kinda dodgy, pretty scary. :D

Edited February 5, 2007 by hunyango_uk

[Guest zepman]

Hi

This bug you're talking about. Is there anywhere I can read about it? My Windows mobile5 phone (QTEK9100) downloaded 3700 megabytes in the last week without me noticing it!

[Guest hunyango_uk]

@efission and zepman, what ROM/OS version you both are using?

@zepman, which network are you using?

Edited February 11, 2007 by hunyango_uk

[Guest efission]

Thanks for the replies guys. Those times seem to be standard billing times for O2, I've had a look at my old bills and those times seem very common, nothing to do with my usage of the phone. It surprised the O2 operator as well which is the most worrying thing.

I use Push, but really doubt that it could lead to that much usage unless it got stuck in a limit (Email limit = 0.5kb and no attachments).

Chucky.egg good call on my mobile no. strangely had overlooked that.

Hunyango - Its the supplied firmware. OS 5.1.342

[Guest zepman]

The ROM I am using is 2.17.7.1 SVE(ExtROM-version: 2.17.7.103) and my carrier is Telia (Sweden).

You don't have a link to the bug described above?

[Guest andyMurray]

Hi There,

I took delivery of a new O2 XDA Orbit around 17 Dec and got my first bill a few weeks ago.

I was shocked to see my bill was £912.87 when I had only made my usual amount of calls and daily email checks (no massive attachments or HTML graphics).

Previously I have had an O2 XDA II for 2 years with no problems and no massive bills for spurious GPRS useage.

The charges in this bill were mostly for GPRS use with a massive amount billed for apparent use on Dec 29 and 30 (over 380 mb downloaded in 2 days).

I had no idea this was going on, certainly didn't request it or initiate it and would have stopped it immediately had I known my device was doing this.

I have been in touch with O2 for around a month now and we have yet to resolve the issue, though it has to be said that one manager in particular at customer services has been very helpful. They have offered me a discount of 50% on the amount "owed" and although I'd love to get this issue resolved I have to say that in light of what I've read here I think that O2 has a serious problem with this new device and we the customer should not be held responsible.

Clearly something is going very badly wrong with this device and / or software as shipped by O2 and rather than mess around trying to alter connection settings ourselves I feel O2 has a legal responsibility to ensure it ships products that do not compromise its customers in this way.

I would welcome any comments from others in a similar position.

Cheers

Andy

[Guest efission]

Hi Andy,

Interesting that the timing of our problems so closely coincided. What was your average GPRS usage up until then? I certainly never went above half a meg a day.

It will be hard to find a legal opinion on this I think as mobile services operate in a pretty grey area between the provision of goods and services. Although I won't be accepting any reduction in my bill apart from a complete one thats to be sure.

[Guest newtonmj]

One would assume that O2 must keep accurate/detailed logs of all data accesses and not just the aggregate sums they issue to customers in the bill. This must be the case if only for their own benefit when investigating suspect activity on their networks.

Hence, I would press to obtain further details on exactly what was accessed - given the incredibly high figures one would expect it to be all to/from the same place as opposed to random/casual surfing. Once you know the destination/remote IP you can then work backwards from there in determining what was connecting to it (and why).

If detailed records do exist then I really can't see how they can deny you access to them - if you refuse to pay they'll have to sue you and hence be required to produce such records anyway to uphold their case.

Mathew

[Guest andyMurray]

Hi,

After over a month of wrangling O2 have agreed to waive the excess GPRS charges that I incurred on 29 and 30 December 2006.

They have acknowledged that it may be some kind of a fault, either with the device, operating system or application software.

I read on another forum that there may be a serious bug with Windows Mobile 5 that causes some kind of download loop to occur so who knows and clearly further investigation is needed into all possibilities.

However, that is O2's responsibility and for now I think I will keep the GPRS bar on the phone.

Meanwhile, a big thanks to the O2 customer services manager who has championed this cause at O2 on my behalf - I'm very grateful for his intervention and persistence in helping me.

Edited February 18, 2007 by andyMurray