The well-known software bug that has been chewing through the data plans of iPhone users on Verizon Wireless is believed to be affecting users on other carriers as well. The bug which was reported last week saw hordes of complaints on Apple’s online support community. Users have been complaining that the iPhone 5 uses cellular data even when the phone is connected to a WiFi network. Over the weekend, Apple released a software update to fix the problem for Verizon Wireless consumers. Once the fix was released, Verizon issued a statement stating that the issue has been resolved. The company further announced that consumers wouldn’t be charged for any overages related to glitch.
The details of the cause of this problem are still unclear, but there are several Apple programmers looking into it. Another aspect that is yet to be resolved is whether this bug affects other carriers as well. Although the support page consists of complaints on other carriers as well, there are those who claim that the cause is different, but nothing is certain yet. An AT&T subscriber who had bought the new iPhone claimed that after resetting his usage statistics in the morning, a total of 382 MB of data had been used by the end of the day, despite spending the entire day on a Wi-Fi network. Another disgusted user said that for the two weeks that the phone was in use it consumed 3GB of data. He further stated that his previous monthly usage never crossed 2 GB on older versions of the iPhone.
AT&T on the other hand, refused to comment on the issue. Apple has also refrained from returning requests for comments. Sprint users are also confused as to whether the issue is existent in their phones or not. Officials from Sprint are yet to make an official statement in this regard. Complaints are pouring in from other countries as well with users from Canada complaining of the same issue.
Things don’t seem to have kicked off in the right direction for the iPhone. After being criticized for the lack of changes in the new model and then the subsequent Maps fiasco, this bug isn’t going to help Apple’s case either. Although the issue has been resolved, Apple’s reputation seems have a taken a blow and with rising competition from Android and Windows Phone platform, things don’t look good for the Cupertino based company.
