Where does prepaid data go?

chrisc

chrisc

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This has occurred 4 or 5 times in the past few months

I purchase R100 airtime. Checking the balance shortly thereafter shows: Balance R106,00 airtime (left over from last recharge), 200mb data and 200SMS

Two or three days later I check again. Balance is R 98,00 (I only made 3 calls) but no data and no SMS. The (iPhone 5) only uses mobile data for Capitec Bank, who say that their banking app does not use any data (how that works I don't know). All other apps are switched off for mobile data. I only activate mobile data when I want to use Capitec Bank and am not in range of a wifi signal. Otherwise Whatsapp only uses wifi

I never send SMS messages, only Whatsapp when in range of a wifi signal

Have asked CellC several times where the data has gone and am told:

  • Your data has expired
  • Your handset is faulty
  • The period between your recharges is too long
  • The data only lasts until the end of the following month
  • You are using wifi calling
  • Please call the data section, this has nothing to do with Customer Care

Is there an explanation I am not aware of? The ladies at the CellC stores have no idea
 
chrisc said:
This has occurred 4 or 5 times in the past few months

I purchase R100 airtime. Checking the balance shortly thereafter shows: Balance R106,00 airtime (left over from last recharge), 200mb data and 200SMS

Two or three days later I check again. Balance is R 98,00 (I only made 3 calls) but no data and no SMS. The (iPhone 5) only uses mobile data for Capitec Bank, who say that their banking app does not use any data (how that works I don't know). All other apps are switched off for mobile data. I only activate mobile data when I want to use Capitec Bank and am not in range of a wifi signal. Otherwise Whatsapp only uses wifi

I never send SMS messages, only Whatsapp when in range of a wifi signal

Have asked CellC several times where the data has gone and am told:

  • Your data has expired
  • Your handset is faulty
  • The period between your recharges is too long
  • The data only lasts until the end of the following month
  • You are using wifi calling
  • Please call the data section, this has nothing to do with Customer Care

Is there an explanation I am not aware of? The ladies at the CellC stores have no idea
Click to expand...

Hi chrisc

Thank you for posting to us.

Please PM us your Cell C number + email address, we'd like to get in touch with you to assist.

^BM
 
Cool cell C.

Always good to have an active rep on the forum.
 
You have WiFi Assist enabled and/or iCloud Drive sync setup to use Cellular.

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Settings > Cellular.

Next time you recharge hit the Reset Statistics button before you do.

It will show you exactly where the data is going.

If you truly did switch every other App off then it would go under System Services.

It's not the network stealing your data.
 
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Surely your iPhone has some kind of data monitor? All Androids have had one as far back as I can remember.
 
Well, according to the Apple Shop, it is not misconfigured. All the apps are greyed out since Mobile data is switched off. When Mobile data is switched on, only Capitec Bank and WhatsApp are on. The log shows WhatsApp has used 87.2KB. Under Mobile Data Usage under Current Period is shown 3.4MB and Current Period Roaming 0 bytes

Under iTunes & App Stores, Use Mobile Data is off
Under Storage, every item is off

However, if iCloud were on, would it use Mobile Data even if this was switched off?

The tech guy at the Apple Store also had no idea

I will send a PM as suggested above
 
SauRoNZA said:
Next time you recharge hit the Reset Statistics button before you do.

It will show you exactly where the data is going.

If you truly did switch every other App off then it would go under System Services.
Click to expand...
^This

One day I received 700MB+ pushed update to iOS 10.3.1 without my knowlegde and approval. Nice move, as it is not a popular update amoung Apple users.

Over couple of days I noticed extraordinary data usage on my device, there was no indicators, as on the WiFi connection Apple forgotten to include data statistics. Just watched it on my cellular router.

Finally I found 716.2MB iOS update under Settings -> General -> Storage & Cloud Usage -> Manage Storage.

It only shows storage usage after download is complete, so expect more stealing data from Cell C (and you) unless cellular conection has an option to stop this madness.
 
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As already mentioned, look until you find a usage monitor option and check what is or will activate the moment you connect. There are some apps that you can block all together others that will continue to use data in the background as soon as you connect and systems services over which you have almost no control.

Location data usage is a big one especially if you use Google services of any sort.
 
sajunky said:
^This

One day I received 700MB+ pushed update to iOS 10.3.1 without my knowlegde and approval. Nice move, as it is not a popular update amoung Apple users.

Over couple of days I noticed extraordinary data usage on my device, there was no indicators, as on the WiFi connection Apple forgotten to include data statistics. Just watched it on my cellular router.

Finally I found 716.2MB iOS update under Settings -> General -> Storage & Cloud Usage -> Manage Storage.

It only shows storage usage after download is complete, so expect more stealing data from Cell C (and you) unless cellular conection has an option to stop this madness.
Click to expand...

Well technically you were on Wifi and there is no way for them to know there is LTE behind it.

Cellular does have more options.

However they really should give an option for the auto update function.

I wonder if it works hand in hand with the AppStore updates and if you switched that off if it would stop.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Well technically you were on Wifi and there is no way for them to know there is LTE behind it.

Cellular does have more options.

However they really should give an option for the auto update function.

I wonder if it works hand in hand with the AppStore updates and if you switched that off if it would stop.
Click to expand...

Showmax knows when I'm using a wifi network running over 3G/LTE/whatever
 
supersunbird said:
Showmax knows when I'm using a wifi network running over 3G/LTE/whatever
Click to expand...

How do you figure that?

Or are you taking about the Showmax service attached to your LTE service? Because that's a very different concept.
 
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SauRoNZA said:
Well technically you were on Wifi and there is no way for them to know there is LTE behind it.

Cellular does have more options.

However they really should give an option for the auto update function.

I wonder if it works hand in hand with the AppStore updates and if you switched that off if it would stop.
Click to expand...
1. Techically Apple play a Holy Spirit, so they should know. <g> Anyway, this idea of pretending to be damn stupid was also used by Google and finally by Microsoft too...

2. I don't know what you are talking about (highlighted), my AppStore updates are off.
 
sajunky said:
1. Techically Apple play a Holy Spirit, so they should know. Anyway, this idea of pretending to be damn stupid was also used by Google and finally by Microsoft too...

2. I don't know what you are talking about (highlighted), my AppStore updates are off.
Click to expand...

1. Unless the OS is somehow told it's a metered connection (which would only apply if connected to another Apple device hotspot) as is the case with Windows 10 it can't really magically know.

Otherwise it's pure TCP/IP and it has no means of identifying what the Gateway is behind the wireless connection.

2. Yeah I'm just wondering if that setting would also disable automatic iOS updates, or if it's simply always on end of story.
 
SauRoNZA said:
How do you figure that?

Or are you taking about the Showmax service attached to your LTE service? Because that's a very different concept.
Click to expand...

No, when I use showmax on my 10" tablet, and its connected via wifi to my 8" tablet with the Telkom SIM in, my showmax warns me I will be using mobile data.
 
supersunbird said:
No, when I use showmax on my 10" tablet, and its connected via wifi to my 8" tablet with the Telkom SIM in, my showmax warns me I will be using mobile data.
Click to expand...

Yes but that's much like I said above regarding personal hotspots from an Apple device to an Apple device.

It won't know that difference if it connected to a standard router device that happened to be LTE based.
 
SauRoNZA said:
1. Unless the OS is somehow told it's a metered connection (which would only apply if connected to another Apple device hotspot) as is the case with Windows 10 it can't really magically know.

Otherwise it's pure TCP/IP and it has no means of identifying what the Gateway is behind the wireless connection.
Click to expand...
Ja. Apple is a perfectionist when integrating Apple devices. I was upset with wasted 700MB+, but now I feel sorry for not using Apple hotspot. As for others (Google and Microsoft) stealing ideas, they should know it. I didn't know it, but I don't steal ideas. ;)
SauRoNZA said:
2. Yeah I'm just wondering if that setting would also disable automatic iOS updates, or if it's simply always on end of story.
Click to expand...
From my experience on the cellular connection that option would disable iOS updates. Had it activated on my iPhone 4 (iOS6), it was preventing from downloading iOS7 on cellular connection. However it could change with a new OS.
 
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Yeah it should never update over cellular automatically unless forced to do so.

Just like it won't install apps or updates over certainly sizes while on mobile.
 
Well I just checked on my Vodacom tablet for 3 months now.
Consistently, month after month, the apps or other processes sucking data are:
Android OS - already this month (only 3 days old) 20.22 MB, normally 77 MB per month
Google Play Store - this month no updates done by me and auto updates off, 12.5 MB
Google Play Services - this month 2.52 MB normally 40 to 45 MB per month
My Vodacom App - play the comp once a day this month 1.82 MB normally 50 MB per month
Removed Apps - 1.49 MB normally 5 to 6 MB per month.

The rest is my triggered usage and apart from Chrome, are all trivial.

Note one App that really sucks data that was installed automatically was AccuWeather. Sucks in excess of 800 MB per month if left to its own devices.

So, there is one hellava lot going on that is beyond my control at the moment, possibly still because I Have not found out how to stop it. There are still apps, especially google related that I just cannot get rid of. They come back over and over again
 
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