Ian Simpson, a 29 year old factory worker from Darlington (Yorkshire), could be facing bankruptcy after Vodafone hit him with a data usage bill for £27,322! Ian had been using his mobile phone as a modem to connect his laptop with the Internet and, over a single monthly period, had managed to download several TV programmes.

Unfortunately Ian's £41.50 per month package (Vodafone Anytime 800 + £7.50 inclusive Internet deal) did not include "unlimited" web usage:


It's sad to think that, for the money, Ian could have rented himself a leased line for one year or several bonded 2Mbps SDSL connections! However in this case Vodafone do clearly state a 120MB limit, though their apparent inability to warn the customer earlier on about such an obvious over-use is of serious concern (it'd still take a lot of time to download all that).

Vodafone is now advising customers to "never use a mobile as a modem", which is a bit silly considering the growing trend towards 'Mobile Broadband' services and the operators own £29.37 per month 3GB usage capped business package. The Mirror reports that Vodafone will also try to reach a better "sympathetic arrangement" with Ian, although it doesn't say how sympathetic.