WebProNews

Tag: Roaming Charges

  • Soldier Returns Home to Discover $21,000 Phone Bill

    The next time you think your cell phone bill is beyond outrageous, have a quick chat with Brent Worthington. I’m sure he would absolutely love to discuss the matter with you. After returning home from Iraq, the White Park soldier cracked open the envelope containing his bill, only to discover, much hat he oweed the company a sizable amount of money.

    $21,000, to be exact.

    Worthington had picked up a cell phone so he could stay in touch with his family during his tour of duty in Iraq. When he returned to the States, however, the astronomical bill was demanding his attention. Apparently the Verizon rep who set him up for an unlimited international call plan — a service that was supposed to include no roaming charges — had failed to tell the poor guy that Iraq was not included in that particular deal. All of those calls he made were systemically slammed with roaming charges, resulting in the financial pickle he’s experiencing right now. In fact, he’s already been turned over to a collection agency.

    “I was blown away,” Brent told WFTV. “I don’t think anger can even explain how I was feeling that day.”

    The soldier complained to Verizon about the situation, though it didn’t do him very much good. The company stuck to their proverbial guns, that is, until people started hearing about how poorly they were treating a veteran. Now Verizon has agreed to help Worthington with his problem, though the damage to his credit score may already be done.

    Image courtesy of @RachelReko

  • Data Roaming Costs Lessened with New EU Plan

    As of July 1st, new data roaming price caps will take effect in Europe, after an agreement between members of the European Parliament and the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers. This new mandate will be helpful to those who travel in Europe, and are forced to rely upon high data roaming charges to use their smartphones.

    Presently, no price ceiling exists on what a megabyte of data can cost while roaming – but under the new rules, from July 1st on, the cap would be 70 cents, dropping to 45 cents in 2013, and 20 cents in 2014. Charges for calls and texts will also be cut down – A one minute call tops out at 29 cents from July 1st, dropping to 19 cents by 2014. Messages can not exceed 9 cents this year, and will go down to 6 cents by 2014.

    Also, as of July 1st 2014, smartphone users will be able to shop around for carriers in the region they’re in and find the best roaming deal. Essentially, customers could bypass roaming data add-ons from their primary carriers, and chose the best local plans as they travel, without affecting any existing data plan or roaming agreement.

    In the meantime, the data roaming costs will go down. The new deal still needs to be approved by Parliament in May, although MEPs and the Council believe it will have no problem being passed.