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pikachu2k7

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2012
201
1
North Carolina
LTE just changes the SPEED of you loading and uploading. However, using LTE, you find yourself surfing or watching more which will eat up more data. I would go with 2gb. 5gb is TOO much for surfing the web and email. 2gb is great and allows a couple hours of video.
 

abz1981

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2011
1,013
4
LTE just changes the SPEED of you loading and uploading. However, using LTE, you find yourself surfing or watching more which will eat up more data. I would go with 2gb. 5gb is TOO much for surfing the web and email. 2gb is great and allows a couple hours of video.

Hm I see what you mean. Problem is. I have unlimited 3G and if I come off this and go with LTE I won't have unlimited and don't want my data throttled. I have wifi most places I am anyway. So I am just thinking now if I should just stick with my unlimited 3G as when I am not at work or at home I tend to use a whole load of data through things like Netflix and personal hotspot etc.
 

Jimbo47

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2010
728
3
I NEVER hit 2 GB of data on 3G. Now that I have unlimited LTE, I am at 2.1 GB of data on the last day of my billing cycle. I think now that I have internet speeds that I can tolerate (I was on Verizon's 3G, am now on their LTE) I use it much more.
 

aneftp

macrumors 601
Jul 28, 2007
4,362
546
My wife went from 1gb-1.5gb HSPA plus speed with iPhone 4S.

With iPhone 5 LTE she consistently hits 5-7 GB a month these days. She's out and about with the kids at activities so uses the phone a lot. Barely streams video or music.

Basic webpage viewing and she hits 5-7gb with lte. She uses her iPhone a lot. Like 3-4 hours of web viewing outside the home.

So you can use a lot of data very quickly with lte.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
I love all the people that say you won't use more data, its only faster. They couldn't be more wrong. With an EDGE phone on T-Mobile my data usage was around 50mb per month haha. Got a HSPA+ phone and my went up to nearly 700mb because I can do so much more. The data connection is just faster so you'll be consuming more data since your connection is faster.

It will allow you to do so much more, hence using more data.

It still uses the same amount of data for the same tasks. If you can do more, doesn't change the fact.
 

Joybulb

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2011
182
0
But apps like netflix adjust the quality of the stream according to your connection, ie 3G vs LTE. If you're using LTE you're going to get a great "higher definition" picture and use more data.
 

abz1981

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2011
1,013
4
My wife went from 1gb-1.5gb HSPA plus speed with iPhone 4S.

With iPhone 5 LTE she consistently hits 5-7 GB a month these days. She's out and about with the kids at activities so uses the phone a lot. Barely streams video or music.

Basic webpage viewing and she hits 5-7gb with lte. She uses her iPhone a lot. Like 3-4 hours of web viewing outside the home.

So you can use a lot of data very quickly with lte.

See what's what I would be doing too. 3-4 hours maybe outside then house and then use wifi too. Think am then going to stick with 3G and wifi.

----------

But apps like netflix adjust the quality of the stream according to your connection, ie 3G vs LTE. If you're using LTE you're going to get a great "higher definition" picture and use more data.

My Netflix streaming is hd as it is right now with 3G lol
 

ROLLTIDE1

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2012
1,901
596
I am well over 50 gigs a month on LTE but I am geek who does a million speed test a day and stream slingbox:D
 

pikachu2k7

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2012
201
1
North Carolina
Hm I see what you mean. Problem is. I have unlimited 3G and if I come off this and go with LTE I won't have unlimited and don't want my data throttled. I have wifi most places I am anyway. So I am just thinking now if I should just stick with my unlimited 3G as when I am not at work or at home I tend to use a whole load of data through things like Netflix and personal hotspot etc.

If you have wifi a lot, you shouldn't need more than 1gb of data. Unless you watch videos and stuff like that, 1gb should be good enough.
 

vistadude

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2010
1,423
1
I purposely use more by downloading 4 podcasts per day over LTE/4G instead of using wifi. That's only because i'm trying to max out my 5 GB on my "unlimited plan." If I didn't do that, I'd be using about the same amount of data.

Btw, battery life is about double because I'm actually using my phone about half as much as I did with my old 3G phone because everything loads faster and I finish using the phone much quicker.
 

fortheus

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2012
256
68
websites getting bigger, some also smarter send higher quality assets (video, images, etc) based on the speed it detects.

So be careful
 

MattMJB0188

macrumors 68020
Dec 28, 2009
2,032
583
It still uses the same amount of data for the same tasks. If you can do more, doesn't change the fact.

FIrst off, don't quote someone from a year ago. A lot has changed. Secondly, you will use more data. Data input is faster. It's been proven that the vast majority of users' data usage increased with LTE. Look it up for yourself instead of responding to 1 year old threads!
 

Col Ronson

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2008
619
2
i use a lot more data over LTE than i do from 3G. LTE just makes it easier to drain data faster. Run a few speed tests and i've already used like 200mb.
 

taedouni

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2011
1,117
29
California
Faster data speeds means a higher quality for video / audio services which eat up data. As for browsing, due to people loading a site faster, they're more inclined to look at another site right after the first one loads.

Say that a person has 2 minutes to kill while waiting for something. On 3G they'd usually look at 2-3 sites due to time to load the site and time to read. Now with LTE the time to load a web page is almost nonexistent , therefore the person has the opportunity to load 4-6 sites.
 

BosteroNYC

macrumors newbie
Oct 24, 2013
1
0
Hi,

I switched from an iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5 back in June. For my whole time with my 4S, I only needed a 2GB data plan. Ever since I switched to my 5, and use Verizon LTE, I've slowly creeped up to the 8GB/month data plan and may consider doing the final move to 10GB/month being that I KNOW, and won't allow myself to, go over that much data.

It seems that with LTE, I find myself streaming more live video (especially NFL Football with Verizon) because the bandwidth is so good.

I guess it's completely up to you though, I don't believe LTE takes up more data, I just believe that with the quality of the bandwith, you might find yourself using more of it. It's all about will power, which I have none of. ;)

I hope that helps a bit.
 
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