Sunday, July 27, 2008
bill shock
“Bill shock” is a term that is being bandied about around the IT and telecommunications traps, infact the ACCC are warning users of the IPHONE and 3G content phones to be mindful that data on third generation networks are charged differently to standard voice and text. Things that eat up data charges are email, web, video calls, voip, song, video and ringtone downloads, positioning and mapping software and other applications. So whilst you might have a great voice and text package which is affordable you may find data is not included, usually the data charges are charged differently.
But its not only the mobile phone that creates bill shock, these ring tone websites, advertisements and more that you see on the net often trick people to send a request for one ring tone and then the user finds out they have subscribed to something that eats away at their prepaid credit or adds massive charges onto their phone bill.
But its not only phones effected with “bill shock” some internet providers irth their packages start charging per megabyte after the initial monthly block of data is exhausted. Often users spending say 29.95 for 200mb find themselves with a massive bill at the end of the month cause just downloading the windows updates in a month chews up anywhere between 200 to 400mb per month.
But recently we have seen services launched on the net that chew up data, online radio and tv stations can use up data. Its good to know that responsible providers of this great content are showing disclaimers and warnings at the beginning of accessing this content to alert users of the possibilities that this content usage could be a costly exercise if they are not on the right internet plan.
But its not only the mobile phone that creates bill shock, these ring tone websites, advertisements and more that you see on the net often trick people to send a request for one ring tone and then the user finds out they have subscribed to something that eats away at their prepaid credit or adds massive charges onto their phone bill.
But its not only phones effected with “bill shock” some internet providers irth their packages start charging per megabyte after the initial monthly block of data is exhausted. Often users spending say 29.95 for 200mb find themselves with a massive bill at the end of the month cause just downloading the windows updates in a month chews up anywhere between 200 to 400mb per month.
But recently we have seen services launched on the net that chew up data, online radio and tv stations can use up data. Its good to know that responsible providers of this great content are showing disclaimers and warnings at the beginning of accessing this content to alert users of the possibilities that this content usage could be a costly exercise if they are not on the right internet plan.
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 2:08 AM 
