For what do you use your data and how much?

[Val-kyrie]

I am in need of purchasing a cell phone. I am in need also of a PDA-type device to keep track of an increasingly busy schedule. Consequently, I have considered purchasing an iPhone 4 and killing two birds with one stone.

I do not need a lot of minutes at the moment, but I foresee that changing in the near future. I would consider a pay-as-you-go phone for now until the iPhone 5 comes out, but after looking at AT&Ts data rates, and assuming Verizon follows suit in the near future (i.e., some time in the summer), I am weighing whether to purchase an iPhone now to lock in the unlimited data plan or whether to wait for the iPhone 5 and accept a more limited data plan.

So here is my question:

For what do you use your data on your iPhone and how much do you use? monthly average? low and high amount?

 

[buckeye269]

I don't use very much data, but that is because I roll with att. The data plan I have is only 200 mb a month so I can't do much. I mainly use my data for Facebook, tapatalk, and email. I wish I had unlimited data so I could download things, stream media, etc. I have friends on Verizon with unlimited data on their iPhones and droids who stream pandora and download stuff all day. If I were you I would get the iPhone and data plan now so you could always opt out of it into a smaller plan in the future if you wanted to. You can always downgrade, but never upgrade back into unlimited once it is gone.

 

[unlimitedx]

the loophole to get unlimited with 2g iphone stopped working?

 

[buckeye269]

As far as I know it still works, but I am not going to go buy another phone just to get unlimited. I have learned to wait for wifi when I need it. My dad also won't pay for anything more than the 200 mb plan, and since I don't have a job that is what I am sticking to.

 

[CH34P3T]

I have unlimited data on AT&T and most of my heavy data use comes from tethering. I usually average around 700MB a month of data use with tethering. Max I've used is probably 1.1GB a month. When I'm not tethering, I probably only average maybe less than 100MB a month.

 

[chrisbetty]

i have verizon and i use probably 1gb on average a month but this month i have gotten up to 6gb so thats a new high score for me.

 

[kppolich]

Remember if you're going to stream pandora and account for the new iCloud downloading (if that affects network usage) im assuming so

 

[SilvorX]

I have a 6GB data plan with my carrier, I use 2-3GB/month for streaming radio while going for walks, a bit of browsing and maybe an hour or two a month of tethering. Most months I use up around 5GB

 

[Shorties]

I use usually 6-7GBs a month on my unlimited plan, most of that is just pandora (I'd say about 50-60 hours of 3G pandora listening per month) with a little sling player, Netflix, hulu plus and occasional web browsing sprinkled around that. I always use wifi at home though, but I'm on 3G pretty much everywhere else.

 

[iStudentUK]

I don't use much at all. I get 500MB/month and use about half of that. However, I'm still a student for a few more months so I am often working at home or in the library where there is wifi.

One month when I was visiting people a lot, and hence away from my home wifi, I used about 450MB. I don't do much, just browsing and emails. Maybe a couple of small apps and 10mins of youtube over 3G a month.

 

[TheOriginalKi]

I vary from under 1gig right up to 4-5gig monthly. I only hook up to WiFi at home as I don't get a good 3g reception there. I do mostly email, browsing, the odd you tube video and when I decide to do a lot of music streaming rather than local music, thats when my useage jumps up. I also do the rare bit of tethering.

 

[Val-kyrie]

the loophole to get unlimited with 2g iphone stopped working?

I am uncertain about what the loophole even is? Could you please elaborate?

 

[iLucas]

As my only home internet connection is my unlimited iPhone plan I tend to use quite a bit. Gaming/netflix/browsing and everything else puts me around 15GB a month. I live right across the street from at&t's Uverse network but they say I don't have access and I have zero options for DSL. I had satellite for a bit, but with such a small bandwidth cap it was unusable. A few days ago I got a message saying from at&t saying "Your plan has been updated to a 4GB/$45 plan and you'll see this change on your next bill". I have been checking my account daily and it still says unlimited.

 

[pyro008]

Unless you plan on using media (mostly videos, but streaming music too) or tethering, the 2GB AT&T plan will be more than enough. Depending on how heavily you use the other data features such as email, web browsing, etc. and the availability of wifi in the areas you will be using it, the 200mb plan may even be enough.

You can always just get a plan that seems like more than you'll need and see how much you end up using the first month and adjust it based on that.

 

[OneMike]

I stopped any tethering a few months ago and still use over 4gb per month.

I'm kind of stuck. I'd love to use the 200mb plan. But even when I used no radio. Only email, web and txt/pic. I was over 200mb in the first few days.

 

[nateo200]

I am uncertain about what the loophole even is? Could you please elaborate?

Don't bother...