Unicom's 3G subscribers point to traffic irregularities

(Ecns.cn)--Reports surfaced Thursday that China Unicom's 3G subscribers are sounding off about iPhones that seem to be registering more 3G Internet use than they actually made, forcing them to pay bills without knowing where the traffic they were charged for came from or went.

"Since I only use the Internet to check emails, generally speaking, 300MB traffic is more than enough for me each month, but in these last months, I have had to pay more money, even hundreds of yuan, in overuse fees," said Mr. Chen who found his Internet traffic allowance is prone to suddenly running out.

After noticing this problem and checking his bills, Mr. Chen contacted China Unicom to consult on the causes, but the company failed to provide an explanation.

Mr. Chen isn't the only subscriber to run into this problem. Others found their mobile phones showed no consistency with regards to traffic, or patterns in daily use.

"My iPhone records showed great variation, sometimes using 50MB in traffic a day, while on others often over 100MB a day," said a Miss He.

Currently China Unicom cannot explain the erratic overuse traffic or the cause of the problem. They simply promised users they will look into charging less for the mystery consumption.

Since China Unicom's 3G service is a new communication channel, it was not unexpected that subscribers would encounter some problems. People need to exercise more caution when using a new service, an industry insider commented.