Soldiers stationed abroad like to receive mail from home. Little notes can reconnect them with the society they’ve left behind and boost morale. That is, unless the letter is a $16,000 cell phone bill.

CNet reports a soldier deployed in Afghanistan who received such a massive bill received word from AT&T that it’s canceled the charges.

The story says the soldier ran up the charges because he says he signed up for a program that an AT&T rep said would allow him to make international calls to his wife for less than $5 a month. It turns out the plan dinged him $5 per minute for each call, as well as 50 cents for each text message.

“While he should have realized that $4.95 a month was probably too good to be true, he is a young soldier with minimal experience with phone plans or overseas travel,” said the soldier’s commanding officer, who went to bat for him. The story notes that English is not the soldier’s first language.

If you do a lot of international calling, what’s the best deal you’ve found?

U.S. soldier in Afghanistan gets $16,000 AT&T bill [CNet]
(Thanks, crbullseye!)

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