LTE newbie, some questions

[handy_andy]

After almost 14 years with Telkom ADSL and admittedly excellent customer service until last Christmas when my service became shaky at best, I decided to move to LTE 50GB + 50GB, staying with Telkom.

My SIM was activated today and as it is the last day of the month Telkom decided to give me 1.7GB pro rata which was gone in 2 hours. As I was only checking email and the odd download on the app store this is alarming.

I have a couple of questions:

I have 2 DSTV Explora connected to the internet. Do they trickle data even when not downloading?
How do I find out where my closest tower is and where to point the router/antenna?
is there any way of monitoring what is using data, and how much?

I have been reading up on the antenna threads, if I can't actually see the tower is it still worth the investment?

I have seen between 43 and 4 MB/s download speeds today.

 

[WireFree]

How do I find out where my closest tower is and where to point the router/antenna?

Log into the web interface of the router. Most routers show you the signal strength. Point the antenna in different directions and see which direction gives you the best signal. Then mount the antenna with it pointing in the direction with the strongest signal.

I have been reading up on the antenna threads, if I can't actually see the tower is it still worth the investment?

Yes. You can still big up a signal from reflections.
I can't see my tower, but I get a much better signal (and downloads) with a high gain directional antenna pointing in the supposed direction of a tower.