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LTE and 3G: How much more data will LTE use?

J

jmo1116

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 27, 2010
202
0
Alabama
As I understand it, when I upgrade to the iPhone 5 I will lose my unlimited data plan and have the choice of 2GB for $30 or 5GB for $50 (at least that's what the Verizon chat rep told me). My question is how much more data will LTE use than 3G? For instance, if I surf the web for 30 min on LTE, does it use the same amount of data as if I were surfing the web on 3G for 30 min?

I am just trying to see which data plan I should get. Thanks.
 
Technarchy said:
Same.
Click to expand...

No, that's misleading.

If you're judging time you are surfing and not just amount of data, it's a different story. Of course, if you do everything you're doing now, you won't go over your data and it will stay the same. However, it's much more likely you will use more data with LTE because you can load data faster, therefore having the option to use more than with 3G in the same length of time.
 
jmo1116 said:
As I understand it, when I upgrade to the iPhone 5 I will lose my unlimited data plan and have the choice of 2GB for $30 or 5GB for $50 (at least that's what the Verizon chat rep told me). My question is how much more data will LTE use than 3G? For instance, if I surf the web for 30 min on LTE, does it use the same amount of data as if I were surfing the web on 3G for 30 min?

I am just trying to see which data plan I should get. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Depends. If you measure consumption by time surfing, you'll use more data because pages will load faster, so you can read more pages in that 30 minute window you talked about.

I personally don't do that. I visit what I need to visit, check emails as usual, etc. so I don't expect to see any increase in data usage. I expect to cover the same ground in less time.
 
lorenwade said:
No, that's misleading.

If you're judging time you are surfing and not just amount of data, it's a different story. Of course, if you do everything you're doing now, you won't go over your data and it will stay the same. However, it's much more likely you will use more data with LTE because you can load data faster, therefore having the option to use more than with 3G in the same length of time.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I would use more data because LTE would load faster thus allowing me to go to more websites, videos, pics, etc. Thanks.
 
Assuming most people's typical speed tests are accurate, it'll use 3-4x more data. But that really depends on whether you will actually consume that much more content, or simply complete your tasks quicker, and then put the phone away.
 
lorenwade said:
No, that's misleading.

If you're judging time you are surfing and not just amount of data, it's a different story. Of course, if you do everything you're doing now, you won't go over your data and it will stay the same. However, it's much more likely you will use more data with LTE because you can load data faster, therefore having the option to use more than with 3G in the same length of time.
Click to expand...

When I was on Sprint my Wimax was around 10mb everywhere near my office. My data usage is the same as AT&T with a 5mb HSPA+ pipe mostly.

LTE will be no different most likely.
 
It varies widely person to person. For me my data uses shot up because instead of playing games while doing something away from wifi, I could just load up pandora or youtube and waste more time faster surfing than playing games because the 3g was too slow to be enjoyable.
 
it will shoot up your first couple weeks cause you want to play with your phone and stuff. but once you get into a routine it should level out.
 
I love all the people that say you won't use more data, its only faster. They couldn't be more wrong. With an EDGE phone on T-Mobile my data usage was around 50mb per month haha. Got a HSPA+ phone and my went up to nearly 700mb because I can do so much more. The data connection is just faster so you'll be consuming more data since your connection is faster.

It will allow you to do so much more, hence using more data.
 
Technarchy said:
When I was on Sprint my Wimax was around 10mb everywhere near my office. My data usage is the same as AT&T with a 5mb HSPA+ pipe mostly.

LTE will be no different most likely.
Click to expand...

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying it's misleading to say it will be the same. With the ability to use more data, it will likely not be the same.
 
MattMJB0188 said:
I love all the people that say you won't use more data, its only faster. They couldn't be more wrong. With an EDGE phone on T-Mobile my data usage was around 50mb per month haha. Got a HSPA+ phone and my went up to nearly 700mb because I can do so much more. The data connection is just faster so you'll be consuming more data since your connection is faster.

It will allow you to do so much more, hence using more data.
Click to expand...

Then LTE isn't using more data, the USER is..

LTE just transfers data faster. You use less data on EDGE because it's slower than dirt, thus making you not want to use it as much.

LTE will be a lot more quicker, allowing you to do essentially what you can do on your computer at home, on your phone, anywhere.

Again, LTE will not "USE" more data.. just deliver the existing data a lot quicker. The USER will be the one who uses more data because they can do more.
 
For all the crappy things AT&T has done over the years, I'm glad they're making it up to us long-time users by not making us give up our Unlimited plans for LTE.

No, I don't care about Mobile Hotspot or Facetime over Cellular. I don't use Facetime over WiFi.
 
Doesn't YouTube automatically play a higher quality file by default when it detects an LTE connection, as compared to 3G/4G?
 
Data use increase will likely be very negligible, unless the newfound speed vastly alters your browsing habits. Sometimes I click links on webpages (for example logins) before the entire page finishes loading. In theory, while on LTE, the page will load much faster, consuming more data. Again, this is likely going to be negligible for most users.
 
jmo1116 said:
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I would use more data because LTE would load faster thus allowing me to go to more websites, videos, pics, etc. Thanks.
Click to expand...

With LTE, you can't read or watch movies any faster than you currently can.

Websites will obviously load faster, but it's not like most of your time spent browsing is waiting for pages to load... it's generally spent reading.

For the vast majority of people, there will be virtually no increase in data usage in moving from 3G to LTE.

Edge to 3G is a completely different story since many of the things we use data for (streaming video and music) couldn't be done before.
 
njknight said:
For all the crappy things AT&T has done over the years, I'm glad they're making it up to us long-time users by not making us give up our Unlimited plans for LTE.

No, I don't care about Mobile Hotspot or Facetime over Cellular. I don't use Facetime over WiFi.
Click to expand...

The unliited plan for iPhone 5 (and all LTE) users is actually going to be the better deal again, seeing as how we get 5GB unthrottled data. The question is, will they throttle your data while on a 3G connection (ie areas where there is no LTE) after 3GB.
 
I find that I use considerably more data. Not because my habits are different. I visit all the same sites for the same amount if time as I used to. But I use almost 3x more data. The reason why is that I watch a lot of video on my phone. CNN, CBS news, CNET and of course YouTube. All of these services now automatically send me a high def stream that I can't de select. I have no choice but to watch a video quality that frankly I don't need. I used to use 2-3 GB a month and now I have used 6-8.
 
Massive spike in data usage

My experience with data usage has not been what is described here. My usage has spiked by over 10 times since moving to LTE, even though my use pattern has not changed at all. Last night, I used 5mb of data just by downloading my mail and opening two web pages. So, I turned LTE off and tried using 4g. After opening 3 more pages on the same website, my data use jumped to 15 mb. This was in a five minute period. Performing the same tasks on my 3GS typically used about 1 mb or even less. I did not have any other apps open in the background. The only apps that I have set to send notifications are the reminders, calendar, and messages. So, nothing data intensive was running in the background as far as I know. I also did not view a video or listen to any audio. Nor did I open any attachments in my email. This makes no sense to me unless AT&T is gouging me because they think I don't understand why using LTE should not impact my total data usage if my use patterns do not change. Anybody else experiencing this?
 
From what I know, LTE is only about speed. Downloading of web pages is still the same size of data usage, regardless of your download speeds like 3G or LTE.
 
jmo1116 said:
As I understand it, when I upgrade to the iPhone 5 I will lose my unlimited data plan and have the choice of 2GB for $30 or 5GB for $50 (at least that's what the Verizon chat rep told me). My question is how much more data will LTE use than 3G? For instance, if I surf the web for 30 min on LTE, does it use the same amount of data as if I were surfing the web on 3G for 30 min?

I am just trying to see which data plan I should get. Thanks.
Click to expand...

My data consumption has not changed at all since upgrading to ip5 from the ip4 and my LTE is always on. If you sit around watching youtube and movies on it all day, yeah, it will increase. But if your just surfing the web, checking a few apps and emails you're not going to notice any difference in data consumption. At least that has been my personal experience after 3 months with the ip5 and LTE.
 
Think of it like this

Your home internet is 5Mbps, you decide to upgrade it to 20Mbps. How much more data is it using? None technically, but the speed you receive the information is much quicker meaning you can do more data consumption in a shorter period of time.
 
Saberon said:
Think of it like this

Your home internet is 5Mbps, you decide to upgrade it to 20Mbps. How much more data is it using? None technically, but the speed you receive the information is much quicker meaning you can do more data consumption in a shorter period of time.
Click to expand...

Well said. Mine has went from 2GB (3G) to 3GB (LTE)... But I opted to pay big money to keep my unlimited LTE on Verizon.

You could wait until the demand goes down a bit, buy one from CL or eBay to keep your unlimited.

Remember, in 5 yrs were going to be conusuming even more data. So these grandfathered unlimited LTE plans might come in handy.
 
As some have said, do not use the upgrade to get a iPhone 5. Buy full price it buy used and keep your unlimited data and you will never have to worry about it.
 
Hey all
Thought I being this old thread up again to ask the same question. For those who are using LTE and who may no have unlimited data on LTE plans. Do you find yourselfs using up your data allowance quicker than what you would have on 3G?
 
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