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LTE Data Usage

I

IlliniGuy76

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
138
7
I came from AT&T to Verizon. I had unlimited everything on AT&T and now have a 2GB package with Verizon.

From yesterday to today I've used 124 Megs of data - I'm floored! I consistently was never higher then 300-600 Megs at any point monthly.

Question...

I've used my phone to watch two quick videos
Send texts & make phone calls
I've done about 10 speed tests (I'm having some issues with my speed on the phone)

Is data being eaten that much quicker on the LTE network?
If I'm home and connected to my wireless does that count against your data package?
Finally: Could the number of speed tests really have affected my data usage yesterday/today?

Thankfully I went with 2 GB instead of 1 as I had originally felt would make sense for me.
 
Stop doing speedtests. They take quite a bit of data. Not sure how much but looks to be around 5MB or so each time.
 
d.steve said:
Stop doing speedtests. They take quite a bit of data. Not sure how much but looks to be around 5MB or so each time.
Click to expand...

So I assumed - I'm going to stop doing them. As I mentioned, been having issues with my speed and wanted to have a sample size I could actually show Apple.

Thanks!
 
124MB is not that much. I went from using about 1GB to about 10+GB per month on my iPad 3 LTE from a non-LTE iPad. This is from using the iPad for about 40 min a day of video.

Streaming high def video over LTE can be about a GB per hour.

I expect the same will happen once I finally get my iPhone 5.
 
VMMan said:
124MB is not that much. I went from using about 1GB to about 10+GB per month on my iPad 3 LTE from a non-LTE iPad. This is from using the iPad for about 40 min a day of video.

Streaming high def video over LTE can be about a GB per hour.

I expect the same will happen once I finally get my iPhone 5.
Click to expand...

I used the phone since I've gotten it to:

1) Watch two, 1 minute videos
2) Make phone calls/texts
3) Do about 15 speed tests - I've had some issues with the speed on my phone that I wanted a sample size to look at.
 
VMMan said:
124MB is not that much. I went from using about 1GB to about 10+GB per month on my iPad 3 LTE from a non-LTE iPad. This is from using the iPad for about 40 min a day of video.

Streaming high def video over LTE can be about a GB per hour.

I expect the same will happen once I finally get my iPhone 5.
Click to expand...

It is when you've only got 2GB a month. 124MB a day is about 3.6 in a month

----------
IlliniGuy76 said:
I came from AT&T to Verizon. I had unlimited everything on AT&T and now have a 2GB package with Verizon.

From yesterday to today I've used 124 Megs of data - I'm floored! I consistently was never higher then 300-600 Megs at any point monthly.

Question...

I've used my phone to watch two quick videos
Send texts & make phone calls
I've done about 10 speed tests (I'm having some issues with my speed on the phone)

Is data being eaten that much quicker on the LTE network?
If I'm home and connected to my wireless does that count against your data package?
Finally: Could the number of speed tests really have affected my data usage yesterday/today?

Thankfully I went with 2 GB instead of 1 as I had originally felt would make sense for me.
Click to expand...

It's not that it eats it up more. you're more inclined to browse with the extra speed. Videos are more likely to show in HD because of the better speeds, and background apps that go out checking will still use data, though it shouldn't be using any more than you already were using. Did you check your average usage when you were on the AT&T unlimited plan?
 
i-John said:
It is when you've only got 2GB a month. 124MB a day is about 3.6 in a month
Click to expand...

Exactly the reason I'm not going to do further speed tests. If (as someone posted) each test takes about 5 Megs of data, that's chomping on my usage big big time.

----------
i-John said:
It is when you've only got 2GB a month. 124MB a day is about 3.6 in a month

----------



It's not that it eats it up more. you're more inclined to browse with the extra speed. Videos are more likely to show in HD because of the better speeds, and background apps that go out checking will still use data, though it shouldn't be using any more than you already were using. Did you check your average usage when you were on the AT&T unlimited plan?
Click to expand...

I don't think I ever went over 400 Megs in any given month. I really only use my phone for: text, phone calls, to check e-mail (quite a bit) and the very occasional video views.
 
Was your signal bad and thats why you made the switch to Verizon? I can't see giving up unlimited data espcially now using LTE.
 
F123D said:
Was your signal bad and thats why you made the switch to Verizon? I can't see giving up unlimited data espcially now using LTE.
Click to expand...

AT&T was downright atrocious - was sick and tired of the dropped calls, unable to use it in parts of the city etc.

Honestly, I'd be floored if I come close to going over the 2 Gigs of data. If one speed test uses 19 megs, I very much know what the culprit is.

Using my phone for only texts, phone calls, website browsing and the occasional video use shouldn't come close to 2 Gigs.
 
Since you switched you'd get at least 1 day (or two) of prorated charges, then the cycle will refresh and you'll be given another 2gb. I used 1gb yesterday cause I was testing and streaming to see how it loaded and today it refreshed back to 0 gigs used. I normally don't use more than 1gb because I don't stream videos and I have wifi at work and at home.
 
I've had my iPhone for 2 days and I'm getting weird usage. My iPhone reports 600 Meg's cellular but the Verizon app says 173 Meg's. So what's really going on?
 
IndoX said:
Since you switched you'd get at least 1 day (or two) of prorated charges, then the cycle will refresh and you'll be given another 2gb. I used 1gb yesterday cause I was testing and streaming to see how it loaded and today it refreshed back to 0 gigs used. I normally don't use more than 1gb because I don't stream videos and I have wifi at work and at home.
Click to expand...

Same here - I have to be more cognizant of actually flipping on my wi-fi here at home on my phone... something when I was unlimited I never really worried about making certain I had on.
 
Question: If I'm at home and using my personal wi-fi enabled. Do I have to go into my phone and disable my LTE setting so it doesn't count against my data being used?

REALLY dumb question - one that I never had to worry about with unlimited data....
 
IlliniGuy76 said:
Question: If I'm at home and using my personal wi-fi enabled. Do I have to go into my phone and disable my LTE setting so it doesn't count against my data being used?

REALLY dumb question - one that I never had to worry about with unlimited data....
Click to expand...

I've been on wifi at my home instead of LTE just so I don't go over(I seriously hate about going over despite looking at my previous usage details- I never went over 2 GB in the last 6 months..yet I still worry about it) but even then I checked myverizon app and I'm at .001 GB somehow.

I haven't turned off the cellular data with wifi on. I'm still seeing good battery life. So to answer your question no I guess but that's just me.
 
IlliniGuy76 said:
I used the phone since I've gotten it to:

1) Watch two, 1 minute videos
2) Make phone calls/texts
3) Do about 15 speed tests - I've had some issues with the speed on my phone that I wanted a sample size to look at.
Click to expand...

2 min of videos in HD could be roughly 30 MB.
(This is a rough approximation).

If you were off in your time estimate and watched two 2 min videos or 4 min, then could be roughly 60 MB.

----------
i-John said:
It is when you've only got 2GB a month. 124MB a day is about 3.6 in a month

----------



It's not that it eats it up more. you're more inclined to browse with the extra speed. Videos are more likely to show in HD because of the better speeds, and background apps that go out checking will still use data, though it shouldn't be using any more than you already were using. Did you check your average usage when you were on the AT&T unlimited plan?
Click to expand...

What I meant by saying its not much wasn't in reference to the limits of his data plan. It was in reference to his stated usage in which I assumed he watched the roughly 2 min of video in HD.


ADDENDUM
I may have underestimated my numbers. An hour of HD video may be closer to 1.8 GB. So 2 min of HD would be closer to 50-60MB.

If one watches only 1 min of HD video a day, that could add up to almost 1 GB/month.
2 min of HD video per day and you're already at 2 GB/month.
 
Last edited:
I completely understand why you would switch if you were having problems with dropped calls and usability with AT&T's network. But for those of us still with the grandfathered unlimited plan with AT&T have a pretty sweet deal on their LTE network. Unlimited data and LTE data doesn't get throttled until over 5 GBs of data used. That's plenty of super fast data per month for most. I think definitely worth $30 a month.
 
I'm seeing some weird stuff for my iPhone 5's data usage stats. As I said in another thread over in the iOS forums, my phone says that I've already used 1.1 GB of received data and 268 MB of sent data.

Verizon says I've used a whooping 0.028 GB of data for this cycle as of their estimate for 1 minute ago. My cycle started a few days ago. I've been pretty much at home since I got the phone, connected to Wifi, and I have iCloud and iTunes match turned off.

There has got to be something wrong with the usage stats. :confused: Hopefully :eek:
 
I had used 400mb as of before I hooked my iphone 5 up. Over night, with wifi on mind you, my verizon usage went up to 2.5GB of data...

Verizon cant explain it, and says I used all that yesterday. I basically told them I didnt want to talk to a tech guy because I had been using iphones for 4 years now, and knew how to use wifi.

A bit annoyed. The kicker, in 24 days of my billing cycle, I used 400mb, as usual...and on day 25, I used 2.2GB. right.
 
I think something is up with the data usage meter. If you check your usage online with Verizon, it gives a breakdown at different times each day for the entire month. It shows nowhere near what my phone says I used yesterday.

You think there's a bug in ios6 that is mis-handling data counts? Or maybe it's counting wifi also when it shouldn't, because mine went up while watching a youtube video on wifi.
 
black743 said:
I think something is up with the data usage meter. If you check your usage online with Verizon, it gives a breakdown at different times each day for the entire month. It shows nowhere near what my phone says I used yesterday.

You think there's a bug in ios6 that is mis-handling data counts? Or maybe it's counting wifi also when it shouldn't, because mine went up while watching a youtube video on wifi.
Click to expand...

It shows I used 150 KB at 3:50 a.m.... I was dead asleep & had no incoming data at that time...
 
Also, notice if you go into the usage screen and back out real fast, it goes up 1kb each time. If you wait a few seconds, it still goes up 1kb....it's almost like it rings up 1kb for each time you look inside.

And it shouldn't tabulate during wifi for youtube and web surfing. Given that Verizon states much less than the meter shows, I think I'll stick with Verizon's numbers. I guess we will see what happens when the first bug fix update comes along.
 
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