AT&T Microcell & Data Usage

[spaceballl]

So I just bought the Microcell today. As much as I hate having to pay to get cell service at my house, oh sweet joy! To finally be able to make a phone call from my house!

So... I understand that my minutes will be deducted, as usual, unless I bought the $20 plan. What about data? I have "unlimited" data, but with their new tiered pricing, I'm wondering if data that gets routed through my home network will count as cell data usage. Of course I'll usually be on wifi, but I often turn it off to conserve battery so if I forget to turn it off, curious where that data will be logged.

 

[bytethese]

So I just bought the Microcell today. As much as I hate having to pay to get cell service at my house, oh sweet joy! To finally be able to make a phone call from my house!

So... I understand that my minutes will be deducted, as usual, unless I bought the $20 plan. What about data? I have "unlimited" data, but with their new tiered pricing, I'm wondering if data that gets routed through my home network will count as cell data usage. Of course I'll usually be on wifi, but I often turn it off to conserve battery so if I forget to turn it off, curious where that data will be logged.

Ideally this is a question for AT&T but the whole concept of a microcell is to use your internet connection. If it uses your internet, it "should" use your Internet connection to route the data. But to confirm, I'd call AT&T.

 

[techwarrior]

According to the 'How it Works" video, data is billed at standard data rates. Data, messages etc are not included in the unlimited plan for microcell.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/

That said, iPhone will seek the best network for data services. Therefore, if you have a WiFi network in your home, the WiFi connection will handle all of the data use, this is not billed as data use by ATT. Even using ATT WiFi hotspots does not run up metered data use on iPhone.

 

[spaceballl]

Thanks for the clarification. While I understand that the minutes deduct, unless you have an unlimited plan, I think "charging" for data is a bit weak.... But yeah like you mention, assuming I remember to have WiFi on my phone on, it won't be an issue anyways.

 

[techwarrior]

Right, but there is another thread on mysterious data use in the middle of the night. I suspect when phone sleeps, and Wifi does not persist (I believe this behavior changes in OS4), then some 3G data use occurs. I suspect it is push and/or any apps that communicate with the mothership while the phone sleeps.

Bottom line, if you want to go cheap and downgrade to the new data plans, keep a close eye on things.