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Zain Data Pricing – 700 KD Blunder

GoogleAndroidPark

There seems to clearly be some details that you are unaware of when you have a data capable phone. With the Blackberry you have packages for data usage in local and roaming networks but that isn’t the case with any data capable phone such as an iPhone or Google phone. In my case the problem happened with my Google Nexus One by the fourth day in Bahrain during GulfRun my cellphone gets disconnected, luckily I have my BB with me so I call in to check whats the reason and they told me I have a bill of over 700 KD with the 700 being just the data bill not the phone bill and I would have to pay the whole thing off to have my phone unlocked. The problem is that a lot of people are unaware of this point, I had to pay right away and check my bill as soon as I got back to Kuwait. It was a ridiculously damaging bill and its a lot more then my usual bill. In this case Zain has no packages for data capable phone, you have to pay 6 fils per Kilobyte or 6.145 KD per 1MB which is extremely high and adds up very quickly. Since my phone was roaming, updating weather data, downloading email headers, syncing my gmail contacts and more over the past 5 days I got smacked with a ridiculous bill. I can’t believe that Zain being in Saudi and Bahrain can’t have an agreement with its own network for a data plan, the users just get destroyed by this pricing. After that mistake I switched off data while roaming and only connects to data when I connect to a wireless access point.

Vodafone has packages for anyone roaming in Europe in its network, and different packages for roaming outside of Europe. At least you are aware of all these details, and if you aren’t subscribed to it then the service isn’t switched on. If Zain switches off the service someone can easily call in to activate it but instead people get caught in this dangerously quiet pricing plan.

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