IOS6 3G Data Leakage

Like a good little Applebot I upgraded my iPad2 and iPhone 4s to IOS6 a couple of weeks after IOS6 was released. 3 days later and my iPad had gone through 10GB of 3G data on a 2GB plan.

It appears as though the "Use 3G Data" setting being turned on meant "always use 3 G data" even when on wi-fi. 64 pages of 3g data use and $800 later I was left with no option but to turn off 3G data to stop running up even bigger bills.

Rang Telecom New Zealand to see if they could help. They put me through to some "special investigation's team". Gotta love honest nerds. The person I spoke to told me that they knew that this was a problem affecting some devices and they had been asked by Apple to monitor affected users if they rang up.

A couple of weeks later I got my bill with nothing done about my $800 of excess data usage. Went into a telecom store to get assistance.They rang the telecom billing department who said they would look into it. On hold for 20 minutes, they came back on and told the telecom person I was dealing with that they were not aware of any data issues with IOS devices. I don't think they realised that they were on speaker phone. The telecom assistant then told them what he could see on the notes, to which they replied "the notes are wrong".

If I was a gambling man, I would say that it looks like Apple are making sure that any hint that there could be a problem is being "disappeared". After all, the usage of data is not telecoms issue, it is an Apple issue. However telecom could have handled this better by at least giving me any info they had instead of stonewalling and denying.

I have no chance of getting anything back from Apple, I will try though, but am not holding out hope. What I will be doing however is hopping off the Apple Fanboy bandwagon. My next phone will be a Nexus 4 and my next tablet, will not be an iPad but a Windows 8 device. I will keep the MacBook Air going as still think its the best non hardcore techie machine on the market.