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3G Data Limit

rwoolsey

rwoolsey

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 19, 2008
79
0
Indianapolis
I seem to be blasting thru my 200mb 3G data plan on my AT&T iPhone 4. For the third month in a row I've been forced to turn off my data and rely solely on Wi-Fi & Edge. The kicker though, is that I rarely access 3G.

What am I missing, or is it something I just have to live with?
 
rwoolsey said:
I seem to be blasting thru my 200mb 3G data plan on my AT&T iPhone 4. For the third month in a row I've been forced to turn off my data and rely solely on Wi-Fi & Edge. The kicker though, is that I rarely access 3G.

What am I missing, or is it something I just have to live with?
Click to expand...

Check if you have any apps in the background. Maybe you should consider upgrading dataplans? Do you tether? Are you jailbroken?
 
Likely what you have running in the back ground like any social programs or weather updates. Somthing is using data
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Do you send/receive lots of email? Surf the web on breaks at work? 200mb is not much data.

20 plain text emails per 1MB
2-5 HTML emails per 1MB
photo attachment 2-5MB
 
I too have been experiencing supposed increased data usage despite not using as much as other months.

I'm under a 2GB plan and I'm at 90% which is rare for me.

I think AT&T might actually be inflating their usage a bit. Sounds crazy, but I've had this happen to most of my friends who have iPhones, as well.
 
ViPhone said:
I too have been experiencing supposed increased data usage despite not using as much as other months.

I'm under a 2GB plan and I'm at 90% which is rare for me.

I think AT&T might actually be inflating their usage a bit. Sounds crazy, but I've had this happen to most of my friends who have iPhones, as well.
Click to expand...

Glad to know I'm not alone. When I upgraded from the 3G to 4 I noticed a major difference. *Sigh
 
rwoolsey said:
Glad to know I'm not alone. When I upgraded from the 3G to 4 I noticed a major difference. *Sigh
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed much of a difference going from the 3GS to the 4.

I'm still on the unlimited plan, but I'm starting to think about downgrading to the 2GB to save $5/month. My usage over the past 6 months hasn't been higher than 200MB, so I'd drop down to the 200MB plan, but I'm worried that I'll go over. The 200MB plan should really be 500MB.:rolleyes:

Does AT&T just bump you up to the 2GB plan if you go over the 200MB, or do they start charging per MB? EDIT: just answered my own question: If 200MB is exceeded, an additional 200MB is automatically provided at a rate of $15 for each additional 200MB.
 
My question is, why do I need to pay for 3g data when my area only gets edge? When I use data in my area it count towards my allowance even though I'm not using 3g. I'd go to a 200meg plan if it didn't.
 
sawah said:
My question is, why do I need to pay for 3g data when my area only gets edge? When I use data in my area it count towards my allowance even though I'm not using 3g. I'd go to a 200meg plan if it didn't.
Click to expand...

They don't differentiate between EDGE and 3G data. Data is data, no matter what connection you have while using it.

The unlimited $20 data plan was great when I had the 1st gen.
 
Using Pandora or YouTube? You'll blow through your 250 in a matter of hours if so.
 
Surely said:
I haven't noticed much of a difference going from the 3GS to the 4.

I'm still on the unlimited plan, but I'm starting to think about downgrading to the 2GB to save $5/month. My usage over the past 6 months hasn't been higher than 200MB, so I'd drop down to the 200MB plan, but I'm worried that I'll go over. The 200MB plan should really be 500MB.:rolleyes:

Does AT&T just bump you up to the 2GB plan if you go over the 200MB, or do they start charging per MB? EDIT: just answered my own question: If 200MB is exceeded, an additional 200MB is automatically provided at a rate of $15 for each additional 200MB.
Click to expand...

I too started with the unlimited plan, but downgraded because I was rarely using 150mb, but as soon as I scaled back along came the increasing in data used.

I'm guessing that move pissed AT&T off and now they're sticking it to me.

Be forewarned.
 
rwoolsey said:
I seem to be blasting thru my 200mb 3G data plan on my AT&T iPhone 4. For the third month in a row I've been forced to turn off my data and rely solely on Wi-Fi & Edge. The kicker though, is that I rarely access 3G.

What am I missing, or is it something I just have to live with?
Click to expand...

Seems like you are out of wifi range more often than you think. Edge data will still count against you even though it is slower than 3G. I use wifi on my phone alot. So far, I have only used 38.52MB of data on the cellular network and I'm halfway through my billing cycle.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
Seems like you are out of wifi range more often than you think. Edge data will still count against you even though it is slower than 3G. I use wifi on my phone alot. So far, I have only used 38.52MB of data on the cellular network and I'm halfway through my billing cycle.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm not.
House = wifi
Work = wifi
Starbucks = wifi
Tour Bus = wifi
Mall = wifi
Local Mexican Restaurant = wifi

Freak'n conspiracy! Thanks for the input though.
 
rwoolsey said:
I too started with the unlimited plan, but downgraded because I was rarely using 150mb, but as soon as I scaled back along came the increasing in data used.

I'm guessing that move pissed AT&T off and now they're sticking it to me.

Be forewarned.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt AT&T is “sticking it” to you. You must have something using data that changed from before when you had unlimited.
 
-aggie- said:
I seriously doubt AT&T is “sticking it” to you. You must have something using data that changed from before when you had unlimited.
Click to expand...

Nope, pretty sure they're sticking it me. At least when the throttling-backs begins this fall, I'll be use to AT&T d!@king me over.
 
theLimit said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Do you send/receive lots of email? Surf the web on breaks at work? 200mb is not much data.

20 plain text emails per 1MB
2-5 HTML emails per 1MB
photo attachment 2-5MB
Click to expand...

I send close to 200 texts/month but emails and photo attachements are slim to none. Only when necessary. Guess I'll just watch my activity better.
 
rwoolsey said:
I seem to be blasting thru my 200mb 3G data plan on my AT&T iPhone 4. For the third month in a row I've been forced to turn off my data and rely solely on Wi-Fi & Edge. The kicker though, is that I rarely access 3G.

What am I missing, or is it something I just have to live with?
Click to expand...
My 3GS broke and I went back to my old Samsung Jack this past month.

I used to use less than 200MB with the 3GS. Limited email. The occasional app that uses data. Weather mostly.

Now with the Jack, I blew through my 200mb in about two weeks. I'm not using any apps. Just email. Even though my phone is on wifi when I am home, I am transmitting many megs of data every night a little after midnight. Not sure what the issue is. ATT has been useless trying to help. I upgraded to the 2GB plan. I asked to shut the data off after 200MB they said they couldn't.

Check you data and see if you can figure out when/why is is being used. There are other threads about "phantom data" being sent with no solution identified.

Maybe the wifi on my Samsung just sucks balls.
 
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