Unexplained OTT data charges

[kradcliffe]

My son had a similar problem with his X10 mini where "background services" were synchronizing and he was getting a daily data charge taken from his credit on Vermin Mobile. We just disabled the data altogether and now he just connects over wifi. When I investigated there were synchronisation services etc running automatically on the phone even without any apps open, although that won't explain the amounts of data being sucked by your phone.
This could be a network error of course ..... have you asked Three for the dates and times this was happening to try and establish what your wife was doing at the time, and you could also ask them for the ip addresses of where the data was going.
They could of course just have screwed up and are charging the wrong person although they'd never admit to that. Coincidentally on virgin my son was charged for quite long calls where he had hung up, for example he was charged a 9 minute call then another 5 minute call a minute after the 9 minute one started. They couldn't explain why but I'm just trying to point out that networks can make errors and it may not be her fault.
Keith

[jonmorris]

Ah yes, I forgot that many phones default to Wi-Fi off when in standby (screen off) so that is probably it.

But the next question is of course - what was consuming that level of data? 2GB isn't exactly a small allowance (as a guide, I've got a Three Mobile Broadband SIM and range from 1-2GB per month but that's intentionally working with large files, streaming video and uploading HD video for editing).

[BlueBird]

Before Christmas my iPhone used 1.7 GB in just over a 12 hour period (I seem to recall Millhouse saying it was near the theoretical max speed for 3G for the entire time). Syncing my work email (exchange).

One thing to point out, you might have users data earlier than your thinking and 3's systems simply didn't send you the warning straight away (processing time).

In my case I have a £50 limit, but my phone started using the data late at night so it didn't hit this limit at midnight (when a lot of networks do their actual bill calculations) and then simply continued part of the next day until midnight when a bar kicked in.

[ursulavasey]

I can't solve the problem as it stands, but there is a way to prevent it from happening in the future. Switch the problematic contract to an all you can eat data plan. It only costs £3 per month, on top of the current commitment, but it means that the phone could be using data 24/7 and there would be no extra charges.

[Seeph]

Thanks for the help everyone. I think it will just have to go down as one of life's mysteries. She's upgraded to all you can eat from now on, just a shame she got clobbered with this first! It's never happened before or since but Three are maintaining that the data was used. A strange one.