Microsoft Investigates WP7 ‘Phantom Data’ Reports

Microsoft has confirmed to eWEEK Europe UK that it is investigating reports that some smartphones running Windows Phone 7 are sending and receiving so called ‘phantom data’.

And what makes things worse for Microsoft and users is that mobile operators are said to be wrongly charging unsuspecting customers for this phantom data transfer over expensive 3G networks, and not Wi-Fi.

It is thought that as much as 50MB of daily phantom data is being billed to customer’s call plans, causing some to exceed their monthly data usage allowance.

Data Consumption

The issue was highlighted on Paul Thurrott’s supersite for Windows, where he published an email from a user known as Julie G.

“I got my Windows Phone 7 the day it came out, and as of yesterday I completed my first full month of service,” Julie G wrote. “With this phone I do not stream, I hardly surf the internet, I mostly have the location services turned off. I do have Facebook connected with Windows Live so I do get the updates on the people hub and pictures hub and I do play Bejeweled quite a lot as I am addicted. I do have my Yahoo mail and Outlook mail synced to the phone. Beyond those few things, I do not do much else with the phone.”

“On December 22nd I received an email from AT&T saying that I was close to my 2GB data limit which truly shocked me as I feel I do not use data that much,” Julie G said. “I went and looked at my AT&T account online and noticed that my phone was sending huge chunks of data seemingly in patterns. For instance on November 21-24 it sent between 30 and 50MB of data at 10:41pm each day and Dec 1-4 it sent between 30 and 50MB of data at 9:41am each day. On December 23rd I turned on airplane mode so my phone could no longer send data. I turned airplane mode off briefly on December 23rd and the phone sent 400MB of data. I called AT&T yesterday, December 28th, but they said that there was nothing that they can do to figure out what was happening on my phone.”

User Complaints

Paul Thurrott has been tracking the data usage on his Windows Phone 7 handset since October and said that his data usage also seemed to be on a sharp upward trajectory.

“One has to wonder when/if this trend is going to level out,” Thurrott wrote. “But it’s pretty clear now that AT&T’s lower-end 200MB data plan would never cut it, for me at least, unless I was interested in really micro-managing usage. Which I’m not.”

Meanwhile another Windows Phone 7 user by the name of SoN][c complained on the Howard Forums that he was seeing 2MB to 5MB of data consumed per hour, despite only having Gmail, Yahoo, and a Weather Channel app active on the phone.

“If I get no emails for a month I’ll still go over my 500MB data plan, thats nuts!,” SoN][c wrote.

“SoN][c, I can confirm that I’m seeing unusually large data usage with my phone,” another user by the name of guste wrote. “Today, I visited two webpages that were here on HowardForums. Of my 50MB plan, I now have 34MB left and that’s with the wifi given preference. That would mean either I used 16MB of data in 90 minutes, or that data was still being used when I was back on a wifi network. I am… irritated.”

Microsoft Investigates

“We are investigating this issue to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to eWEEK Europe UK in an email.

This is not the first time problems have been reported about Windows Phone 7 however. Back in November it acknowledged that there was a problematic issue with removable microSD cards, which meant that any microSD cards inserted into the smartphone was viewed as a “permanent modification.” The OS reformats rewrites removable memory wjhich means it canot be shared with other devices.

But these data consumption reports via 3G will be concerning for Redmond, which has banked on Windows Phone 7 to help revive its fortunes in the smartphone market. It launched the mobile operating system in October and sales have reportedly gotten off to a slow start, not helped by limited stock.

So far Microsoft has refused to say how many end users have purchased Windows Phone 7 handsets, although it has confirmed that it shipped 1.5 million devices to mobile operators and retailers globally.

Mobile Data Strain

This phantom data problem comes at a time of heightened concern about the data consumption of smartphones.

T-Mobile has halved the amount of data (1GB down to 500MB) that customers on its network are allowed to consume in a month, and advised users to save video downloads and streaming for when they get home.

The move by T-Mobile is indicative of the increasing strain that mobile networks are coming under as smartphone uptake continues to grow. Mobile companies such as Freedom4 and mBlox have previously warned that GSM networks are not built to cope with the demand currently being placed on them by mobile broadband, and nearly all operators are beginning to admit they can no longer offer unlimited data plans.