GPRS call costs.

[Osem]

Hi guys. The wife's been using her new LG Optimus phone for the last few days and has downloaded several free apps as well as trying out things like Google Maps. She's currently on the Virgin PAYG 'original' tariff which IIRC ought to be charging 30p a day for internet access although she's either going to try the £5pm unlimited web add-on or possibly move to a monthly contract with data allowance of some sort in due course.

Anyway, yesterday she checked her balance and 'last call' and was a) surprised by how much credit (c. £4) she'd used over the last few days (she's not made any calls or texts, just used the web) and b) to be advised that her last usage was a GPRS call @26p. She hadn't made any calls so is this charge due to her connecting to the web and very briefly using one of the apps? If so, is it part of the 30p daily charge or in addition to it? We're not sure where the money debited from her balance has gone but I'm wondering if, although she didn't realise it, one of the free apps she's been using has been costing her money in some way every time she uses it and this is in addition to VM's 30p charge - hence the £4. Could this be the case?

Sorry if these sound like silly or very basic questions but we're both new to all of this and it's my latest job to sort it all out for her.....

[punky]

I don't see the connection between 26p and £4. Are there loads of 26p bills totalling £4?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by punky

I don't see the connection between 26p and £4. Are there loads of 26p bills totalling £4?

We can't tell as she can only get details of the last time her phone was used. She was expecting a total of £2.10 debited from her calling credit for 7 days @ 30p a day. That still leaves about £2.00 worth of charges which we can't explain. If the daily internet usage charge is capped at 30p she may only have used 26p's worth yesterday but if the charge is a fixed 30p then the 26p must have come from something else like an app.

[punky]

Is it possible she has used over the fair use amount on a day? (25mb?)

Sometimes web pages can run into several megabytes per page view. Also some apps can be a few meg too. Also if she has background data and auto sync enabled that can use a bit too.

I'd call up CS and see if they can't give you a more detailed breakdown. Seems crazy if they can't.

Also download 3G Watchdog from Android Market which would help her/you keep track of usage.

[soup dragon]

have you got a wifi router? i download all my apps at home using wifi. +1 for 3g watchdog

[Osem]

Originally Posted by punky

Is it possible she has used over the fair use amount on a day? (25mb?)

Sometimes web pages can run into several megabytes per page view. Also some apps can be a few meg too. Also if she has background data and auto sync enabled that can use a bit too.

I'd call up CS and see if they can't give you a more detailed breakdown. Seems crazy if they can't.

Also download 3G Watchdog from Android Market which would help her/you keep track of usage.

I suppose that's possible. She's been getting used to it and would have no way of knowing how much data she's downloaded. I suppose viewing any music or other video and pictures would be what she should really watch out for and maybe that's what's happened. Also I think she's been viewing Google Maps and using a weather forecast app for 3 cities so that's being updated regularly in the background I'd imagine but I don't know how much data that sort of thing would involve. The phone appears to be set to connect to web automatically so we may turn that off if we can find out how to. She's not here to ask right now but I'll mention it to her. We will try VM customer services when we get time and see if they can shed any light on what the charges are for but you might just be right about the daily limit.

Thanks for the help.

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:17 ----------

Originally Posted by soup dragon

have you got a wifi router? i download all my apps at home using wifi. +1 for 3g watchdog

No not got wi-fi at home - we're Luddites really you know..

[Denim]

I'm having a problem with Virgin Mobile at the moment contesting a very large bill. I've contacted VM but they say thay cannot provide details of my phone usage for the internet but 3 members of the team said there seemed to be something wrong when I ran up a bill of £273 in 2 days, I was unaware of this and thought I would only pay 30 pence a day.

How can you get detailed information of internet usage either from VM or the phone, I have an HTC HD2.

Another thing is the online bill showed the phone making a connection every 5 seconds at a charge of 48 pence with my knowing it was reconnecting, any ideas anyone?

Does VM have details of internet usage on a mobile phone and if so why can't they provide me with the information.

Rant over and thanks