The sense of this bill being so out of control is bothersome. Any advice would be appreciated.
Do you get a lot of email on your phone?
We need more details.
What make and model of phone?
What version or level of the operating system and patches?
What was your prior data use and what is it now?
What apps have you downloaded?
Get it checked by a pro.
You might be able to set up your router up to monitor your internet traffic. It might help to know exactly how much you used each day. Your neighbors might be hijacking your Internet. Also, change your wifi passwords for all of your devices.
I buy 3 gig a month,right now I am at 0.45 gig used ,96 percent of that is FREEREPUBLIC.
I visited drudge once.
No You tube.
I am usually much further in usage.
I’m in the sticks. I have a 40 gig AT&T cellpone plan. One month something went weird and I used up almost all of it in just a few days. But I still had no overages because I shut down all devices except when I actually NEEDED to use data. I actually came in 1 gig under that month. But here’s what I did, and some background:
I have two phones and a Myfi liberate hotspot. the hotspot is our main data user for our desktop and laptops at home. Our nearest neighbor is 500 yards away, so that’s not an issue. The Myfi is usb connected to my laptop.
Here is what I did:
Turn off data on the Myfi.
Set Myfi usb option to “charge only”.
Turn off data on the phones.
Check myatt.com to closely monitor data usage.
When my wife needs wifi at home, she turns on the data on the Myfi, and turns it off when she’s done.
This did it for us. We also learned how easy it is to closely monitor data usage.
I think your problem is likely to be the background use of iCloud. Turn off iCloud, or limit it to only Find My Friends-sort of super minimal data use items.
On iPhones with little available memory, your phone will offload apps and data to iCloud to make room for other things. It then loads it back local to the device when you appear to need it. This churns through a lot of data, as a lot of copying keeps happening. The equivalent on a Windows computer would be virtual memory use on the hard drive.
This may sound really stupid but I was having the same problem until a buddy showed me how to “kill” running apps. Turns out that I was still running everything I’d ever opened.
Bear in mind a cell phone is never off, even if you turn it “off.” The phone is always on so you can be found if you receive a call.
If the phone is “off” and you receive a call, the cell carrier senses the phone is off and transfers the call to voice mail.
I use my phone and tablet a lot but hardly use any of my 1GB roaming data allowance.
"Ceterum censeo Hillary esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Get a Wi-fi router in your home.....
Go to the bottom of the Settings page and turn off cellular data on the apps that you don’t want to use your data.
I have just an ordinary cell phone so I don’t use data, but I have a data plan with Verizon because there’s three other phones on the account that do use it. A Verizon rep told me that users should close out apps after using them because they still use data when the phone isn’t being used. Also, my oldest son had used his “hot spots” option on his phone, and forgot to shut it off. Because of that the phone used extra data that he wasn’t aware of. Verizon also offers a “Safety Mode” app that automatically slows your data speed when you’re getting close to your limit. That’s about all I can offer based on my limited knowledge of data usage.
Go into Settings, Cellular, and uncheck the switch for every app except the ones you really want to use when you’re not on wi-fi. Scroll all the way down the page and uncheck wi-fi assist. Go into Facebook and uncheck autorun videos.
Curious.
About 2 months ago, I checked my cable internet data usage. I have the mid-level service. I was astonished that I had exceeded my allotment for the previous month and the current month was nearing ‘overuse’ territory.
About a year ago, cable upped my package from 250gb to 350gb.
Even at 250gb, I seldom even got close to using 100gb. And that included times I would have 2 or 3 sporting events and a Netflix moving streaming. The same when I would binge watch, so I would stream 4 or 5 hours of TV programs.
I don’t know what is going on, because my ‘equipment’ has not changed. I did add a TiVo about 4 months ago, but that should only impact TV cable, even though it does connect via internet for schedules, etc. Everything else is the same as it was. Even my LCD tv is an older 720p model. I did add a tablet about 8 months ago.
The major culprit seems to be the FoxSports app. If I tune in baseball games using it, it seems to eat data. One 3-hour game consumes nearly 6gb.
My immediate suspicion was that the cable company is doing something. My streaming and regular Internet use has remained relatively constant from month to month. My usage meter shows that I have increased consumption from about 90gb six months ago to nearly 350gb per month now.
When I first got my phone I found I wasn’t closing the apps properly. There should be a breakdown of usage in your data management function. Rebooting your phone will ensure all apps are closed. And, yes, video ads on Breitbart will burn up your data.
Send/receive photos? Lots of attachments!
Updating in the background?
There is a lot of stuff going on in the background. Almost none of it is any good.
1. Your local phone company may have DSL that can reach your location.
2. You may have microwave available, as some grain elevators host microwave transceivers and farms within 10-15 miles can connect with a line of sight.
3. You very likely have satellite available. This appears to be a reasonable list of some satellite providers: http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/internet/best-satellite-internet-providers/
Go to Settings> Cellular> scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the end of the list, AND TURN OFF WIFI ASSIST. Chews thru data big time, even when you think you are using only wifi. Happened to me. Tripled our data use in three weeks.