N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

As soon as I arrived abroad, the N900 asked me if I want to use data while roaming, obvious choice was No.

Well, just checked my bill this morning, from the date and time, it was using bandwidth at around 8:30AM local time (while I'm still asleep) for 1103kb :confused:

Anyone else traveling abroad experience similar issue?

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I hope not. I've yet to receive the bill for the weekend in Barcelona. If n900 can't keep its paws off the internet when so instructed I'll be back to taking my trusty n95 on holidays. :(

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Some how it did connect to the roaming network.. I am assuming 3G right?.. Now was your N900 connected to 3G before your travel and wasn't rebooted? Maybe, it's like the wifi bug it doesn't really completely disconnect until you actually reboot? Idk.. My suggestion might sound really dumb.. lol

And no, I have not experienced this issue at all. :rolleyes:

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Always ask is ur friend

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I know many phones that has the same problem.
ROAMING OFF but it still uses a little data.
Android has got an app that will change the APN.

So what i do when i travel is remove the Access Point.

Eikido

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Would like to propose an idea to disable roaming like you can for the iPhone, or a hard disable of the wifi/gprs. Even sometimes when i dont want to go online to preserve battery, if you accidentally click on the browser it loads up all the internet and stuff. Sure you can disable but it just takes that extra step!

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Yes, this should be addressed. It's bad enough that the thing goes and updates the application list (apt-get update under the hood) while on GSM, without asking. I need to keep thight control of data transfer.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

what about calling your operator and put roaming block to data transfer?

doesn't justify the operation of the device but reduces amount of stress concerning data roaming because it is technically impossible to roam in 3g for example if you forget to put your device to offline-mode...

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I've been travelling a lot with my N900 and this hasn't happened to me. Of course, things like geolocation in Camera asking for a connection when I just want to take a photo is annoying; but no auto-data connections when it's been denied.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I'm a new N900 owner and I'd like to ask if there is now a way to disable all data use while roaming, as the first poster was asking?

I'm not very familiar with all the network settings, and I'm just looking for the easiest solution. Calling my network before each trip would be annoying!

thanks guys

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Settings > Phone > Data roaming > Always ask

Unfortunately there's not a "None" option, but you can ensure you don't click "Yes" when it asks "Allow data roaming on this connection?"

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I kept getting SMS's from my base carrier that data roaming is expensive and I should be aware as to the costs, even while I was Denying all Internet access bar Wifi.

Since I switched my main carry (still roaming) over to the Droid I haven't got similar SMS's - I assume that the N900 was using data? I guess this is one of the perils of carrying what I now realise is a huge work-in-progress...any chance of us being able to point our carriers somewhere at Nokia.com to contest any charges?

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Hmmm...I wouldn´t be surprised if you managed to do something like this:
- Open maps and give it permission to use gprs assisted gps location (couple of kb)
- Close it (internet connection stays open!)
- If you do not close connection it will be used as update check for app manager in background silently (check happens once in a day, ~10 mb data transfer)

At least that happened to me :|

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

To date I haven't actually used data on the move - only on the hotel wifi. So for example I might be using the wifi, then go out and when I wake it up it's asking me if I want to allow roaming. I always say no. I've never actually allowed data roaming on the move on the N900, ever (and this is my first time roaming with the N900 as my main phone).

Since I didn't bother to reset my data counter, I don't know how much data it's used while roaming, if indeed it did - but the fact that my carrier was sending me SMS's indicates that this is the case (especially as my Droid - which the SIM card was swapped into - is now silent in terms of such SMSs). And I'm not sure they would bother sending SMS's unless I had racked up a fairly hefty amount of data.

I guess I'm looking for as much a full explanation as to the behaviour concerning this issue, as somewhere I can point O2 to and say "It was the phone" as a basis of negotiation should I have accidentally racked up a lot more than six quid.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I used my N900 while on holiday in Italy earlier this year, and i used 0kb of data through the network.

I just changed the settings in "Settings > Internet Connections > Connect Automatically" to "WLAN". ("Always Ask" would have worked aswel, but i wanted WiFi to auto connect.)

I used the WiFi in the hotel and bars only.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I was sure that I read somewhere (before I bought the phone) that the N900 can be adjusted so that you can use roaming and not recieve charges? Does it hack something maybe? I cant remember where I read it now, but it was one of the things that I liked about the phone!

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

@Janniman this is not possible.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

3Uk offer (and default to) ability to disable data roaming out of country

Very quick/simple regardless of country -- can be activated/deactivated through web portal.

Provides huge comfort when faced with silly roaming charges.

Interestingly my wife is using Vodafone. She has a more dumb phone (Samsung Tocco Ultra) but we still have a data package. I was surprised that voda don't offer the block. "just dont use the internet and it will be fine"

Well on that handset sure -- but on smartphone, it's far too risky. You need to intentionally break the access point definiyion to be sure (add an X to the APN or similar).

At least you learnt that cheaply (£6 - you got off lightly)

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Virgin Mobile SIMs have a good solution. You can use data roaming if you need to (handy if your flights are disrupted due to a volcano), but you can't use it accidentally because you need to first send an SMS to activate it for the next 24 hours (which costs £6 and has a meagre 5MB limit).

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

ha i went from england to france for 2 weeks and the bill was £90 when i got home! (usually £30pm vodafone contract)
mostly from logging in here!
daylight robbery!

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Noobs.

Went to Greece, needed guidance, fired up navigation. Cached 50 MB OTA, at 6 Eur a piece. 300Eur bill. Vodafone says I'm lucky I was on Vodafone GR, otherwise 8-9Eur a Mb.

The SMS I got stated 6 cents. The second message said "per 10Kb". Who sells data in 10K increments? What is this, 1981? Bastards.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Looked at my online bill and it looks like I haven't used any roaming data after all... phew.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I am travelling often between NL, B, F and D. Roaming is quite an annoying problem.

This is what I have to do each time I leave the Netherlands:

1. switch from Dual to GSM in menuapplet. This should disable all 3G connections, but apparently it doesn't completely

2. settings - connectivity -internet connections: automatic connection - WLAN. This as well should prevent 3G connections, but email keeps downloading, and Sygic keeps asking for internetconnection 2 screens 2 times an hour.

3. email: settings - disable automatic download

4. settings - connectivity - Mail for exchange - settings -disable calendar and contacts synchronisation

5. connectivity - location - disable network positioning (for sygic)

I would like an applet to switch all these settings on and off through 1 button.

Of course there is a way to switch of all internet activity except wifi: just don't enter the phone's pin at startup. No telephone, but Maemo OS keeps working. And Sygic keeps asking for internet connection, two screens twice an hour.

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

Switching off roaming connections means that abroad valuable services are no longer available. No wheater forecast update, no automatic downloads of Opensteetmap, Google maps, Weather radar, email, no internet connection, almost back to the stone age of just phone and sms. That's not why I bought the n900.

So, the best solution is: internet connections available troughout all countries of the EU for the rates charged now in your own country.
Only than can I use my smartphone as it is made for.

As mentioned before in this thread, the high charges for roaming are kind of daylight robbery. Cant we start an EU-wide protest against these silly rates based on 19th-century national borders ?

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

I set

Internet Connections - Connect automatically: Always Ask
Phone - data roaming: Always ask
Location: Network Positioning disable

willem43L You know that data moves on 2g just fine, right? And that 99.9% of operators charge exactly the same for 2g and 3g data?

Re: N900 just cost me £6 on roaming data charges
 

From what I'm reading here, it sounds like the best solution is to use only local SIMs in an N900 & use Manual Network selection even when home so that you can't roam on another network when you are near borders, etc. Then when you enter a new country you buy a local SIM for use there. Of course this isn't very user-friendly as you will need to maintain multiple accounts if you travel regularly, etc.

Also, in order to be reachable on your primary local SIM when abroad, you would need another device (perhaps one that has no data capability so there won't be any accidental charges).

For nerds like me though, all this really shouldn't be a problem as we likely have multiple devices anyway.