The OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) have published a document on measures taken by mobile operators in Hong Kong to prevent mobile bill shock. What is mobile bill shock exactly? Say you’ve gone overseas with your HTC or iPhone and not knowing better, you use data roaming as if you were in Hong Kong. When you get home and notice that your bill total has 4 (or even 5) digits… well, that’s mobile bill shock!
The OFTA has compiled a list of various measures which varies according to the mobile operator. SMS alerts, usage caps are in place, as well as guidelines / options on how to opt out of certain services. For my carrier (SmarTone-Vodafone), they’ve implemented a charge ceiling of $898 per month for local data usage, while data roaming flat-rate day packages are now offered in 45 countries.
What is your carrier doing to avoid “mobile bill shock” for you?
A copy of the bilingual OFTA document can be obtained through this link.
Thank you very much for this information. My SIM was stolen when I was in Thailand and the roaming bill was over 11000. I was the diamond member and didn’t want to pay for it.. 2 years later, People/ChinaMobile sued me!! I am to be at the hearing again this friday, am glad that i finally came across your blog!
Sorry.. i just realised the link doens’t work.. wondering where i can find that document? Thanks!
Hi Tanya, try this link: http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/communication/mobilecomm/mobilebill.htm