DISCLAIMER: I have been a loyal Globe subscriber for 13+ years, and I was a Smart subscriber as well for 2 years before I got my first iPhone in late 2008. Enough is enough.
For those who are following me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’m currently having problems with my billing for internet usage for my Globe postpaid plan. I have asked Globe to give me a detailed breakdown of my internet usage, but they refuse to issue a breakdown & expect me to take the total minutes or KB indicated on my bill at face value. The sad thing is that I’m not the only one experiencing this: fellow bloggers such as Abe Olandres & Noemi Dado (among others) have also posted their “horror stories” with Globe’s internet usage billing. There are also a couple of threads in PhilMUG (here & here) & applei.ph (here) containing other Globe subscribers’ horror stories.
I conducted an experiment last December to see if there was some basis for my complaints. On December 17, I edited my APN to make sure that I could not connect to Globe’s data servers. To verify that I no longer had a connection, I turned off WiFi & opened Safari. I tried to connect to Globe’s iPhone site & the following alert appeared:
"Could not activate cellular data network"
Okay, now I could safely begin my experiment. I retrieved my unbilled charges & they amounted to PhP1337.92. For the next 24 hours, I planned to subsist on Wifi only. Since I work at home, that would not be a problem.
