[ghaff]

It's still the case under some circumstances. When traveling on an international data plan in Europe, I've been burned a couple of times by a map download or a background sync operation that burned through my whole allowance--leading to another $60 or so charge. I try to remember to turn off cellular data when not actively using it when on such a plan but I sometimes forget.

It's gotten better. The plan I usually get for a couple weeks of travel gives me 1GB these days. But not that long ago it was 200MB or so.

You can argue that the user should be able to choose but any of those settings, per my example, can then be configured incorrectly by accident (or you just forget to change them).

[moftz]

I found it easier to just buy a prepaid SIM for travel to Europe. $25 for 12GB, 3000 minutes, 3000 texts, good for 30 days. You get a european number which is definitely handy when needing to call hotels/airlines. Sure, you are limited by the higher price of texting back home (like $0.25/text sometimes) but if you use iMessage/Whatsapp/Telegram/etc it's all included with the data you already paid for. Topping off the SIM is even cheaper with European plans or just buy a new one before next trip.

[ghaff]

I should probably investigate it again. I don't really need that much data when I travel and the path of least resistance has always been to just get a 1 month international data plan from my usual carrier. I don't really need phone at all and text very little. But I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives out there.

[Filligree]

Assuming you're on Android, you should be able to get the behavior you want by turning on data saver. That specifically disables background downloads, and also pauses app updates etc.

[ghaff]

You can do similar things on iPhone--which I did after 1GB of music synced one night when in Europe. But I mostly want data to transfer over mobile when not on WiFi at home. It's just easy to forget to change the various setting when traveling.