World Roaming Shakedown: The $3,500 GPRS Bill

It's been well over a year since Derek wrote a longer essay on how wireless roaming claims were really a shakedown on world travelers. It appears that others are discovering the same thing. Despite the "promise" of worldwide roaming using GPRS, Mobitopia has the story of someone who found themselves the recipient of a $3,500 bill for all their roaming charges. Yes, this is stupid pricing, in that it's designed only to get the most out of a very small number of users, rather than figuring out ways to encourage more users to pay a more reasonable amount. However, it's the strategy that wireless carriers always seem to take, and it's still going to be a while before someone comes up with the bright idea that putting incentives in place to encourage more people to use their service worldwide might give them more opportunities to make money that wouldn't involve pissing off their best customers.

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