Testing data usage on iPhone

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Russta

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Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could either help me with this, or point me in the right direction if a thread like this already exists...

My wife & I both have Vodacom contracts & iPhones. As everybody keeps telling me "iPhones use a lot of data" we have:
- turned off the push notifications across all apps
- have a Home & Work networks that we are on most of the time.
- both have data bundles - 400Mb each.

However, despite no visible changes to our browsing habits, our usage increases every month - with my wife being billed over R1000 for data last month. I don't know why, but I have a feeling like we are being screwed by Vodacom with regards to their billing cycles..

As a result, I have installed 5 separate data usage apps on my phone & am monitoring them. I am planning to upload screenshots of the data usage of these apps every month - along with my Vodacom data usage to gauge the accuracy of the bill vs. the apps (so far, all 5 are within a couple of megs of each other, so I am fairly certain they will provide an accurate read). Cell providers are making money hand-over-fist from consumers, and we are asked to pay exhorbitant costs without any third-party audits of these costs. I would like to challenge this :)

My questions are... Is this the correct forum to run such a test & publish the results ? Has someone run something similar ? Is anyone keen to join me with this test ?

I look forward to your feedback, and if I don't hear anything, will use this post to start the tests. Have a great day
 
Right forum - I think so yes.

5 Apps! Wow. Will be fun to see if they all agree with each other.

When I changed from BB to iPhone i watched my data use closely for about 3 months. I'm also on home and work wifi mostly. I have a 250mb data bundle and never exceed it.

90% of my apps have location services turned off. That's the only thing I can think of but I'm really no expert.
 
I also have recently switched to an iPhone.

What i've realised is that some of the "free apps" have adverts that CHANGE from time to time... some even 5 - 10 seconds of video.
I'm talking current event ads... like the latest WWE, latest UFC event... even new cars and stuff.

So I think... while I'm playing Free Mahjong or Sudoku... the blooming free apps are dloading these adverts in the background and I'm none the wiser!

And since I usually am away from home sometimes... these ads get dloaded over 3G and not my wifi.


that's my theory in any case... otherwise... my data usage stays quite reasonable. i do notice that there is 5MB downloaded overnight sometimes even though I haven't received ANYTHING! Must be these video ads.
 
I'll def be following this forum as i have been thinking of upgrading to iPhone 4. A friend warned me against it as she said her collegue had really high phone bills from data usage. The plan im looking at includes 150 megs data pm. I have internet at home and work which i mostly use so if my max is 250 megs that that seems to be ok..
 
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I recommend using Cell C 3G with iPhone 4. It's much cheaper than the competing services, so you can really enjoy the full capabilities of your iPhone.
 
Hi all, thanks for the feedback. I am also very interested to see how this develops.

FYI, I have the following apps installed (in case anyone wants to run a similar exercise):
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/data-usage/id386950560?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dataman-free-real-time-data/id404513413?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-data-usage-pro/id396349239?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-data-use-ultimate-data/id409224517?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bandwidth/id385011594?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onavo-save-data-stretch-your/id423545287?mt=8 (a "data optimiser")

I am sure you have all seen that Vodacom is dropping their data charges - Yay ! I am sure the other companies will follow suit soon. Will post an update in the next few days to show the screenshots of the data trackers - and then "eagerly" await my next bill.

Later.
 
What's wrong with just going to Settings and looking at the Data counter there? :)
Russta said:
Hi all, thanks for the feedback. I am also very interested to see how this develops.

FYI, I have the following apps installed (in case anyone wants to run a similar exercise):
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/data-usage/id386950560?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dataman-free-real-time-data/id404513413?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-data-usage-pro/id396349239?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-data-use-ultimate-data/id409224517?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bandwidth/id385011594?mt=8
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onavo-save-data-stretch-your/id423545287?mt=8 (a "data optimiser")

I am sure you have all seen that Vodacom is dropping their data charges - Yay ! I am sure the other companies will follow suit soon. Will post an update in the next few days to show the screenshots of the data trackers - and then "eagerly" await my next bill.

Later.
Click to expand...
 
Synaesthesia said:
What's wrong with just going to Settings and looking at the Data counter there? :)
Click to expand...

Firstly, because I didn't know it was there :)

Secondly, because all of the trackers vary on the data usage - sometimes by quite a bit. I wanted to get an average usage between them, rather than reference a single source that Vodacom could query. I will definitely be including the iphone data counter in my reading though - thanks for the heads up !
 
Switch to wifi at home and save up your data for when you not at home.
Do all app downloads at home only.
 
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