Mysterious o2 UK data increase

[elliotsdad]

Hello,
Wondered if anyone fancied checking their old O2 iPhone bills.
I've just been through mine and have seen a strange pattern.
From Aug 2008-July 2009 my average data use was around 45,000
After July2009 to present it's shot up to between 250,000 and 500,000.
I don't use the data much beyond checking mail, and browsing. NO youtube or streaming video.
At first I though it might Spotify, which I'll listen to for perhaps 30 minsn - 4 or 5 times a month.
Then I checked my wife's account and it does exactly the same thing, July 2009 - jumped from average usage of 80,000 to 160,000/250,000.
These are considerable increases considering they come 11 months or so of using an iphone, so you'd imagine the usage to settle down to a reasonable average.
However, one thing which is strange is the month that both our phones usage increased dramatically was when the o2 APN settings changed from 'mobile.o2.co.uk' to 'idata.o2.co.uk'.
Any thoughts?

 

[fabian9]

if you tell me how to check the data usage on a monthly basis I'll be happy to check it out on my account.

 

[elliotsdad]

How to check

Hi, THanks for replying.
GO to o2, my bill or previous bills. Select 'What I've used'
and select "UK browse and download'
it'll tell you what the usage is and what the APN settings were

 

[Skengman]

Mine has been mobile.o2.co.uk since I opened the account on 13th July 08. I went onto a simplicity tariff in January of this year, and I have never changed to idata.o2.co.uk.

My data usage has also remained fairly stable between 250,000 and 500,000 for 2 years.

Not sure if that is helpful?

 

[m477h3w]

I noticed exactly the same thing! Very strange. My usage was always between 400 and 500mb a month, but the last few months it's been more like 1.5gb! Wondering whether it's to do with switching from O2 contract to Simplicity 20 for iPhone?

 

[Deano.uk]

ill check mine later tonight... but maybe they used to count download only, and now calculate upload + download? thats the only logical reason i can think of.

 

[twoism]

What i found on my usage is that there's a mysterious log of data at exactly midnight every day. Is that normal?

 

[aliebel]

What i found on my usage is that there's a mysterious log of data at exactly midnight every day. Is that normal?

Yes, the little transfers for push notifications etc. are tallied up and recorded overnight. This is so the system isn't overrun by logging and keeping your bill from being 1000 pages long with data transfers.

 

[twoism]

Yes, the little transfers for push notifications etc. are tallied up and recorded overnight. This is so the system isn't overrun by logging and keeping your bill from being 1000 pages long with data transfers.

Ah, that explains it perfectly, thanks.

 

[donbenjy]

Yeah, I was thinking, maybe that's when push notifications came to OS 3? Or something else changed in the iphone software that meant there would be more data usage...

 

[ct2k7]

aliebel, that would be a solution, only if AT&T customers weren't charged/ data reaccounted on bill for it.