Shanghai Communications Administration announces investigation results on "16,000 yuan overseas travel data charges"
2024-08-17
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Traveling abroad and posting to Moments, data charges of 16,000 yuan? Recently, a Shanghai citizen reported to the media that he encountered sky-high data charges when traveling abroad, which attracted widespread attention. (Previous report)
On the evening of August 16, the Shanghai Communications Administration issued a related statement:
On the evening of August 15, 2024, Shanghai TV broadcast a report about the "sky-high international roaming charges" for user Wang. The Shanghai Communications Administration attached great importance to this and immediately initiated an investigation and handling procedure to verify the relevant situation. The details are as follows:
User Wang Moumou activated international and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan data roaming services for two mobile phone numbers on February 20, 2019 and September 6, 2023 respectively. The above two numbers roamed to Nepal from December 17 to 23, 2023. When the user arrived in Nepal on December 17, China Telecom sent landing text messages to the two mobile phone numbers respectively to inform them of the roaming charges.
After that,From December 17 to 23, 2023, China Telecom sent roaming charge reminders to two mobile phone numbers via text messages every day, and the backend system showed that the text messages were successfully delivered.
Article 23 of the Telecommunications Regulations of the People's Republic of China stipulates: "Telecommunications charges are subject to market-regulated prices. Telecommunications business operators shall comprehensively consider factors such as production and operation costs, supply and demand conditions in the telecommunications market, and reasonably determine telecommunications business tariffs." Nepal is an area with high data roaming charges. Therefore, China Telecom has designed corresponding data roaming tariffs based on its own operating costs.
At the same time, according to China Telecom's regulations,The system will disconnect users whose roaming charges exceed 500 yuan on the day (00:00-24:00 Beijing time), suspend their data roaming function, and send SMS reminders. Users can decide whether to restore the data roaming function on the day based on the relevant content of the SMS.
According to the information obtained by the Shanghai Communications Administration, from December 17 to 23, 2023, the roaming charges incurred by user Wang Moumou reached the fuse standard many times.Therefore, China Telecom's corporate system automatically triggered a circuit breaker, suspended the user's data roaming function, and sent a reminder text message to the user. However, the user himself restored the data roaming function of the two mobile phone numbers a total of 10 times, thereby incurring corresponding traffic roaming charges.
After a user's mobile phone number was circuit-breakered on December 18, 20, 21 and 22, 2023, the data roaming function was restored autonomously multiple times.
The Shanghai Municipal Communications Administration has provided guidance to the Shanghai information and communications industry on how to remind users to control the traffic charges generated by international roaming and has developed a complete set of systematic practices.
First, we should provide reminders for international roaming.After the user arrives at the international roaming destination, the operator will send an international roaming landing text message to the user, informing him of the charges, service hotline and other information.
Second, automatically start the data roaming fee discount.If the roaming area provides data roaming daily package services, the operator can automatically adjust users whose data roaming charges exceed the daily package quota to the daily package service. However, if the roaming area does not have a daily package service, this discount cannot be provided at present.
The third is the data roaming function fuse mechanism.For roaming areas without data roaming daily packages, operators have set up a data roaming fee fuse mechanism to fuse users whose data roaming fees exceed the limit (determined by the rules of each company, up to 500 yuan) on the same day, suspend their data roaming function, and send a reminder SMS. Users can re-enable the data roaming function on their own. If not, the relevant function will be restored the next day.
Fourth, there is a high-cost reminder mechanism.Operators will send high-cost reminder text messages to users who have high charges during their account period. The threshold and sending frequency are set by each company (the highest threshold is "this month's package charge*2+100 yuan").
With the strong support of the above-mentioned mechanism, the Shanghai Communications Administration has not received any complaints about "sky-high international roaming charges" in recent years. The situation reported by this user is an extremely isolated case.
After a dispute over phone charges arose, user Wang filed complaints four times. After investigation, the Shanghai Communications Administration believed that Shanghai Telecom had not violated any relevant regulations in its operations. However, in view of the user's actual situation,In January 2024, the Shanghai Telecom User Complaints Reception Center coordinated with Shanghai Telecom to propose a solution of 20% discount on users' bills, but the users did not accept it.
Subsequently, the user filed a mediation application in February, and the Shanghai Telecom User Complaints Acceptance Center conducted telephone mediation.The user insisted on a full waiver of the December roaming charges (more than 16,000 yuan in total for the two numbers), but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
April,The user filed a complaint again, saying he was willing to bear the 6,000 yuan fee.After coordination by Shanghai Telecom User Complaints Acceptance Center,Shanghai Telecom said it could waive the penalty for breach of contract for users at the time and adjust the December account charges by 30%, for a total reduction of more than 8,000 yuan, but the two parties have not yet reached an agreement on this.Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Communications Administration received a complaint from the user on the same issue in August, which was transferred from the 12345 citizen hotline and is currently handling it in accordance with the law.
The Shanghai Communications Administration stated in a statement that in the next step, it will guide the industry to start from the following three aspects to continuously improve the international roaming fee reminder mechanism and help users consume rationally: first, optimize the international roaming fee disclosure service to allow users to understand the relevant information more comprehensively and accurately; second, further improve service levels and comprehensively optimize user reminders, risk control and other capabilities; third, combine brands such as "Suishen Wuai" and "Five-Heart Service" to explore and launch more and better adaptive services based on the specific needs of elderly users.
Previous reports
Mr. Wang, a Shanghai citizen, reported that in December 2023, his 68-year-old father traveled to Nepal for 8 days. After landing in Nepal, the old man posted a circle of friends before starting the trip, and then received a text message from the telecommunications company, prompting that the phone bill had exceeded 500 yuan. After returning to China, the final phone bill was as high as 16,000 yuan. Although his family has negotiated with the telecommunications company many times since then, the two sides have never reached an agreement. During this period, the 16,000 yuan generated nearly 9,000 yuan in late payment fees.
Xinmin Evening News (xmwb1929) Comprehensive The Paper
Editor: Ni Yanhong
