Microsoft recently told BBC News that it was investigating why some handsets running its Windows Phone 7 operating system are sending and receiving “phantom data.” Several net forums are detailing complaints from people that say their phones are automatically eating into their monthly data plans without their knowledge. Some complains have even been made about people’s phones sending “between 30 and 50MB’s of data” everyday, an amount that would eat into a 1GB data plan in about 20 days without even using the device. As far as this issue goes, it seems to be mainly based in the United States.

“I received an e-mail from AT&T saying that I was close to my 2GB data limit which truly shocked me as I feel I do not use data that much,” a phone owner called Julie told Paul Thurrott’s supersite for Windows. “I went and looked at my AT&T account online and noticed that my phone was sending huge chunks of data seemingly in patterns.” Another said that they had noticed that the phone’s “idle data usage is around 2-5MB per hour”. “This seems quite excessive to me – what exactly is being transferred? This even happens at night when I’m not getting any e-mails at all,” the complainers wrote on Howard Forums.

Some have speculated the problem may be related to the phones sending “feedback” to Microsoft about the software’s performance or that the phones are using a 3G connection even when Wi-Fi is available. A Microsoft spokesperson claimed that the company is “investigating this issue to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available.” The Windows Phone 7 OS and phone lineup was launched in October 2010 and is considered the company’s first credible challenge to rival operating systems released by Apple, Google, Nokia, and RIM. At the recent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer said that the firm would soon release “a series of platform improvements” in response to users’ feedback. These will be including the copy and paste features and performance improvements when loading or switching between applications.

[Sources: Howard Forums, Winsupersite]

Authors: _GadgetNews

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