Data Overage- Advice

[jeff b]

My old iPhone broke a couple weeks before the iPhone 4 came out, so I used an old BlackBerry in the interim, which caused me to lose my unlimited plan. I never used 3G much on the old phone (jailbroken, turned 3G off using BossPrefs usually) so I opted for the 200 MB plan this time around.

Turns out, I went over about 200 MB the first month. I was very conscious of my usage, (which was, I thought, very light), and kept 3G turned off when I wasn't using it to prevent push notifications or whatever from eating it up. Now, I've switched to the 2GB plan, and I'm wondering: Is that enough to keep 3G on all the time and get notifications from Facebook, email, etc. without worrying too much?

Also, my phone says I only used 151 MB of data last month (so does the AT&T app), whereas my bill says I used 408 MB. Is there a way to explain this?

 

[maddux2005]

Wait a second. My iPhone 3G was water damaged a month before iPhone 4, and I too was forced to use a blackberry. But I used the blackberry unlimited. Didn't u? If you had the blackberry unlimited, your still grandfathered in. The only way possible that you lost unlimited is by calling AT&T and canceling the plan.

To your other point. Yea 2gigs is plenty enough to keep all your notifications on. Just peek at it every week or two. But you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[MicroApple]

DIAL: #DATA* and you will recieve a TEXT showing your data usage.

OR: iPhone Home > Settings > General > Usage (Scroll down) > Sent and Recieved MB add them up.

Note: When looking at the data usage from settings it will show total usage unless you reset it like you reset your cars mileage. You should reset the statistics every month (when your data recharges)

BTW it should be fine but monitor it once a day

 

[iphone1105]

Since when do notifications use data? Thought there was nothing more involved that required data?!?!?!!?!? or am i retarded?

 

[jeff b]

Wait a second. My iPhone 3G was water damaged a month before iPhone 4, and I too was forced to use a blackberry. But I used the blackberry unlimited. Didn't u? If you had the blackberry unlimited, your still grandfathered in. The only way possible that you lost unlimited is by calling AT&T and canceling the plan.

To your other point. Yea 2gigs is plenty enough to keep all your notifications on. Just peek at it every week or two. But you shouldn't have a problem.

Yeah, I thought that was what would happen, but it didn't. It was a really old BlackBerry, and I called and made a different change to my account while I had it, I thought maybe that was the cause.

DIAL: #DATA* and you will recieve a TEXT showing your data usage.

OR: iPhone Home > Settings > General > Usage (Scroll down) > Sent and Recieved MB add them up.

Note: When looking at the data usage from settings it will show total usage unless you reset it like you reset your cars mileage. You should reset the statistics every month (when your data recharges)

BTW it should be fine but monitor it once a day

I monitored it through the settings, and it said I had only used 151 MB. Explanation? :-/

 

[MicroApple]

Since when do notifications use data? Thought there was nothing more involved that required data?!?!?!!?!? or am i retarded?

What? Of course notifications use data. How did you think you got a notification you got a new email?

 

[chakraj]

Just because you turn off 3G that doesnt effect your data usage. it just effects the speed, you will still use the same amount only you will be using edge data instead of 3g. You can not disable the data and still talk on the phone, the edge data travels over the voice gateway. So you didnt prevent anything except the smooth opperation of your device by turning off 3g.

 

[jeff b]

Just because you turn off 3G that doesnt effect your data usage. it just effects the speed, you will still use the same amount only you will be using edge data instead of 3g. You can not disable the data and still talk on the phone, the edge data travels over the voice gateway. So you didnt prevent anything except the smooth opperation of your device by turning off 3g.

It lets you turn off "cellular data usage" independent of 3G. I usually left both off and it allowed me to make calls, texts, etc.

 

[MicroApple]

Yeah, I thought that was what would happen, but it didn't. It was a really old BlackBerry, and I called and made a different change to my account while I had it, I thought maybe that was the cause.



I monitored it through the settings, and it said I had only used 151 MB. Explanation? :-/

Strange. I heard of people getting wierd data usages at night or times when they are sure they werent using your phone. Check your bill at AT&T and check all data usages and check if their are any unusual ones.

Also just use the #DATA* way it is more accurate anyways.

 

[belalrawi]

Clarification on the New Smartphone Data Plans!
Options
06-10-2010 08:44:10 AM

As many of you already know, existing Smartphone customers who already have a Smartphone data unlimited plan on their account will be allowed to keep their existing data plan should they choose, even if upgrading their device to another Smartphone; this includes ALL Smartphone Operating Systems such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, webOS and Symbian. So, if you currently have a smartphone, such as a BlackBerry and would like to upgrade/switch to another smartphone like an iPhone, you can do so without losing your current Smartphone data unlimited plan.

copied this right out of the AT&T support forms. If you had unlimited data with a blackberry you are good. As a matter of fact, if you add unlimited data to your blackberry right now and upgrade tomorrow, you get iphone unlimited data.

 

[ulbador]

Strange. I heard of people getting wierd data usages at night or times when they are sure they werent using your phone. Check your bill at AT&T and check all data usages and check if their are any unusual ones.

Also just use the #DATA* way it is more accurate anyways.

This was explained. Rather than say 10k here and there for a push notification (and some other things, I don't remember the full list), it just tallies up all these incidentals and shows them in the middle of the night.

 

[scaredpoet]

I would recommend looking on this forum for the methods to get unlimited data back, and follow that. No way would I use an iPhone 4 without unlimited data.

All of your past usage is irrelevant. The iPhone 4 background-tasks, has a hihger res camera, and takes HD video. It's designed to use WAY more data than previous iterations. So it's almost a certainty your usage will increase.

 

[MicroApple]

This was explained. Rather than say 10k here and there for a push notification (and some other things, I don't remember the full list), it just tallies up all these incidentals and shows them in the middle of the night.

Ah I see.

 

[iFitz]

I don't understand either. I had NO phone between selling my 3GS and receiving my iPhone 4 (over a week of no phone) and still kept my unlimited plan.

 

[Aaron J]

for some reason I was was noticing a lot of extra data usage too, almost triple more then my 7 month average. AT&T showed me about about 63mb average over a 7 month period on my unlimited, as soon as I downgraded to the 200mb and installed iOS my data shot up to 129mb with still 9 days left on my billing cycle I did NOTHING different then normal.
My girlfriend experienced the same thing, 32MB avg to 189mb!! something is fishy with the new plans and data usage with iOS. I used the sim card/original iPhone trick and got my unlimited back yesterday.

 

[VeNoMiZeD]

for some reason I was was noticing a lot of extra data usage too, almost triple more then my 7 month average. AT&T showed me about about 63mb average over a 7 month period on my unlimited, as soon as I downgraded to the 200mb and installed iOS my data shot up to 129mb with still 9 days left on my billing cycle I did NOTHING different then normal.
My girlfriend experienced the same thing, 32MB avg to 189mb!! something is fishy with the new plans and data usage with iOS. I used the sim card/original iPhone trick and got my unlimited back yesterday.

I plan on getting my mom and aunt a Iphone 3G (refurb $49). They're total noobs to smartphones and will be blown away with the Iphone (even though its the older version). What kind of usuage does 200mb consist of? I doubt they will surf the web like most Iphone users here, inlcuding myself. I know they'll check their email since the Iphone would make it easy for them.

 

[kirwansj]

I am noticing this as well. Both on my iP4 as well as my wifes 3G. I have unlimited on my iP4 but only have 200MB on my 3G.

My wife is new to the iPhone experience and primarily only uses it for email, texting, and Facebook. There is no way she should be using more than 200MB in a month but she is already at 153MB and I am only 12 days into the month. I started to notice something was wrong when I got the email from ATT 7 days into the month saying she was at 130MB. Checked her usage and most of it was coming in between 2-4 a.m. We are sleeping at that time so I called ATT. They blamed it on apps that are automatically updating at that time. So turned everything off that I could find such as notifications. At this same time I was also in the middle of reloading OS 3.1.3 because it was lagging the hell out of the 3G making it unbearable to use. Since these changes, usage has seemed to drop down to closer to normal on her phone using only 20MB over 5 or so days. Not sure if it was the OS change or the notifications but it is better. I will continue to monitor it daily until I am comfortable I will not get hit with overage charges.

I am still seeing astronomical usage on my iP4 (already at 1.3GB 12 days in when previously on my 3G I never went over 300MB) but I do not really care since I am still on unlimited.

 

[SolarPolarBear]

kick the data overage worries away

Just came across this app at itunes that keeps track of all the data WITHOUT ever having to login anywhere as it gathers all the data from the device. Its really a nice and easy way to keep track of how much data is used every month and prevent the data overage situations.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-data-usage-pro/id396349239?mt=8

Hope it makes lives easy for many people