ST: $1,064 shock SingTel bill: Why no warning trigger?

Terrible...
"How can a bill for a 'student account' run up to over $1,000 without even a warning triggered?"
Home > ST Forum > Online Story
Nov 5, 2007
$1,064 shock SingTel bill: Why no warning trigger?
I RECEIVED a shock when I saw my daughter's latest SingTel mobile phone bill this month - a whopping $1,064.46 was charged to a single item called 'GPRS Data Usage Charges'.
There was no breakdown except an indication of '212892K bytes usage'.
I know I can't blame SingTel for the charges but what I would like to know as a parent and consumer are:
1. Why is the GPRS usage so expensive?
2. How does SingTel and other mobile operators inform their customers of the charges involved? For many, the indication of KB usage makes little sense. Do the operators alert the user after each session the amount that has been charged so that consumers (especially younger children) are aware of the implications of cost due to their actions?
3. How can a bill for a 'student account' run up to over $1,000 without even a warning triggered?
I am now waiting anxiously for my next bill, and I wonder how many parents are in the same predicament as me.
Chai Lee Fung (Ms)
http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Online%2BStory/STIStory_173546.html
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The reply:
"we will be introducing a feature to alert them of their data usage when they reach a certain data download threshold. "

Home > ST Forum > Online Story
Nov 8, 2007

Feature to alert users of their data usage soon: SingTel
I REFER to the letter by Ms Chai Lee Fung, '$1,064 shock SingTel bill: Why no warning trigger?' (Online forum, Nov 5).
We have contacted Ms Chai to explain to her the charging scheme of SingTel's General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). We have since resolved the matter with her.
Like other telecommunication companies, we currently offer two schemes for data services either on a Pay-Per-Use basis or a monthly subscription basis.
The Pay-Per-Use service allows users to access the Internet and data such as e-mail with their GPRS devices (like mobile phones and laptops). There are no registration and monthly subscription fees. GPRS usage is charged in blocks of 2 kilobytes (KB) at $0.0054 per KB for 2G network; $0.0038 per KB for 3G/3.5G networks.
For customers on a monthly subscription basis, they pay a monthly subscription fee ranging from $10.70 to $101.65, which is bundled with free data value.
For example, SingTel's Broadband on Mobile allows our 3G customers to enjoy data downloads of up to 10GB for a monthly subscription of $22.42. They also enjoy a 50 per cent discount for excess data download, paying only $0.0019 per kilobyte in 2KB blocks. Typically, 10GB is more than sufficient to meet the mobile data needs of most of our customers. As a guide, 10GB is about 200,000 e-mails, 30,000 WAP pages and 5,000 songs. This is based on an estimated average file size of 50KB per text-based e-mail, 30KB per WAP page, 300KB per web page, 2MB per song and 10MB per video.
There are two ways the customers could incur GPRS data costs - file downloads and surfing the Internet. For file downloads, customers are normally able to view the file size and gauge the cost of the download. The cost of surfing the Internet is dependent on the customer's usage pattern and previous bills would provide these customers with an indication of their next GPRS data bill.
Our customers will be pleased to know that we will be introducing a feature to alert them of their data usage when they reach a certain data download threshold.
We thank Ms Chai for her feedback and suggestions.
Cheam Tze Hui (Ms)
Corporate Communications Manager
SingTel