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Huge Data Usage Jump

M

Macnificant

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
578
114
I have unlimited data and my wife has 200mb.
I have been using around 1.25gb to 2gb a month over the last year but got a text this morning that I reached 3gb and throttling would kick in with a week left in the billing cycle.

My wife usually uses close to the 200mb but is at 370mb with a week left in the billing cycle.

I havent noticed any difference my our usage personally.
only thing I could guess is the limited time the kids use our phones but most of the time it is in our house through wifi.

Could the kids usage be causing the huge data increase?
 
i got one saying my 10 year old daughter was illegally tethering LOL. Her device isnt jailbroken. It does have the grandfathered unlimited data. They threatened to turn it off. I called them and they pretty much told me i was a liar.

ATT is being fishy



My data has been higher than normal too, and im the only one using my phone.


Check you icloud, and itunes sync over cellular setting.
 
BFizzzle said:
i got one saying my 10 year old daughter was illegally tethering LOL. Her device isnt jailbroken. It does have the grandfathered unlimited data. They threatened to turn it off. I called them and they pretty much told me i was a liar.

ATT is being fishy



My data has been higher than normal too, and im the only one using my phone.


Check you icloud, and itunes sync over cellular setting.
Click to expand...

I never thought about the iCloud, itunes sync.

Ill try playing with that
 
My mother recently had huge data usage increase. She is old and does not use much data. She took here phone to a corporate store and the idiot solution was to turn off Cellular Data so she went days without getting email or text messages. When I finally got ahold of the phone, I noticed her data used was something like 99.9% uploads.

I changed some location services settings and did a restore through iTunes to resolve the issue.
 
Hmm, both my wife and I have had a big data jump in the past month. Normally she's well under her 200MB usage but with 12 days to go in the billing cycle she's at 180MB. Mine is about 30% higher than normal. We're on AT&T.

sparkhill said:
When I finally got ahold of the phone, I noticed her data used was something like 99.9% uploads.
Click to expand...

Mine's 93MB upload and 1GB download so that's not it.
 
Use any new apps? I used hbo go for the first time on a trip recently on an Android tablet. One movie was 2gb, literally 10x what Netflix uses. I couldn't believe it.
 
cynics said:
Use any new apps? I used hbo go for the first time on a trip recently on an Android tablet. One movie was 2gb, literally 10x what Netflix uses. I couldn't believe it.
Click to expand...

I think it might be the kids streaming video on Disney Junior app but again we are usually at home on wifi.

How accurate is the Data Usage timeline on AT&T's website. I am trying to see the timeline of usage.
 
Count me in for seeing abnormally high data usage on AT&T:mad: In 2 years, I've never used more than 1GB of data. Starting in June through today, my data usage has gone from 1.6GB to 1.8GB to a whopping 2.8GB this month and I haven't been using my phone differently other than streaming 1 Podcast per week in the car.

I'll be calling AT&T to get to the bottom of this as it appears they are doing something strange.:mad:
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Count me in for seeing abnormally high data usage on AT&T:mad: In 2 years, I've never used more than 1GB of data. Starting in June through today, my data usage has gone from 1.6GB to 1.8GB to a whopping 2.8GB this month and I haven't been using my phone differently other than streaming 1 Podcast per week in the car.

I'll be calling AT&T to get to the bottom of this as it appears they are doing something strange.:mad:
Click to expand...

Seems like we might be on to something. Would like to hear more feedback from other who have seen data usage increases
 
Macnificant said:
Seems like we might be on to something. Would like to hear more feedback from other who have seen data usage increases
Click to expand...

For some reason I get the sense this is AT&T calculating data usage differently in preparation for their Shared Data plans. While I am still on the grandfathered unlimited plan, I'm sure they'll find a way to kill that off eventually. If they start randomly (or dare I say artificially) reporting data usage to convince people to pay for higher data caps under the new plans, that would be a major conspiracy.:confused::mad:

While they do provide a breakdown of data usage, they couldn't display it in a more user UNfriendly way with no description as to the activity that just used 200,000KB of data. Something is fishy here...I encourage you all to review your data history on your AT&T account page and see if you see a trend here. Let's keep this thread alive until we have an answer.

----------
PatriotInvasion said:
For some reason I get the sense this is AT&T calculating data usage differently in preparation for their Shared Data plans. While I am still on the grandfathered unlimited plan, I'm sure they'll find a way to kill that off eventually. If they start randomly (or dare I say artificially) reporting data usage to convince people to pay for higher data caps under the new plans, that would be a major conspiracy.:confused::mad:

While they do provide a breakdown of data usage, they couldn't display it in a more user UNfriendly way with no description as to the activity that just used 200,000KB of data. Something is fishy here...I encourage you all to review your data history on your AT&T account page and see if you see a trend here. Let's keep this thread alive until we have an answer.
Click to expand...

PS - When AT&T officially stopped offering unlimited data and only offered 200MB and 2GB tiered plans, didn't they say 95% of users do not use more than 2GB of data??? Now all of a sudden they have 4GB, 6GB, and 10GB data plans? If 95% of users didn't surpass 2GB, why are the plans so high now???
 
Last edited:
How are you guys monitoring your data usage? Have you tried different apps to see if usage is different?
 
PatriotInvasion said:
For some reason I get the sense this is AT&T calculating data usage differently in preparation for their Shared Data plans. While I am still on the grandfathered unlimited plan, I'm sure they'll find a way to kill that off eventually. If they start randomly (or dare I say artificially) reporting data usage to convince people to pay for higher data caps under the new plans, that would be a major conspiracy.:confused::mad:

While they do provide a breakdown of data usage, they couldn't display it in a more user UNfriendly way with no description as to the activity that just used 200,000KB of data. Something is fishy here...I encourage you all to review your data history on your AT&T account page and see if you see a trend here. Let's keep this thread alive until we have an answer.

----------



PS - When AT&T officially stopped offering data and only offered 200MB and 2GB tiered plans, didn't they say 95% of users do not use more than 2GB of data??? Now all of a sudden they have 4GB, 6GB, and 10GB data plans? If 95% of users didn't surpass 2GB, why are the plans so high now???
Click to expand...

It's because that 4, 6 and 10GB plans can be shared on up to 5 devices plus hotspot. So if you have a 10GB plan and 5 iPhones, that's 2GB per phone.

AppleDApp said:
How are you guys monitoring your data usage? Have you tried different apps to see if usage is different?
Click to expand...

I've been using data usage by sigterm for years now. Always has been very accurate.
 
Macnificant said:
I think it might be the kids streaming video on Disney Junior app but again we are usually at home on wifi.

How accurate is the Data Usage timeline on AT&T's website. I am trying to see the timeline of usage.
Click to expand...

PatriotInvasion said:
Count me in for seeing abnormally high data usage on AT&T:mad: In 2 years, I've never used more than 1GB of data. Starting in June through today, my data usage has gone from 1.6GB to 1.8GB to a whopping 2.8GB this month and I haven't been using my phone differently other than streaming 1 Podcast per week in the car.

I'll be calling AT&T to get to the bottom of this as it appears they are doing something strange.:mad:
Click to expand...

Check out this article from last year.

I've also noted an unexplained, abnormal increase in data usage on one of our iPhones over the past couple months, starting with the June billing cycle.

We also had another instance of unexplained, increased date usage in January and February of this year on two of our iPhones.

If the unexplained usage continues with this months bill, I'll be calling ATT.
 
Just checked my bill from this past month. Almost nightly, I am seeing huge chunks of data usage between 12am and 1am eastern time. Usually in the 100-200MB range.

During those hours, I am almost exclusively at home, connected to a very reliable wifi network, and ASLEEP!:eek::confused::eek:

I called AT&T tonight to inquire, and got some lady who obviously has an IQ of about 30. Clearly explained the situation, she puts me on hold while she looks into it, and then the call disconnects:mad:

Any idea what could be causing these data transfers at roughly the same time every night or so? Again, when at home, the phone is always connected to my Time Capsule wifi.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Just checked my bill from this past month. Almost nightly, I am seeing huge chunks of data usage between 12am and 1am eastern time. Usually in the 100-200MB range.

During those hours, I am almost exclusively at home, connected to a very reliable wifi network, and ASLEEP!:eek::confused::eek:

I called AT&T tonight to inquire, and got some lady who obviously has an IQ of about 30. Clearly explained the situation, she puts me on hold while she looks into it, and then the call disconnects:mad:

Any idea what could be causing these data transfers at roughly the same time every night or so? Again, when at home, the phone is always connected to my Time Capsule wifi.
Click to expand...

Typically that is when the data posts from the previous day. It's never an up to the second process, but always delayed. Mine usually comes in between 12am-4am. Very rarely do I have a large chunk pop up during the day.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
Typically that is when the data posts from the previous day. It's never an up to the second process, but always delayed. Mine usually comes in between 12am-4am. Very rarely do I have a large chunk pop up during the day.
Click to expand...

Even if that is the case, it doesn't explain how I could go 2 years of using between 0.2-1GB of data per month with the iPhone 4 and now 4S...and starting in June, I randomly use 1.6GB, 1.8GB, and now 2.8GB of data. I have literally changed nothing about my daily use of the phone aside from streaming a weekly Podcast in my car. That can't double, triple, or in some cases, quadruple my data usage.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Even if that is the case, it doesn't explain how I could go 2 years of using between 0.2-1GB of data per month with the iPhone 4 and now 4S...and starting in June, I randomly use 1.6GB, 1.8GB, and now 2.8GB of data. I have literally changed nothing about my daily use of the phone aside from streaming a weekly Podcast in my car. That can't double, triple, or in some cases, quadruple my data usage.
Click to expand...

No, I completely agree with you. Something is off. Mine has spiked as well, and I have been using a lot less data. I recently just moved and have hardly been on my phone at all and my iMessage usage has been cut into a fifth, but my data usage is continuing to grow substantial. For the first time ever AT&T is saying I'm using about 25% more than my data usage app. I've never trusted AT&T, that's why I've used the app for years and now it's proven worth it.
 
This is happening to me and my wife too, for the last past months after day 21st we almost at 1.6 GB,Huh???? I contacted ATT,let's see.Fishy,fishy,fishy:mad:
 
sucks if att was doing something shaddy(wait they already are)...we couldnt really verify anything or do anything other than leave our contracts and report to fcc ftc and bbb etc.
 
I am an AT&T user and have not seen any jump in cellular data usage. I would suspect some sort of app issue myself. Maybe one of those "social" apps (they all seem to want that hot button tag) that lets your friends know where you are at all times and lets you see where they are. Or a navigation app that was poorly written. Take a look at location services, think back to what got update on your app suite in the time frame things went bad.

Also, there is a cellular data counter in the General settings app for the phone. Reset that baby at the start of the day and check it thru out the day as you do things. Might give you a clue as to what is being used, and when it is being used.

I guess I will be real surprised if this does not turn out to be some poorly written app that is just chewing up data like crazy.
 
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