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NestOfRobins

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 14, 2011
45
0
How can we know that our cellular carriers are not ripping us off?

What I mean is, if you pay for 1GB of data/month, how do you really know that what VZ/ATT/etc reports is accurate? Isn't there an incentive for them to "over" state what data you used?

Is there any way to either audit, i.e., after the fact, or have some software on the device that monitors what applications are using what data so we can compare the reports from the carrier to what the device is reporting?
 
Not per specific app... If you go to General - Usage - Mobile Usage (On iPhone) and reset it each month, it will tell you how much data you have sent and recieved in total... Just not per specific app.

I not sure if this is what you mean, but this is how i took it.
 
yes if its jailbroken.. butt if you are wanting to see if you carriers data statistics for you are wrong.. you will prolly be SOL. i wish apple had a more detailed stats for it so you could audit the carrier :p
 
There are a couple highly rated data usage apps on the App Store. I believe at least one has a feature that allows one to look at data usage on an app by app basis.
 
Have you tried apps such as:
  • My Data Manager (by Mobidia Technology)
  • 4Glob (by Nektony)
  • DataMan (by XVision)

I've seen them recommended on these forums before.
 
I use the "Data Usage" app. Seems pretty accurate when comparing against my carriers. Wish there was an app that breaks down by app usage though. Off to google it...
 
I use the "Data Usage" app. Seems pretty accurate when comparing against my carriers. Wish there was an app that breaks down by app usage though. Off to google it...

That's what I use after doing extensive trials with others. Data Usage seems quite accurate. Besides, it all too easy to spend more time on it than is reasonable.
 
I really wanted something that reported on an app level. So I tried My Data Manager. I believe it is exactly what I was looking for.

Interestingly, w/in 24 hours of downloading it from iTunes, it is no longer available in the U.S. iTunes store.

Anyone know what happened? Did Apple pull it? Any chance it will be back?
 
I hope someone develops an app that allows users to track/audit monthly data usage of ALL apps because the only time I have trusted the carriers data usage numbers for LTE is when I turn it off. It seems odd to me that the carrier can claim that there is all of this background data pulled by apps when I have LTE on and I have to take their word for it. Maybe Apple will address this when LTE and 4G become more popular.
 
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