Sony

[darren187]

Hi,

I have an Xperia X10 mini, it was factory reset with the latest update when I took ownership of it. I have no email set up on the phone (even so, updates are set to manual), all wifi is off as is data traffic (logo top left with a red X by it). I have one application on the phone, xperia flashlight, and I do not/cannot use sync.

If I do try and use any online features, ie email, facebook, google maps etc I get a message asking me to confirm that using online features will incur a standard network fee, or that the features cannot be accessed.

Somehow, I have been charged for WAP access, at midnight, every night since April 20th 2011, although I got the phone in February.

In Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names > Contract WAP shows with a circle next to it with the center filled (as in a ticked box). I cannot uncheck this setting. Under that is Contract Internet and that has a circle next to it but the center is void. When I select Contract Internet the circle still remains void. If I choose settings in APN and 'reset to default' all APN instances are removed, but after a while they reappear. 

How is it possible that my phone has connected to the internet via WAP when data transfer is off  (and when I have no internet access on my account), what can be done to turn it off? (apart from setting up an grps block on my account?)

[James]

Hi darren187,

I must admit that this is very strange however the first thing that I would recommend trying would be to go into the APN settings and edit the contract WAP APN that is selected to reflect the following information;

APN: pp.vodafone.co.uk

Username: wap

Password: wap

I would change this then check to see if the issue continues, if it does, please let me know and I will be able to investigate this further for you.

James

eForum Team

[darren187]

Thank you for the reply James,

Since last Wednesday I have 'apparently' not had any WAP access/usage on my account. This was confirmed with one of your tech guys, during a phone call I made to 191 on Saturday (9th July) and another customer service agent (Monday11th July). I believe internet usage was 'added' to my contract package at that date.

The phone settings have not been changed since then, (I was completely unaware of this issue until two days later). Using 44555 I get a report saying, as of 08:22hrs 11th July 2011 I have used 2.7mb of GPRS data, at a cost of £10.833 exc VAT!

The information I am getting to what I am being told is very different, and in honesty it's starting to get confusing (I am still unable to see a running daily total on your website). I also installed an Android market data traffic counter, which also gives me conflicting data as to my usage. It was installed a four days ago and only reports I the wifi usage I have made and it's saying my GPRS data have been used.

My main concern here really is how much is costing me, and what can be done to stop these extra charges for something I am not using.

[Trev]

Hi darren187

I do share your concerns.

The only definitive way we can guarantee any data usage is to add a full GPRS block on your number. Most new handsets do configure themselves in conjunction with the Network SIM, and do this automatically, so removing an APN just will not guarantee this.

Having a GPRS bar will not prevent you from using WiFi, but it will stop all mobile data services including email and MMS. I am afraid this is the only way we could guarantee that the device will not use these mobile data services however.

I have sent you an email to your eForum registered address. If you’d like to discuss adding a GPRS bar to your account, just complete and return this, and I can get this sorted for you.

Regards

Trev

eForum Team

[darren187]

Hi Trev,

Thank you for your reply also, it's good to know there are people here that sincerely wish to help!

I have been doing much reading over the last week regarding the trouble I have experienced. As with most things I am unfamiliar with I find it can helpful if I educate myself a little about the subject at hand.

I now know about how Android and Vodafone handsets in paritcular use/access the internet, I'm now quite confident that my handset (Xperia X10 mini) is not setup to access the internet in any way, shape or form.

Over the last few days I have had a watchful eye on my handset. I got a data tracker app from the Android store, I have been able to track all Wifi use, and up until today no Contract cell activity has showed up (as I had hoped). Today I re-entered the Vodafone WAP details into the APN directory, made sure Wifi was off and enabled data traffic, I then accessed the internet and browsed the Yahoo.co.uk webpage for approx' twenty seconds. This data shows up in the data tracker app, (as I had hoped for). I have since turned off data traffic again, in exactly the same way, the first day I got the phone back in late February.

Further reading on the internet has lead me to find information that states that; if a person has a mobile device contract with a service provider (such as yourselves), if that contract does not initially include GPRS data in the contract, then it must be/can only be activated via a phone call from the contract holder to the service provider. It cannot just be added by the provider at any point, without the contract holders consent. Is this true, or not?

I would very much like to know the answer to that, mainly because (as I have said now many times) I have never knowingly used (until today) or required internet access on my handset. And if activation is only done so, as described above, how has this happened, as I certainly have not done so myself. I re-read my paper contract which has no mention of mobile internet or GPRS services in my contract.

[James]

Hi darren187,

When it comes to your agreement the data service access is part of the standard access agreement, it is only the data packs that give you free data for a monthly fee that can be added to your account by the account holder.

When an account is activated the voice, text and data services are always provisioned on an account ready for a customer to use the services if they wish, this is not something that needs to be requested to be added.

The only time where this service is required to be requested by the account holder is when the service has been removed or barred in the past at the request of the account holder, it is then down to the account holder to request that the service be reinitiated on the account and network.

Unfortunately our terms and conditions don’t specify the services which you are given it simply generalises them all into one section as shown;

Services – the communications service you receive through the network and other services we may provide to you.

James

eForum Team

[darren187]

Thank you for clarifying this James.

So in laymens terms data is made available upon entry into any Vodafone contract and charged at a premium rate regardless of whether or not the client requests it, and if data usage is part of or added/included in a contract it is charged at a much reduced rate. So if a client takes out a new contract which does not include a GPRS allowance they are not initially made aware that they will be charged for data use, until they check their bill/s, and/or change/upgrade their service or place a GPRS block in their account.

Since phoning 191 the excessive (£1 per day) charges seem to have stopped. I believe when I reverted back to my original contract, a data pack was added free of charge to my £20pcm contract.

The strange thing is absolutely nothing has changed on my phone, at all. I have not used any data (apart from in my short lived experiment as described in the post above, dated 17-07-2011 05:14 PM). So why was I being charged previously?

[Dave]

Hi Darren,

Most of the current price plans do now include a data allowance as standard, but as James says it was not always automatically included in the past.

In order to see what has happened with the account recently, we'll need to take a look for you.

So that I can do that, I'm popping you an email to get to your account. Just reply back and we'll be able to see what's going on.

Dave

eForum Team