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I have a SIM card that I use only to receive SMS.

It does not do not include mobile data in the plan, and it is "pay as you go". This means that as soon as my phone connect to the internet, even to transmit/receive 1 bit, I get charged 1€ for the day.

I used this SIM card with both a Nexus 6P and a Pixel 1, with:

  • Mobile data disabled
  • MMS disabled (no auto download) and never sent/received
  • Roaming disabled

and still both phones use mobile data and I get charged 1€ every day!!

I tried with my ancient Nexus 4 and everything work as expected: mobile data disabled, no mobile data used, and no charges.

What are my newer phones sending/receiving?! Is there a way to stop this?

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That is a common problem and most likely caused by VoLTE (Voice over LTE which means Voice over data connection). Recent cellular systems like LTE (4G) and 5G don't have a separate service for voice data, instead they use special VoIP technique for speech data (usually called VoLTE).

The system can not distinguish between data traffic used for VoLTE which should not be charged as data and regular data traffic.

So if in your country 2G or 3G is still available you should configure your phone to only allow 2G and 3G (disable 4G and 5G). And if there is a setting disable VoLTE/Vo5G or how it is called.

VoWiFi (Voice-over-WiFi) should be OK as it affects only communication in WiFi systems.

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