T-Mobile: G1 roaming charges 'unavoidable'

The Android Guys have a story from a T-Mobile G1 owner who got charged for $102.85 (£70) in roaming charges -- even after he turned off data roaming on his phone. The story goes that he was visiting the UK, and knowing that he would rack up high roaming charges while abroad, he turned off data roaming, data sync and 3G on the phone (although he did still use it for calls and texts under an international calling plan).

Turns out, of course, that it didn't work so well. When asked about it, T-Mobile customer service told him that the G1 will always access the Internet when it's on, even when the data-roaming features are off -- we're presuming this is because of how closely the phone is integrated with your Google account -- and that he should have left the phone at home to avoid the charges.

It seems bizarre that the phone would continue to ping even when all data capabilities have been turned off. Has anyone else encountered something like this with the G1? Let us know.