Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Help understanding smartphone data usage

On my iphone 3G I checked the stats just before upgrading to iphone 4. I use pandora internet a lot, surf the web tons, download apps, upload pictures to facebook, etc. I don't watch a lot of youtube or other videos.

I used about 6 gigs in 15 months. My wife used about 2 gigs in the same 15 months. Any time I am at the house i am pulling wifi. At work I leave it on 3G because the network is pretty restrictive.

Streaming radio and video will use data the fastest. surfing the web uses next to nothing.

I got the Captivate (the Galaxy S for AT&T) about two months ago. It is an awesome phone. The highlights are the screen, the speed and Android.

In my first month I played with every feature under the sun and dozens of Android Market apps. I surfed and Youtubed and Skymapped and Yelped and Navigated and Facebooked and Tweeted and Foursquared until my friends disowned me. I used 210MB that month.

Second month: 60MB.

I do have WiFi both at home and at work, and data over WiFi does not count against the data plan. So YMMV.

Extremely informative and very helpful guys! So, am I understanding correctly that I'm only using the data in my plan if I'm doing anything on the internet when I'm out and about using Bell's Wireless connection? If I'm using my own wireless connection at home or someone else's house etc., I can use the Internet, stream videos and music without a charge on my end because I'm using an already paid connection?

Sorry, just want to be sure I'm understanding correctly.

Thanks

That is correct.

Yeah, data usage only counts if you are using the cell towers for dl or ul. Just make sure u connect to your wifi (or whoevers house u are at). It's just like connecting with a laptop where u will have to enter a password the first timeif the network is secured and then it should automatically switch to wifi when in range of the router from then on.

Sweet, thanks guys, you're awesome!

Just be sure you set it up to log into your Wifi whenever it detects it is within range. I know I didn't have to say it, but just in case.

Thanks, Murph!

Anybody know how to do this? Maybe Henry? I don't see an "automatic detection" setting in the manual; it's pretty vague.