I'm sure we have all experienced the pain of higher than expected mobile phone charges? Well an American Astronaut has come back to earth with a bump. Alex Blaine Layder based in Texas arrived home in February from a 6 Month assignment aboard the (ISS) International Space Station to find his monthly spend had significantly increased..... to a whopping $1.9m dollars.
Alex said, I called my provider immediately as it was obviously an error but to my shock they were adamant the charges were correct. A dispute has now followed and further evidence provided by the network claims a huge amount of data and a text message were delivered to Alex's handset amazingly... sometime during his 6 month assignment in Space.
Astronauts are strictly prohibited from taking any communication devices on board Shuttles to prevent any kind of interference on take off or landing, however it appears Alex Blaine Layder neglected this strict rule and also forgot to engage his flight mode (available on most handsets these days). Furthermore the handset remained on as the Shuttle travelled to the ISS, in that time data was sent to the handset via a total of 13 Satellites orbiting over countries such as UK, USA, Russia, China, Australia, Africa and finally South America. After docking, the ISS's powerful communication satellites received the data and delivered it to the handset.
A network spokesman said this is a very rare occurrence as the ISS orbits 242 miles above the Earth; however the data was delivered successfully to the handset via 13 Satellites to reach its destination. We have a very robust and far reaching network and are proud to offer our customers so much coverage, wherever they might be... therefore we will continue to recover the roaming charges that were accrued.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the data delivered was subscription based feed content and 1 text message from Alex's fiancé reminding him to do some duty free shopping on his arrival home. Alex is now planning a sponsored "Moon Walk" across his home town of Texas to raise funds, he is also in negotiations with an unnamed network to provide pay as you go services for long distance travelers.
Rightmobilephone.co.uk, comments, this just highlights how important and cost effective it can be to compare mobile phones, research your mobile phone tariff and ensure it is tailored to your usage and needs. Also research mobile phone reviews for features that you might need such as "flight mode" and "wifi off modes". Some offers are out of this world.
5:51 pm
Haha April fools!