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Travelpass charges for cell connection?

I recently went to the UK with the TravelPass plan. Although I didn't use my phone every day for calls or data (GPS was set to wifi only) I notice that I was charged for use every day I was there. I did not use airplane mode because I wanted to be able to receive any possible emergency calls from home. Studying my usage, I see that very small amounts of data usage were recorded several times every day, regardless of whether I used my phone or not, I assume as a result of my phone establishing connection with the cell towers (?). So, is the reason my bill showed every day use because of these connections? If so, that was not mentioned in the plan details, and would be completely unfair.

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Verizon_Support

It is important that you are able to stay connected when you are traveling abroad, CHUCKA75Q. TravelPass sessions start automatically whenever a device connects to a cell tower. If a device is not in airplane mode, it will periodically exchange packets of data with the cell towers around it, which can trigger a TravelPass session. In situations where you do not need to use data, but still need to be able to receive phone calls, our $40 monthly plan with 100 minutes of talk, 100 sent text messages, and 100 MB of data is often a more cost effective option. With these plans, it is often a good idea to disable cellular data on your device in the settings menu. Additionally, location services can be enabled without using Wi-Fi or a cellular connection at all; they primarily use the Global Positioning System rather than terrestrial networks. With applications such as Google Maps, you can download map sections to your phone over Wi-Fi and use GPS to get your location on those maps where no wireless connections are possible.

PeterP_VZW

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CHUCKA75Q

The fact that, unless you turn off all data, you are still charged for your phone simply connecting to a cell tower regardless of whether you are actually using data or making/receiving calls, is not made clear in the description of the TravelPass plan. This should be made clear up front, and I feel cheated because I was charged on days I did not use data. So with the TravelPass plan I have to turn off my phone's ability to make and receive calls and use the Internet or I will incur a charge. Excuse me, but that plan sucks!

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