nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Site Totals

2060 Users Online 5852200 Members 365876 Discussions 61944 Solutions

How much data do you generally use a month?

Bruno5379

Hi everybody. So i am another guy who's getting the iphone 5 at a discount price.. .

I know they are gonna take my unlimmited data away, and i'll be force to choose the 2GB/$30 a moth, so i was curious too know how much data do i use per month, if 2GB was enough for me. It seems like it, i use 500 MB average a month. But having LTE means more speed, more data, so hopefully 2GB will cover my needs. How about you guys? how much data do you use a month?

Comments

Tidbits

If I keep my wifi on all the time, and I don't do field work I use no more than 1GB. If I get lazy and don't tap my NFC tags, and go out in the field I can use around 40-50GB a month.

It is honestly dependent if you change your habits because you have more speed. Often I don't care to turn wifi on because I have more speed with LTE, but if I was on 3G I'd always make sure I have wifi on for example.

rcschnoor

I don't know why more speed necessarily means more data. I guess if you are just going to stare at that small screen all day surfing the web, streaming and such, I guess it might.

However the reason I am not using more data isn't because it takes so long to load things on my phone. I just have better things to do. If I get the things done quicker on my phone because of faster data, I would think that just gives me more time to do other things I enjoy.

Bruno5379

40/50GB? wowww and i thought i was using a lol.. so unlimited data for you for sure

Tidbits

just by leaving my wifi on I use 1GB at most. it's all about habit.

21stNow

My usage patterns vary, but 1-5GB a month is normal for me.

Note that people who participate on forums may not be a good representation of the general population. We tend to use our mobile technology so much that we are on our carriers' forums.

rcschnoor

I have my wifi on all the time, too. I have never gone over 2GB in a month, seldom go over 1GB in a month, and have done neither in the last year. I am normally between 500-750MB/month.

Bruno5379

i guess no more pandora/slacker radio for me at work anymore lol

Ann154

21stNow wrote:
My usage patterns vary, but 1-5GB a month is normal for me.
Note that people who participate on forums may not be a good representation of the general population. We tend to use our mobile technology so much that we are on our carriers' forums.

Also more likely to use our mobile data plan to access those forums. I know I do.

As for usage. 2-6 GB per month depending how much I use it.

unknown

More speed doesn't mean more data. A 25 MB file or app or whatever is 25 MB whether you are using 3G, 4G or even 1X. Now some things like Netflix or HBOGo will stream at a higher bitrate on 4G than 3G. Of course I'd use wi-fi for those anyway if I could.

unknown

Bruno5379 wrote:
i guess no more pandora/slacker radio for me at work anymore lol

depends. if you have wi-fi then no issues. Also supposedly according to Pandora CEO the free version only has a 32 kbps bitrate. I kind of doubt that I've read elsewhere it's 64 kbps. The premium version is 192 kbps. So...

32 kbps = 73 hours of streaming per 1 GB

64 kbps = 36 hours of streaming per 1 GB

192 kbps = 12 hours of streaming per 1 GB.

Bruno5379

this is very helpful. thanks you

AZSALUKI

fyi....i believe you can set your stream on pandora to a slightly less quality. i know you can with spotify (which you can now use free to access their "radio" stations, just no playlists on mobile for free). it conserves data and i can't really tell the difference in quality. for the record, i can easily use 5-10 gigs during football season, but that's because i watch red zone channel and games on mine. if i pay attention and use wifi at work and home, i barely use a gig on the cellular network. if you average 500mb's then i would think the 2 gig plan should be ok, even on 4g. also, you can always force it to 3g (if apple/iphone lets you). if you're fine with your current speeds then there's nothing that says you have to use LTE. i leave mine on 3g a good deal of the time just because it's much easier on my battery.

mikemarro

I love how everyone thinks that LTE USES MORE DATA than 3G service. That is not true. Now, it is true that it is faster, so USERS may use more data because they choose to do more on it. But, it will not "consume" data any faster than 3G service will (for most things....NetFlix, for example, will paly videos in higher quality on LTE, thus it actaully will consume more data than 3G). If you use it more often, then yeah, obviously, you will consume more data. But, I mean, it would be exactly the same as if you were using your 3G more often. So, basically, the idea is just keep doing what your are doing, but you will accomplish your tasks faster on LTE than you would on 3G. I mean, if you read an article on a webpage, on your phone, for example, it really won't consume any more data. Once tha page is actually loaded, and you are actually reading it, you are not using data (at least I don't think you are).

If you keep doing more and more beause of the speed, then you will consume more data.

I use (on average) about .5 GB/month data currently as I use WiFi more than anything. And, in my opinion, at least, as fast as LTE is, it still is not as fast (and definitely not as reliable, since it is still a celluar connection) as MOST WiFi out there (especially the big ISP's like Comcast, etc). So, I mean, I don't think I will use any more data than I usually do, and, if I do, it will be minimal, because I will continue to use WiFi whenever I can.

That being said, it is still a bit crappy of Verizon to make those who have unlimited data get rid of it with the upgrade. I think they should make all new customers (or those who don't have unlimited data now) go to their "Share Everything" plan or their "tiered data" plans, but I think if you have unilmited data you should have been able to keep it (even with the upgraded price). But, I am not leaving over it, because, well, in all honesty, I don't use enough data for it to matter for me. It is just a "principle" thing that I pay $29.99/month for unlimited now, but with the new phone I will be paying $30.00/month (a penny more! Ha) for an unmeasurable amount less data (unlimited to 2GB really can't be measured in terms of what the "loss" is). Again, I don't use a lot, but it is just a principle thing.

donho3

LTE DOES use more data when watching movies but that is not the only application that will increase usage. Keep using your phone as you do now and you will easily use 3 to 10 times the data as most applications will download more data because many applications will throttle up resolution. NFL app News apps ect will all use more data.

We use less than a gig on three plans Combined on average. All our current plans are unlimited for our phones. My iPad used 2 Gigs watching one movie when we thought we where using wifi at our hotel and got kicked off the wifi. So keep dreaming that LTE does not use more data. The phone is Intended to use more data. Saving to the cloud, siri increased functinality, the 3d talking map app, facebook app, app download size has been increased and now facetime, ALL use data and lots of it! All these apps now come standard and will vastly increase data usage for most people.

like I said my household uses less than a gig sometimes half a gig a month and I am Starting with a 5 gig plan and might have to upgrade to the 10. I plan on using my phone the same but I also plan on keeping my iPad online since now it will be only $10 to share data.

Nice thing is you get warnings about your limit via email. Bad news is you can go way way over before you even check your emails. Yes you can upgrade mid-month but not sure hoe it works if you are already over the limit.

ckizz

So basically what you're saying is streaming video higher res will up your usage...which is exactly what the earlier poster was saying.

donho3

Not just that your download size limit is increased. The talking map app uses a lot of data is actually functional. They are saying file sizes stay the same. That's true but most usage is not file downloads for phone users it's streaming and it will throttle up. Anybody that dreams that the carriers intend on bills to remain the same needs to wake up. I used 2 gigs in 90 minutes. That could last me 3-4 months using 3g even streaming some

That's what people need to realize.

Wescyde

I use roughly 2GB per month between 2 phones because my wife hardly uses .5 GB. My phone is always on wifi if i am at home and I tend not to have a reason to be surfing at work or anything. Most of that 2GB is because i stream pandora at my desk or else i would go insane.

mikemarro

In all honesty I use WiFi at work too (as we have it).

Child Item