Guy with 'unlimited' data plan gets $85,000 bill

[bylo]

Originally Posted by petkow

you have to be careful with that word 'unlimited'!

It never was "unlimited" — at least not the way most people understand it.

Cellphone user shocked by charges of $85K

"What happened is that the client used the cellphone as a modem linking it directly to the computer and downloading huge files, ... high-res movies for instance."

Staniaszek said he pays $10 a month for unlimited mobile browsing on his cellphone. "So I figured that was the same thing, but I guess not."

The $10/month for "unlimited mobile browsing" is separate from "used the cellphone as a modem linking it directly to the computer." The latter is charged by the amount of data downloaded. So the only sensible meaning of "unlimited" in this case was the size of the bill

But no matter, the $85k bill is unconscionable. Bell charges $47/month for DSL service that includes 30GB of bandwidth. Although it's not a totally fair comparison, $85k/30GB means Bell charged the poor guy ~$2,800 per GB.

Is it any wonder why Bell is the most hated telephone/Internet carrier in Canada? See e.g. Ellen Roseman's blog (The consumer affairs reporter for the Toronto Star newspaper) and especially the 336 posts (and counting) under Bell Blues.