NEWS Bill Shock! and roaming horror stories

Bill Shock Represents 14% of Big Business Mobile Costs- According to Comms Risk Wandera (specialists in mobile data security) engaged with Redshift Research to conduct a survey. 1,000 IT managers in the US and the UK were asked the amount their business spent on mobile phones during the past year and the cost of IT […]

Bill Shock Represents 14% of Big Business Mobile Costs- According to Comms Risk

  • Wandera (specialists in mobile data security) engaged with Redshift Research to conduct a survey.
  • 1,000 IT managers in the US and the UK were asked the amount their business spent on mobile phones during the past year and the cost of IT resources required to manage the devices; management of services, mobile security software, costs of security breaches, overage charges and roaming.

So in actuality, with all these additional costs, annual cost per device was more than double!

‘Bill shocks’ from unexpected carrier charges are the second greatest single contributor to overall TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) for the largest companies globally – 14% of the TCO

“23% of surveyed businesses had endured a mobile breach in the last year.”

“Businesses spend more on cleaning up mobile security breaches than they spend of mobile security software.”

 

Bill Shock horror stories from holiday makers;

“Lad hit with shock £2,700 mobile roaming bill after 10 day holiday to Egypt”

£4 per MB was the fatal blow! No data cap was applied. Consumer only received 1 text warning the bill had hit £600

“The £8,000 broadband bill shock from Orange”

Monthly cap of £40 on dongle usage.  However, what he was not told, and which Orange’s own operator did not seem to be aware of, was that this does not apply to overseas use!

“A holidaymaker was shocked to receive a £31,500 mobile phone bill”

After downloading an episode of his favourite TV show while abroad

In 2008 a 46-year-old lawyer ran up a £4,900 bill after she used the BBC iPlayer service to catch up on an episode of The Apprentice while in France

 

Bill Shock horror stories from business users;

£1,000 on roaming data charges

An employee at law firm used their device for a single day while in the Middle East for business and racked up £1,000 on roaming data charges. He claims it was corporate email.

Recruitment company that suffered a £20,000 bill shock

Incident in Dubai because an employee enabled tethering whilst at a tradeshow and then forgot about it. She continued to use Internet for most of the day but was being charged over £5 per Mb.

Customer in the US incurs a £15,000 bill

Almost all of which could be attributed to a single user who had decided to tether his device for the whole month

Travelling in Japan incurred a $12,000 bill

One of our customers in the pharmaceuticals industry experienced a bill shock situation where a US-based employee was traveling in Japan and incurred a $12,000 bill

Mobile charges reaching the tens of thousands

“We were spending excessive amounts on roaming data while people were abroad. Checking email could’ve resulted in a $200 charge each day.” In Canada, where the cost of data is already higher than most countries, comes another tale.

£9,000 bill for accidental tethering

A large water company suffered the consequences of accidental tethering when a £9,000 bill was incurred by one user in the UK. The employee exceeded data allowance through tethering while streaming sport

Don’t become another Bill Shock case for us to talk about… check out YRoam and start Connecting for Less today!

 

What you may not know!

  • Last summer EU legislation was brought in to cap the costs of mobile phone calls and texts abroad. However, it only affected wholesale prices – at €1 per megabyte (MB).
  • What does this mean? It means that while the retail price should reflect this cost, it is actually up to the individual network operator to set the price, leading to a wide disparity in charges.
  • For example, for mobile broadband use in Spain, network operator Three, charges £1.25 per MB outside of any monthly allowance. Whilst Orange charges £2.94, O2charges £3 and Virgin Mobile £5.
  • And according to website moneysupermarket.com. Vodafone charges £9.99 for the first 50MB and £9.99 per 50MB thereafter.
  • The Observer found the charges are also unclear and often buried in the small print of some mobile phone operators’ websites, making it very difficult for customers to work out what they might be expected to pay.
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