Man charged $28,000 for using data card, Slingbox to watch football game

While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe of international roaming areas -- and in case you were wondering, the Bears ended up winning 27 to 23.

[Via The Register]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 24th 2009 8:18AM]

Was he really watching this in HD over his 3G connection? Because my guess would be that this story probably belongs in engadgetmobile.com.

[davenport Posted Feb 24th 2009 12:10PM]

Yes, I watch my TiVo HD with a SlingBox HD over my Sprint Phone-as-Modem connection and it looks pretty good!

[north Posted Feb 24th 2009 11:14AM]

He got off easy.
Isn't streaming video against AT&T's TOS?

[bushi Posted Feb 24th 2009 1:08PM]

And the insult to injury is of course that is cost AT&T no more to send him that data. The whole int roaming fee thing is s total fucking scam.

[kmp14 Posted Feb 24th 2009 5:16PM]

That was a close one. That would have sucked of the Lions only win was against my Bears! (Sorry, had to say it!)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 24th 2009 6:53PM]

And that is one reason why I use PDANet and WMWifiRouter (to bypass tethering, modem, and no data cards).

[JustinBrown Posted Feb 24th 2009 8:48PM]

$28,067.31 to watch the LIONS! its bad enough watching them free, let alone for $290.65.

- depressed in Detroit

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 25th 2009 9:36PM]

Ridiculous that he should receive a bill for this! I was considering changing my carier from Verizon to AT&T. I'm not considering this move anymore!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 26th 2009 2:37PM]

I, unfortunately, am not impressed by this gentleman's bill. I have been having problems with billing ever since I switched to Cingular from my previous cell phone carrier. I happen to live 4 and a half miles north of the border in San Diego County in California, and my device keeps on "picking up signals it should not receive" in other words, AT&T constantly bills me for international roaming, even while standing outside my front door! I have made it a matter of routine to call customer "care" every month before I pay my bill. Sometimes the charges are few and small, but just in a five month period I had to dispute charges adding up to more than $80. Sometimes the roaming charges are from far away places like La Paz, in Southern Baja California, where I haven't been since the summer of 1979!