Posted on 09/23/2016 2:21:15 PM PDT by US Navy Vet
It's been an interesting week. Last weekend, I wrote about a sudden surge in my family's cell phone data through Verizon. In my unscientific survey that lasted one week, every friend and acquaintance I asked said they were having the same problem: Their monthly data use had been soaring in recent months for no apparent reason. In some cases, using more data meant hefty over-limit fees.
Well, well, well. Since my column ran a week ago, I've heard from about 700 Verizon customers (and quite a few AT&T customers too) in Ohio and many other states. Most have iPhones. Some have Androids. All have seen their data use through Verizon jump significantly -- doubling or tripling since the spring in many cases, even though their cell phone habits haven't changed. Data costs money. As if Verizon doesn't make enough money, it posted a profit of $18 billion -- billion with a B -- last year. That's up from $2 billion five years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
No kidding. Just started happening to our family.
Four phones, two teens, between the new plan and the spreadsheets Verizon allows you to download we can’t tell who’s “using up the plan.”
But it’s gotten so out of hand I’m seriously considering another cell service provider.
There are several good data usage tracking apps for Android that will keep track of which apps are using all the data. We have been uninstalling apps on our phones that we do not use frequently; many of them will actually use data just running in the background.
Plus, don’t trust your teenager to live within a plan ...
Same here. I have a 4gb limit. With extensive use, I would only use 2gbs a mother in the past. Recent months I have to turn off my data b/c I am reaching my limit.
It always seems to spIke a week before the cycle email-relay d.
I have the Verizon app and it shows exactly how much data each line uses. You can also set up each phone to get text alerts when you reach 50%, 75%, and 90% of your monthly data plan.
Use Wi-Fi whenever possible.....................
Sprint has infinite data for $60 a month.
I have Verizon and a $15 250MB plan. I have never come close to my data limit. I just don’t watch video on my phone.
AT&T tells you exactly how much data is used by each phone - on your bill, and via an app while the month is still in progress.
Five Easy Fixes
1). Get on Wifi whenever available. You can find Wifi in most places now. It’s free to pull data from Wifi vs a cell tower that uses your data minutes
2). Turn off all extra Aps on your phone. Then turn them on 1 at a time as you use them. That way you do not have Apps that are using your data that you never go into anymore. Moreover, only the Apps you use regularly will be on.
3). Don’t update your Apps unless on Wifi or connected to a computer.
4). Get an App that tracks your data usage. That way you can track your data.
5). Get the average of your data usage over the last 3 months. That way in case your data plan is too small then upgrading plans may be cheaper.
> Use Wi-Fi whenever possible.....................
And whatever you do, don’t activate WiFi Assist.
WiFi assist says if you drop your wifi signal, then use the plan data.
The problem is that it doesn’t switch back easily. It gets stuck in data plan mode and seems to just stay there.
Plenty o websites load all sorts of ads that I assume count as data. Nedd browser sddons to not load the ads.
Thanks, I had the app once and deleted it. I’ll look into it.
The same happened with me with Cox Cable a few months ago.
For years, I could watch streaming movie and a couple of sports events and the data usage meter would barely move. I had 250gb. I seldom even used 100gb per billing cycle. Then, about a year ago, I noticed my allocation has increased to 350gb. Great.
... until a few months ago.
I had not checked my data usage in a while, so, about 4 months ago now, I decided to check it. It only shows for the current and previous billing cycle. Both were over the limit. Over the limit? 350+gb? No way.
I began to check my usage on a daily basis. I was watching an almost daily Texas Rangers ballgame via the FoxSports app on a tablet. It was eating data at an unbelievable rate — around 7gb per game. I changed from the FoxSports app and started watching the games either through a laptop browser or laptop/tablet cable TV stream. The data usage dropped to around 2gb per game.
I notice also that Amazon Prime and possibly Netflix stream in 1080p, but my TV is an older 720p. Now, when I stream a movie, it consumes around 3 or 4gb.
I am streaming about half as much as I used to.
I keep checking the data usage frequently and am back to the 100gb/month usage range.
I’m lazy, I have the old Tmobile plan, 1Gb high speed then unlimited data a 128 Kbs. Turns out unless I’m at home on WIFI, I never do anything where I have noticed the slowdown. Although it’s rare I use more than 1Gb of mobile data in a month.
My younger son somehow manages to stream music continuously with the old plan.
Me too. No reason. Use same as before. Check Chrome. It seems to be the culprit by forcing open windows of every link and app.
Verizon is in cahoots with advertisers that charge you money when you click on them. $4.95, $9.95 etc. The were getting 40% of the charge. This is another scam on their part.
Yup. The things I learned!
If they don’t have to pay for it, they just cannot understand being frugal.
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