Hiya guys,
I have had a quick search through the forums, and found nothing that can give me any clues on this, and I think its something that may warrant some looking at. This is also my first topic, and i apologise in advance if its in the wrong place, or already covered.
Telstra in Australia, have hands down the best mobile infrastructure in the country, nothing comes close to it. The problem is, they are some of the shiftiest operators around, and appear to have all sorts of ways to screw a few extra bucks out of people.
The latest seems to be occuring only to Telstra sold Android handsets, over the last couple of months or so. I have witnessed this from people i know, both of my sisters have had it happen to them, a close friend, and a few other people. It is also popping up regularly on their own forums, and their Facebook page.
Sudden 'excess' data usage.
In one case, the user (a good friend of mine) was billed over $3000 for supposed excess data usage, with absolutely no change to his usage habits, no apps added to his handset, nothing that would suggest something that hes done actually doing this. In every case that ive seen, when questioning Telstra, they are giving the usual 'its background data thats increased/you have changed your habits/you have added new software/you need to buy extra data' runaround. In the case of the $3000 bill, they backed down, when the person who is actually quite knowledgable, demanded that they send proof that he had used that much data, so that he could compare it to his own usage, when told 'they couldnt do that' he threatened them with the Telecoms Ombudsman, at which time they backed down and wiped off the charge. However, there are many more cases where they just plain dont, or people arent willing to go toe to toe with the Telco.
I have not had this problem, but there is a difference. The first thing i have always done with my handsets, is backup the Telstra ROM, and flash either a vanilla (preferred) or a custom rom. Meaning that there is zero 'Telstra Approved' bloatware on my phone. Ive also been very vocal on their 24x7 page in regards to keeping an eye on data usage, and various other complaints (more regarding false advertising, but that is not for here)
So the question is, is there anyone from Australia or anywhere else who is knowledgable in these things, that might be willing/able to compare a Telstra branded ICS/Jellybean ROM, to a stock ROM, to see just whats in there, and see if there are any rogue processes that are allowing random access to the modem, or allowing massive amounts of data to be transferred? Or is this just plain paranoia? As stated, i have not had this happen to me, but thats due to various checks I have in place to kurb my own usage. (Generally this involves wifi at home, and tethering to another mobile with a far better value pre-paid data sim if im using a data intensive app whilst outside of any available wifi hotspots.
Your thoughts guys?
I have had a quick search through the forums, and found nothing that can give me any clues on this, and I think its something that may warrant some looking at. This is also my first topic, and i apologise in advance if its in the wrong place, or already covered.
Telstra in Australia, have hands down the best mobile infrastructure in the country, nothing comes close to it. The problem is, they are some of the shiftiest operators around, and appear to have all sorts of ways to screw a few extra bucks out of people.
The latest seems to be occuring only to Telstra sold Android handsets, over the last couple of months or so. I have witnessed this from people i know, both of my sisters have had it happen to them, a close friend, and a few other people. It is also popping up regularly on their own forums, and their Facebook page.
Sudden 'excess' data usage.
In one case, the user (a good friend of mine) was billed over $3000 for supposed excess data usage, with absolutely no change to his usage habits, no apps added to his handset, nothing that would suggest something that hes done actually doing this. In every case that ive seen, when questioning Telstra, they are giving the usual 'its background data thats increased/you have changed your habits/you have added new software/you need to buy extra data' runaround. In the case of the $3000 bill, they backed down, when the person who is actually quite knowledgable, demanded that they send proof that he had used that much data, so that he could compare it to his own usage, when told 'they couldnt do that' he threatened them with the Telecoms Ombudsman, at which time they backed down and wiped off the charge. However, there are many more cases where they just plain dont, or people arent willing to go toe to toe with the Telco.
I have not had this problem, but there is a difference. The first thing i have always done with my handsets, is backup the Telstra ROM, and flash either a vanilla (preferred) or a custom rom. Meaning that there is zero 'Telstra Approved' bloatware on my phone. Ive also been very vocal on their 24x7 page in regards to keeping an eye on data usage, and various other complaints (more regarding false advertising, but that is not for here)
So the question is, is there anyone from Australia or anywhere else who is knowledgable in these things, that might be willing/able to compare a Telstra branded ICS/Jellybean ROM, to a stock ROM, to see just whats in there, and see if there are any rogue processes that are allowing random access to the modem, or allowing massive amounts of data to be transferred? Or is this just plain paranoia? As stated, i have not had this happen to me, but thats due to various checks I have in place to kurb my own usage. (Generally this involves wifi at home, and tethering to another mobile with a far better value pre-paid data sim if im using a data intensive app whilst outside of any available wifi hotspots.
Your thoughts guys?
