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Russian eagle creates huge data roaming phone bill

Data Roaming - Level 0

A phone bill shocked scientists in Russia. It was bigger than they thought. An eagle they were following in their research flew too far. It was using SMS and flew across Asia to Iran. Its SMS used the Internet of other countries. The scientists had to pay the data roaming charges for this. The research team ran out of money.

The team started an Internet page to raise money called "Top up the eagle's mobile". Bird lovers gave $1,600 to pay the bill. Russia's mobile phone operator cancelled the phone bill. It put the team on a cheaper package. A scientist wants the eagle to keep sending SMS data. This will help his project and protect all eagles.

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Data Roaming - Level 1

A telephone bill shocked scientists in Russia. It was bigger than they thought. This was because the eagle they were following in their research flew outside Russia. The eagle was using SMS. When the eagle flew across Asia, its SMS transmitters used the Internet of other countries. The scientists had to pay the data roaming charges of these Internet companies. The research team ran out of money because the eagle flew to Iran and Pakistan.

The team started an Internet page to raise money for the bill. It was called "Top up the eagle's mobile". Bird lovers gave $1,600 to help pay the bill. Russia's mobile phone operator heard about the problem. It cancelled the debt and put the team on a cheaper package. A Kazakhstan SMS cost 30 US cents; one from Iran cost the team 50 cents. A scientist wants the eagle to keep sending SMS data. This will help his project and protect all eagles.

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Data Roaming - Level 2

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A telephone bill shocked scientists in Russia. The bill was a lot bigger than they thought. This was because the eagle they were following in their research flew outside Russia. The scientists tracked the eagle using SMS as it flew across Europe and Asia. When the eagle flew outside Russia, its SMS transmitters used the Internet services of other countries. The scientists had to pay data roaming charges. These are the charges you pay to use your mobile phone in other countries. The research team ran out of money after the eagle flew to Iran and Pakistan.

The team started a crowdfunding page to raise money for the bill. The page is called "Top up the eagle's mobile". Bird lovers gave money to the page. It raised $1,600 to pay the bill. Russia's mobile phone operator heard of the scientists' problems and cancelled the debt. It moved the team's phone package to a cheaper one. The problem for the team started when the eagle flew outside Kazakhstan. A Kazakhstan SMS cost 30 US cents; one from Iran cost the team 50 cents. A scientist wants the eagle to continue sending SMS data. This will help his project and protect all eagles.

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11 online activities    |    8-page printable   (PDF)

Data Roaming - Level 3

Scientists in Russia got a shock when their phone bill arrived. The bill was a lot bigger than they expected it to be. The reason was because the steppe eagle they were following in their research flew too far from Russia. The scientists were tracking the eagle as it migrated across the European and Asian continents. The bird had SMS transmitters fitted to its body. This meant that when it flew outside Russia, the transmitters used the Internet services of other countries. The scientists thus had to pay data roaming charges. These are the charges you pay to use your mobile phone in other countries. The research team ran out of money after the eagle flew to Iran and Pakistan.

The team started a page on a crowdfunding site to help raise money to pay the bill. The page was called "Top up the eagle's mobile". Bird lovers from around the world contributed money to the page. The scientists raised $1,600 to pay the bill. Russia's mobile phone operator Megafon then heard of the scientists' problems and offered to cancel the debt. It also moved the team's phone package to one at a cheaper rate. The problem for the team started when the eagle flew outside of Russia and Kazakhstan. An SMS in Kazakhstan cost 30 US cents, but one from Iran cost 50 cents. A scientist said he wanted the eagle to continue sending SMS data to help his project, which will help protect all steppe eagles.

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