Data roaming will be automatically turned off for TbayTel customers visiting outside of Canada and the United States.
The local telephone company implemented the change after receiving reports of customers racking up high phone bills because they didn’t turn off data roaming while outside of Canada and United States.
So now customers hoping to use data outside of Canada and the U.S. will need to call tbaytel to ensure their data roaming isn’t switched off while they’re away.
The change came in effect for all TbayTel customers in May.
TbayTel spokeswoman Katie Crowe said the extra step is to ensure customers are protected.
“Data roaming internationally has been a concern for carriers for quite some time,” she said. “When you’re off your home network you are roaming. People are suffering from bill shock. We still allow people to roam internationally. All they have to do is give us a call before they travel.”
Crowe said when customers call they will have to pick a value saver in order to use data while out of the country. Customers can also choose to have their travel saver placed on their account and renewed each month.
“All cellphones have been programmed so they default to turning data roaming off,” she said.
“We find that once customers turn it on that they don’t turn it back off again. We just feel this is another step to protect customers.”
