Roaming Burst Usage

[mikezuper]

Hi Folks,

I recently traveled to Australia and signed up for Telco Roaming Plan of 6GB with 1 month duration.

Towards the last day of my trip, I got notification in the morning that I have used 90% of my roaming data.

Afraid that it might exceed, I switch Data Roaming on my iphone off first.

Then when I was about to make the last trip to return the rental car, I on the data roaming to on my gps to the airport. And suddenly within less than 2-3 mins, my phone consumed more than 600mb and the data roaming plan exceeded and I incurred another $18.

Anyone know what might actually happened here? Did my action to off and on the data roaming actually caused it i.e. iPhone tried to synch some apps that require sudden burst amount of data to download?

Lessons learned:
- Dont switch off and on data roaming again until you are in wifi zone
- Sign up esim, once data is finished, it is finished until you add another one, you are in control

 

[Charlie_Zhan]

Hi Folks,

I recently traveled to Australia and signed up for Telco Roaming Plan of 6GB with 1 month duration.

Towards the last day of my trip, I got notification in the morning that I have used 90% of my roaming data.

Afraid that it might exceed, I switch Data Roaming on my iphone off first.

Then when I was about to make the last trip to return the rental car, I on the data roaming to on my gps to the airport. And suddenly within less than 2-3 mins, my phone consumed more than 600mb and the data roaming plan exceeded and I incurred another $18.

Anyone know what might actually happened here? Did my action to off and on the data roaming actually caused it i.e. iPhone tried to synch some apps that require sudden burst amount of data to download?

Lessons learned:
- Dont switch off and on data roaming again until you are in wifi zone
- Sign up esim, once data is finished, it is finished until you add another one, you are in control

quite alot of things will sync in the background.. one example is that your phone may start to upload all your un-synced photos to icloud once you turned on the data roaming.

 

[mikezuper]

quite alot of things will sync in the background.. one example is that your phone may start to upload all your un-synced photos to icloud once you turned on the data roaming.

Sigh, i only off it for less than 2-3 hours .. really lessons learned

Thanks for the reply!

 

[fishified]

Btw, one way to mitigate this problem is to ensure that data mode is “Low Data Mode”. That option selected ensures that automatic updates and background tasks are paused/off.

 

[Jurong640]

always turn off auto data sync when roaming, as it keep syncing, you will use a lot of data

 

[tamago_]

Btw, one way to mitigate this problem is to ensure that data mode is “Low Data Mode”. That option selected ensures that automatic updates and background tasks are paused/off.

Very good advice. Also the way to get faster speeds when using inflight Wi-Fi.

 

[mikezuper]

Thanks for all the good advice, will remember to switch to low data mode during overseas trip.

 

[froztheart]

Hi Folks,

I recently traveled to Australia and signed up for Telco Roaming Plan of 6GB with 1 month duration.

Towards the last day of my trip, I got notification in the morning that I have used 90% of my roaming data.

Afraid that it might exceed, I switch Data Roaming on my iphone off first.

Then when I was about to make the last trip to return the rental car, I on the data roaming to on my gps to the airport. And suddenly within less than 2-3 mins, my phone consumed more than 600mb and the data roaming plan exceeded and I incurred another $18.

Anyone know what might actually happened here? Did my action to off and on the data roaming actually caused it i.e. iPhone tried to synch some apps that require sudden burst amount of data to download?

Lessons learned:
- Dont switch off and on data roaming again until you are in wifi zone
- Sign up esim, once data is finished, it is finished until you add another one, you are in control

Background apps etc. sync one shot. Turning off the data roaming is just delaying but not stopping whatever that needs to run from running.
It's like turning off the main water valve but rest of your taps still turned on. Once you open back, all water will continue flowing to the respective taps. Need to turn off those taps that you do not want/need off (turn off background sync/low power mode) then only will the water flow to the opened taps that you need/want.

Also, believe these data notification are delayed/not real-time therefore, the next moment when you check might have already exceeded. Which is why you end up in this predicament.

Turn on "Low Power Mode", then connect to WIFI will be the "safest" way to ensure you do not burst. Or just turn off the near limit SIM entirely and rely on another available SIM to prevent.
Otherwise, get those that will have the data cutoff once allowance is used up(like SIMBA etc. that is applicable for your destination) to prevent billshock.

Let me guess, likely using the big 3, ST/SH/M1 for roaming?

 

[mikezuper]

Background apps etc. sync one shot. Turning off the data roaming is just delaying but not stopping whatever that needs to run from running.
It's like turning off the main water valve but rest of your taps still turned on. Once you open back, all water will continue flowing to the respective taps. Need to turn off those taps that you do not want/need off (turn off background sync/low power mode) then only will the water flow to the opened taps that you need/want.

Also, believe these data notification are delayed/not real-time therefore, the next moment when you check might have already exceeded. Which is why you end up in this predicament.

Turn on "Low Power Mode", then connect to WIFI will be the "safest" way to ensure you do not burst. Or just turn off the near limit SIM entirely and rely on another available SIM to prevent.
Otherwise, get those that will have the data cutoff once allowance is used up(like SIMBA etc. that is applicable for your destination) to prevent billshock.

Let me guess, likely using the big 3, ST/SH/M1 for roaming?

Yeah I was with Singtel

Actually I was contemplating between using Singtel 6GB for $18 or eSim 5GB for $13.xx

I thought I wont burst and would like to opt for convenience for $4 difference, I was wrong =P

But the low data mode is good. I already disabled app background refresh for most of my apps.

 

[froztheart]

Yeah I was with Singtel

Actually I was contemplating between using Singtel 6GB for $18 or eSim 5GB for $13.xx

I thought I wont burst and would like to opt for convenience for $4 difference, I was wrong =P

But the low data mode is good. I already disabled app background refresh for most of my apps.

Learning experience.

 

[mikezuper]

Learning experience.

$18 learning fee.
Thanks all!

I usually buy esim from Klook, so far so good, telco based in HK Hutchison. Already used to the experience and process, quite easy, value for money and not bad quality and performance

Any other recommendation?

My wife moved to Zero1 and only hear praise so far lol. I am tempted to move actually but still stay considering wanted to get the best since 90-95% of the time is not overseas.

 

[froztheart]

$18 learning fee.
Thanks all!

I usually buy esim from Klook, so far so good, telco based in HK Hutchison. Already used to the experience and process, quite easy, value for money and not bad quality and performance

Any other recommendation?

My wife moved to Zero1 and only hear praise so far lol. I am tempted to move actually but still stay considering wanted to get the best since 90-95% of the time is not overseas.

Can just stay w ST but get those like SIMBA etc. that is more for roaming usage whenever you are heading off.
Makes more sense to me than running the risk w the big 3 for me at least.