In the case of Ashton Finegold, the teen received a text saying that he was nearing his monthly data limit.
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But, because Wi-Fi Assist is automatically turned on when iOS 9 is installed, Finegold had no clue he was eating up more than 144,000 MB of data and was racking up an enormous, $2,021.17 phone bill in the process.
“I thought my dad was going to kill me”, he said.
While it’s a useful feature for people on unlimited internet packages, it’s also a data drain.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard reports about how Wi-Fi Assist can accidentally burn through mobile data plans, which has prompted Apple to release a support document detailing how and when Wi-Fi Assist should work.
“It’s usually $250 a month and this was two thousand dollars”, said Ashton’s father Jeff. It turns out Fiengold’s bedroom has weak Wi-Fi. Many iPhone users have unknowingly used all their monthly data and have been hit with overage charges because of Wi-Fi Assist, as it is enabled by default.
However, he thought it was okay, as he was using Wi-Fi in his room.
He added that while some customers like what WiFi Assist does, many don’t know they have it. “That’s why there’s an uproar”, Campbell said.
In theory, Wi-Fi Assist should save data – it automatically switches to Wi-Fi when the device is in range – but Finegold says the opposite happened.
Less than a month after debuting the iOS 9 operating system, a California couple filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit over the potentially problematic Wi-Fi Assist feature.
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To switch off Wi-Fi assist on your iPhone, open up Settings, then open up Cellular and then finally scroll all the way down to turn off Wi-Fi Assist.
