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

Hey guys,

I'm getting the Samsung Galaxy S tomorrow and I have a question or two regarding data plans.

With this being my first "data capable" phone, I don't have a sweet clue how much usage one would typically use, and if it gets used up hastily when online. I don't plan on surfing the Internet very much, but I want a plan with sufficient enough data (500 MB, 1 GB etc.) so I don't end up spending a heap of cash if I go over. I hope I explained everything properly.

So, there are these plans available (let me know if the link doesn't work) through my provider, Bell.

I really don't want to have to spend any more than $60 if possible. I'm really only getting the phone for its touch screen capability as it will be more accessible than my Razor 2.

I know many of you have similar phones, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if my question is somewhat obfuscate and hard to understand, I'm sorry .

Thank you very much,
Cam

I've been wanting the same thing, but the last time I looked, it was over $100 per plan, so I haven't looked in a while. Then, at least here in USA is the Cricket plans, which for about $45 have unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data, but I don't think they have any android phones to choose from. So, I'm still looking.

Everyone knows me, and can probably guess how much I'd use a smart phone. I have an older Android, by the way, and love it. Last month I hit 345 MB, and I do believe that was a new record.

So that should help you plan accordingly.

The cheapest smartphone plan is $50/month and includes -

100 local minutes
100 bonus local minutes
500 MB of data
+ Personal email
+ Instant messaging
+ Internet browsing
+ Tethering8

Is this basically useless (easily used up)?

Good call on the Samsung Galaxy S. I’m picking one up as soon as Verizon starts selling their version. For me it came down to the Droid X and the Samsung and the PQ on the Samsung just destroyed the Droid X when I compared them side by side.

Unless you plan on watching videos or listening to lots of radio over the internet I think the 500Mb plan should work. It works out to about 16Mb/day which is a lot if you are just checking email and things like the weather or online banking. You might want to contact Bell and see if you start out with the lowest level plan and it isn’t enough if they will let you upgrade plans w/o having to buy out your old one.

Chris, I do now you are very technically inclined, so I'm guessing that you use your smartphone quite a bit? If that's the case, then 350 MB is a lot of web surfing etc.?

OK, just checked my iPhone. I last reset the usage on 6/25, and I've sent 34MB and received 96MB. Of course, most of the time I'm on wifi, but you might well be too. I mostly use the phone for data, such as rss feeds, mail, facebook, and an F1 newsfeed.

That 200 minutes of talk time would be a deal breaker for me.

I do a bit of web surfing. I definitely prefer to use a computer when I'm near one. But I'm checking: e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds; every 15 minutes. Viewing occasional videos on YouTube (in high quality mode), and listening to about a half hour of streamed music from Rhapsody every other day while I go out for a walk.

I hardly use WiFi at all, but if you do have a wireless router at home, that'll keep you from using the data side of your mobile service any time you're in range.

Good stuff to know. I'm still not sure when I'll get a cell phone, but at least I know the data limit doesn't have to be high for me... at all.

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.

If Wi-Fi is turned on, it will automatically reconnect to any access point you've used before.

My phone is running Android 1.5, but in the settings there's a wireless section, and under that Wi-Fi. There I can scan for, add, or remove access points.

Thanks, Chris. I see the setting to turn Wi-Fi on, but doesn't it drain the battery faster? Do you guys choose your connection each time you connect to the internet, or do you just tap "internet" on the phone and you're set?

Sorry, it's all new to me.

Excellent choice of phone wheelz!

Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Wi-Fi Settings ...
Wi-Fi [On]
Network Notification [Off]

That's how mine is set up. Does not seem to affect battery use much at all.

When you want to surf I just tap "Internet". If it is connected to Wi-Fi it will use that, else it will use the 3G cell network. You should see the Wi-Fi symbol at the top if it is connected to a Wi-Fi access point.

Yeah, House, it's pretty sweet. I just hope I can use it as I didn't know the screen is sooooooo sensitive, i.e. it's easy to tap icons when you want to want to scroll or flip screens.

Thanks, Henry! Hey, have you upgraded to the new Froyo 2.2 firmware that was just released?

An aside - I couldn't get this phone directly from Bell, from Future Shop, or my nearest Bell store because they are on back order. I had to have one shipped from another Bell store to my local one. Reflective of the press reports of them selling like hot cakes.

Usually when I get a new gadget I hack it pretty soon, just for the fun of it. But I need to be able to reliably use it as a phone (gasp!) so I have not not done anything unofficial with this device yet.

xda-developers has everything, but you probably already knew that .

Every phone is different. Some automatically do this, others give you a choice. I checked with colleagues, and your phone should use WiFi as the default whenever it sees a network that has already been added. So you should be good.

However, they mentioned that somewhere in the WiFi or advanced settings there is a place where you can control when Wifi goes into sleep mode.

wi fi settings > menu button > advanced-> wi fi sleep policy

Some people have reported issues that if it is set for Wifi to sleep when the screen goes blank, it doesn't always reconnect to Wifi when you use the phone again. They recommend that if you have this issue you set it to never sleep. If you are mostly in Wifi areas, this actually doesn't deplete your battery much, if at all, as always searching for networks and connecting to 3G can be just as draining. In fact, he said many report improved battery life.

Hope this helps

Thanks, Murph! I literally just read that on another forum while I was looking for resolutions to the Wi-Fi constantly dropping, which is quite common.

This "fix" apparently works-

"Well the first thing that is all over on all forums,is Try disabling the security. If you change the security from WPA or WEP to none, then your wifi drop out time is likely to increase."

I went through the wireless settings numerous times and I can't find the security settings. I also don't know if it's a bad idea to change the security to "none".

You'd have to change the security setting in your router, not the phone. The phone will follow what ever the router is set to use.

I wouldn't disabled the security, though. Especially if you have neighbors which live close enough to pick up your Wi-Fi from their house.

Ah, that definitely is a no-no then. I'm watching lots of Youtube videos and reading forums; there's quite a learning curve on these gadgets.

Thanks, Chris.

Wow, you guys make me feel like some kind of freak.

Here's an outlying data point for you. I have an HTC Incredible and I have used over 2 GB in a month, and almost always use more than 1GB/mo.

I do use Pandora very often, so that's probably a good chunk of my usage, but I think you'll use more than you expect unless you're always around WiFi. There are so many apps available that once you start playing around with it, you may end up using it more than you'd expect.

If you start out with a low usage plan, keep an eye on it closely; it gets expensive if you go over and have to pay per MB!

I just checked to be sure I wasn't mistaken. I have used 2127319 KB in the last 30 days

Freak.

Wow. I've sent/received only 222MB/740MB via the cell data network since February 2 of this year. I use my phone for data mostly at work and home where I have wi-fi, though.

Since I've gotten my HTC Incredible (Android) in May, I've used well over 1GB each month. I watch a YouTube clip here or there, but maybe average 1 a week, I get my personal email on it and not my business stuff. I do use some news/weather apps, and a few other "web enabled" apps, and it seems to just pile up and I would say that I am far from a "die hard" phone user.

Hey guys, I just had a rather frustrating conversation with a Bell representative regarding the data usage reflected on my bill. Basically, last month's bill denoted that I used 211 MB of data, out of my 500 MB data cap.

Here's what I don't understand-

I was in bed all of last month, my phone is literally right in front of me, and I did absolutely no Internet surfing whatsoever. But, on my bill, it shows that I have at least two or three charges for every single day of the month which adds up to 211 MB.

Firstly, I have data turned off, and my phone uses my wireless Internet connection. That said, it's my understanding that if I'm using my Internet connection, I should not be using up data from my phone's service provider (Bell), but instead I'm using the data from my Internet provider. Isn't this correct?

The Bell representative told me that even if I'm using my home's wireless Internet, I still use up my data from Bell because the data is going through my phone. Literally, that's what he said. This absolutely ticked me off because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me. It's not the way I understand how things work, and I feel like he's way out in left field. I also told him that some of the charges have time stamps of the early morning, but this doesn't make sense because my phone is turned off at 10-11 PM every night. Then he proceeded to tell me that all of that data charges are in Greenwich Mean Time (although he said "German Mean Time, or whenever it is in Britain"), so the times on my bill are actually 4-5 hours different from our time. This also doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

And regarding the 211 MB of data usage. How the heck can I rack that much up when all I'm receiving is e-mail notifications?

You guys should see my bill, it's absolutely absurd. If it would help make sense of what's going on, I'll happily post a picture of the charges.

I'm really, really frustrated. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much,
Cam

Edit-I just looked over my bill again, and the charges that are in the early morning, are on a Sunday, so I could have gone out that Saturday night (assuming that the bill isn't in GMT, but rather EST).

Can't help you with the data issue but I feel very sorry for you that you have to deal with Bell Canada customer service. Good luck with all that Wheelz. Do let us know your progress with this issue.

That CR rep doesn't know what they are talking about. If you are using Wifi for data, that SHOULD NOT count as data usage on the Bell network. They shouldn't be charging you for data usage done by your phone, only for data usage on THEIR network. The only exception to this rule is when you use microcell's like ATT's, which uses your broadband network to connect your phone to ATT's network. This is used when you can't get cell coverage in your own home. In ATT's case, your usage minutes are subtracted even though you are using your own broadband, which means you are paying multiple times for the same service. However, I don't think this is your situation.

One thing you should do is monitor the data usage on your phone directly. Most smartphones have some type data usage meter. My iPhone does. Then you can compare the reported uses against your bill. If there's a discrepancy, then you have a valid complaint.

Some other things to consider:

1) When you say that data is turned off, are you sure? For example, on an iphone, you can shut off 3G coverage but EDGE is still active. In that case, you're still using data albeit on a slower connection.

2) Do you know if your phone 'thinks' it's roaming? If so, then you are also getting charged for being outside of your coverage area. On an iPhone, you have an option to shut off data roaming to avoid this. Most smartphones should have this option.

3) Are you sure you are on Wifi? One way to check is to disable your wifi network (or disconnect your broadband modem) and then try to browse on your phone. If it still browses, then that means you are actually using the data network.

4) What apps do you have on your phone? It may be possible that you have background applications that are actually using the data network. Push applications tend to do this.

Cam, are you sure one of your caregivers isn't downloading porn?

I see what you’re getting at here but it might not be as simple as turning off your network. When I have the WiFi on my phone enabled it defaults to it when available but automatically reverts to G3 or regular cell if the WiFi drops out because say I hit a dead zone in my house or walk to the mailbox down the street. I forgot which phone you are using Cam but it may have an icon at the top which shows how you are sending and receiving data, my Galaxy S does.

Sorry I can’t help you with any advice Cam since my data usage option only has unlimited data so I don’t worry about usage. I just use WiFi at home because it’s usually faster if I’m not using up my bandwidth doing other downloads.

Great point about the Wifi dead spot. Worth a look.

I live in the US, have an iPhone4, and thusly use AT&T for data. So my experience with Bell is non-existent, and I don't know a lot about Android phones. But I have been a smartphone user since when blackberries had black & white screens, and I've had a lot of discussions with AT&T on behalf of my company's corporate accounts regarding data on smartphones, so I've been around the block on some of this topic.

That said...

Regarding that data usage that you're seeing early in the morning. It is very likely that this is Bell's system aggregating your data from the previous business day. It is (likely) not the case that your phone actually doing something at 3am when it's turned off. AT&T's system does the same thing. This is probably a good thing, as if you received a line-item review of every data session, your phone bill might be hundreds of pages long.

The Bell rep is full of it regarding your data question. As others have said, when you're using any WiFi network, the data is flowing through the ISP that's 'driving' that WiFi hotspot. It has nothing to do with the data from Bell, and consequently should not impact your Bell data bucket.

I don't know how exactly what options Androids have, but on an iPhone, you can explicitly turn off the cellular data. Sounds like you've got a similar option on your 'droid. With that disabled, your Android should not be accessing Bell's data network and you should not see any data charges (queue Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman, "Ever!"). If you do, then something isn't working correctly. Either Bell's system is screwed up, or your phone isn't obeying its settings. If this is the case, you need to talk to Bell again. Keep asking for a rep that has a clue. They exist. Somewhere.

If you've left the cellular data on, then the phone will occasionally still use cellular data, even when connected to WiFi. Cellular data uses less power than WiFi, so as others mentioned, many smartphones (the iPhone4 and iPad 3G included), will shut down Wifi while sleeping and revert to cellular data. Like at home when you're not using the phone. I suspect this is where your data usage is coming from.

Pay close attention to oldskool's first point... There is a significant difference between a 'Disable 3G' and 'Disable Cellular Data' setting. Disabling 3G will just revert your phone to slower cellular data (EDGE, even GPRS). The key here is that you'd still rack up the same amount of data usage, it'll just take longer. If you're in a 3G coverage area, I would leave 3G enabled.

It depends on how much email you receive and how the 'droid is managing its connections, but if you get "some" email while the phone is sleeping, then 6MB/day isn't an unreasonable amount of data.

Am I missing something here? If you used 211 MB and you have a 500MB data cap, did you get charged extra or something?

Hey guys, thanks for the advice and input, it's very appreciated. Also, sorry for my late reply, but I was up today.

I'll do my best to respond to your questions and suggestions.

-My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S
-I have an app called Quick Settings that allows you to turn data off. As far as I know, if it's functioning properly, it turns all data off, not just 3G.
-I do have an app called 3G Watchdog that monitors and displays how much data you've used. I don't check in regularly, but every time that I have, it indicates that I haven't used any data whatsoever.
-I do have some apps, like a weather and o'clock widget, along with a YouTube widget which require some form of data to update.
-As far as my phone going to sleep and not using my WiFi-I'd never heard of this until now, and if there's a chance that I don't have the data turned off correctly, this would be the only way I can think of that I would accumulate data. As an example, my phone was on every day last month (like every day) solely because I use it as a backup phone with my bluetooth speaker phone connected. It's literally sitting right in front of me and not in use, so I assume it's technically in "sleep mode" all day long.
-My phone is basically set up to prompt me whenever I receive an e-mail, and on average I would say that I receive 12 emails a day.

Here's the first page of my bill showing that data used. Hopefully you can read it. I included a link to the album below the picture, if that helps.



test

Because my phone is bricked and I'm waiting for a replacement in the mail, I don't have any way of checking my settings or apps. I'll definitely take all of your advice and make sure that my new Galaxy S is set up so all of the data is off, and I'll keep a closer eye on 3G Watchdog.



My phone is two feet from my wireless router when I'm in bed.



You're not missing anything, Ken. I just want to know why it shows on my bill that I have used 211 MB of my 500 MB data cap, when I have my phone set up to use my WiFi.

Here's what my bill says for my data usage-

Data
Windows Email & Int 500 MB Data Usage
@$.00/MB 211.8939MB

I am definitely going to contact Bell again tomorrow, and discuss this with some further.

Do any of you guys understand the time stamps on my bill? That's what really perplexes me, as they are all over the place and every day of the month, even though I'm not touching my phone; it's just on for my bluetooth capability and emergency backup.

Based on the info I've provided, are there any ideas about possibly what's going on, and any suggestions?

Thanks again for all of your help.

Cam

Yes. Your phone is hitting Bell's data network, or there's an error in their billing system. Your data usage looks 'normal' for someone with a smartphone that's using cellular data. They're 'chatty'.

Do you have your email set up on the 'droid? POP3, IMAP, or Exchange? If it's IMAP or Exchange (Gmail is), then your 'droid's email client is probably staying connected to the server all the time. It's constantly 'talking' to the server to make sure your email is up to date. It's not a lot of data at a time, but it's a constant drip. When you email yourself, do you *immediately* get a "you've got mail!" jingle on your phone? If so, then you do have some sort of 'push' type of email going on, and that's definitely going to smolder through data. Still, it should be WiFi, not cellular.

The kicker though is that 'do not use cellular data' option. Since your phone has that, and you're trying to use it, but the 'droid is still using cellular data, then something isn't working correctly.

Here's another test. Turn 3G off. Put your 'Droid next to or on top of a cheap clock-radio or on top of a headphone cable, even a speaker. Browse some websites. Email yourself. If you hear 'dit-ditty-dit-ditty-dit-ditty-bzzzrrrt-ditty-ditty-dit' noises from the speaker, you're hearing cellular data interference. 3G doesn't produce this interference, thus the reason for disabling it. But if your'e hearing it, your phone is *definitely* using cellular data. And to make sure you can hear the interference, call the 'Droid. It should produce a loud and long 'brrrzzzzzzzzzzzt' interference right before it rings. Similar to but different from the data noises.

Good luck!

Now, you're telling me you need a third party app to disable data usage on the phone? Perhaps there's a built in function for that? If not... uh...

Not I. I have no idea on a 'Droid. Wheelz says his phone has a "cellular data" toggle, and he's set it to "off". Therefore, he should not be seeing any data usage from Bell. Yet he's got the bill that says otherwise. A bit troubling, IMHO.

I use an iPhone4. It has a "Cellular Data" On/Off toggle built-in. I know for a fact that when it's set to "Off", it will not use any billable cellular data.

Hey Peter, thank you very much for those detailed and very informative suggestions. I'll definitely check things out when I get my replacement.



Ken, I don't necessarily "need" an app to disable the data usage, but the Quick Settings app is much easier to use, and a very quick alternative to going through a convoluted menu. It's a lot easier to have a shortcut for the Quick Settings app on my home screen, thus allowing me to have access to six or seven different settings on one screen instead of having to go through different areas of the menu for each setting i.e. brightness, data on/off, WiFi on/off, GPS on/off, and volume, ringer etc. adjustments.

It's one of the best apps available for android phones, and would be the same for the Iphone, but there's no such luck with that hunk of junk for a phone .

I obviously don't have my Galaxy S with me, but if I recall correctly, it also has a data on/off toggle button at the top of the screen when you slide the information bar down. I don't think this was available with the firmware prior to Froyo though.

I just got used to using the Quick Settings app because there's other features available with it.

Not... rising... to... bait...

I'm just goofing with you, buddy!