How accurate is iPhone 4's built in data counter?

500mb is a good amount for 6 days. what have you been doing with your phone?

uploading youtube vids
watching youtube vids?
letting pandora run?

Nomadski said:

This is what im disputing with O2, ive streamed a little music for a short amount of time but that's it. 164MB according to the iPhone is about right, and what I would have expected to have used.

The month prior according to O2 I used 70% of what would become my allowance, yet somehow their magic beans have counted 500MB in 6 bleedin days.

Click to expand...

Having a problem just like yours with AT&T. Iphone says I've used 290mb in usage(settings), but AT&T shows a whopping 1700mb!?!??

thejrif said:

Having a problem just like yours with AT&T. Iphone says I've used 290mb in usage(settings), but AT&T shows a whopping 1700mb!?!??

Click to expand...

Wow, 1700mb? That would be tough (at least for me) to use even if I was deliberating trying via tethering. For two whole weeks at work I tethered because my AT&T connection was 3 times as fast as the crappy Time Warner Business Class we have and I only managed to pull down 750mb.

Frankly, O2 are taking the pi$$.
500mb should be sufficient for a Low/mid-range feature phone, not an advanced smartphone, where data services are such play such a vital role.
1gb should be the minimum. With 500mb if you watch even a few videos, the usage shoots up. All I'm doing now, is occasional Facebook, browsing and Twittering, and I'm already at 360mb(monthly plan starts on the 16th of every month).

I'm on at&t. myWireless says I've used 70.00 of 2048 (i have the 2gig plan). My usage in my phone says I've used about 200 megs total. Not sure why the two are so different.

sawah said:

I'm on at&t. myWireless says I've used 70.00 of 2048 (i have the 2gig plan). My usage in my phone says I've used about 200 megs total. Not sure why the two are so different.

Click to expand...

I think that the phone is going to say 100% of the data usage, regardless if it were you or AT&T night time sends, etc. Its going to just count all of it.

But AT&T might only be counting just the data that YOU have used and not counted the data that they have sent/received due to their maintenance or whatever.

What are you guys talking about?

Cellphone bandwidth?

Nomadski said:

Im only asking as it says ive used 9MB of Sent, and 164MB of received since it was reset on the 26th October. Yet O2 claim I have used up my 500MB allowance which began on the 26th October.

O2 say 500MB
iPhone 4 says total of 173MB

Before I start arguing the toss with O2 I would like to know if the Cellular Network Data counter in the Usage menu on the iPhone 4 is accurate?

Click to expand...

I've only had my phone for less than a week but I just logged into my TELUS account and the providers data usage is an exact match to the iphone's displayed usage.

sawah said:

I'm on at&t. myWireless says I've used 70.00 of 2048 (i have the 2gig plan). My usage in my phone says I've used about 200 megs total. Not sure why the two are so different.

Click to expand...

I believe it takes a day or two for them (AT&T) to reflect your accurate data usage on the app...

the problem- celular reception

the problem here lies in cellular reception. radio waves are susceptible to interference and congestion, particularly in busy areas during busy times. loss of an ip connection due to both is common.

Due to the design of network infrastructure, devices do not report their usage according to the device data counters (hex / binary ticker that counts packets in and out of the device), Cellular companies monitor data served and received.

Therefore in an instance where you have a congested network and a loss of ip connection occurs, or if an app requests data by way of process, it may be served by your mobile data provider repeatedly, even if your phone only recieves it once.

Say, streamed video, 300 meg file you hit, you may have had 410-700 meg sent to your cellular ip address even though you only get 300 meg of practical data.

Believe it or not you are billed on the 410-700 theoretical transmission, not the volume you recieved.

If your ip connection is spotty, or you are in a congested area, or you network hop a lot, your'e probably susceptible to the same problem.

Networks won't admit it cause it means they are liable.

The Wifi-Cellular cock of on ios is a different issue. Above refers to cell data, and erroneous cellular only reporting.