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11/16/2009

When Eric Gernez signed up for a new 3G Internet and mobile phone package in August, he thought the flat rate of €95 ($142) a month was a pretty good deal -- until he received a bill for almost €46,000 ($68,000).

At first the café owner from the village of Petite-Foret, near the Belgian border, thought it must be some kind of joke. His provider Orange, a subsidiary of France Telecom, was charging him €45,923.61 for the month of August.

"I laughed when I saw the bill, but I am not laughing any more because they are asking me to pay," Gernez told the Agence France Press news agency. "They proposed I pay in instalments over 40 years," he said.

When Gernez took up the problem with Orange, he was first told that the massive bill may have been because he had exceeded a 1 gigabyte limit -- a limit he says he was never informed of. So-called 3G technology allows users to connect to the Internet via a mobile phone network and the technology allows improved high-speed data transmission.

However, it seems the cause of the problem was actually his proximity to Belgium. He says that his bill showed foreign calls yet he says he never calls abroad. "They told me I may have connected to the Belgian network as we are right next to the border," he told AFP.

Many mobile phone operators charge huge "roaming fees" for use of the Internet abroad via a mobile connection.

Orange is now looking into the matter. "It is evidently not about fleecing a customer," Laurent Vitoux, France Telecom's regional director said, telling AFP that the company was in a "constructive dialogue" with Gernez.

Orange has, however, so far refused to cancel the bill.