Using too much data on iPhone while doing very little!!

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ahmad

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#39122 9-Aug-2009 18:38

Ok I need some help here. Everyone tells me 100Mb is a lot of data and more than enough to get through a month.

I have just joined XT on the 120Mb plan prepaid and my first days usage was atypical as I was having problems with my Yahoo! mail not "pushing" and I kept trying to reset the account.

Today however I tried to use my iPhone "normally" and have already used 3.6Mb according to Your Telecom.

That's 108Mb per 30 days and I thought I was doing very little?? Here's what I've been doing today:

- One Yahoo! Mail account. polling for mail every 15 minutes.
- Coming to Geekzone Forums (mobile format) when I get email notification for a subscribed thread.
- Logged into MSN using IM+ Lite and chatting for no more than 30 minutes total throughout the day

And that's cost me 3.6Mb already.

Am I doing something wrong? If everyone else is finding it so easy to do under 100Mb, I am looking for answers as to why my usage might be so high. Decreasing mail checks to 30min or less frequent still is *not* an option for me. I'd rather just upgrade to 240Mb per month if I had to.

I haven't even browsed any non-mobile enhanced yet either!

billgates

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#244515 9-Aug-2009 19:10

I setup push e-mail on my phone couple of days ago. Data connection is on 24x7 with the exchange server in Brazil. I have received 5 emails today and I replied to none of them via my phone. All together I used 53.6K and it has costed me 8cents to receive/read and maintaining a connection with the exchange server.

I suspect the geekzone browsing would have accounted for the most amount of data followed by MSN and then yahoo.

Do whatever you want to do man.

ahmad

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#244517 9-Aug-2009 19:16

billgates: I setup push e-mail on my phone couple of days ago. Data connection is on 24x7 with the exchange server in Brazil. I have received 5 emails today and I replied to none of them via my phone. All together I used 53.6K and it has costed me 8cents to receive/read and maintaining a connection with the exchange server.

I suspect the geekzone browsing would have accounted for the most amount of data followed by MSN and then yahoo.

Does Yahoo! download images from server if my incoming emails have them?

I get far more than 5 emails per day, many of them are Geekzone thread notifications which seem to contain text only (and not much of it either).

I can't imagine those emails are taking much bandwidth.

billgates

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#244534 9-Aug-2009 20:50

I don't know about yahoo but I know for the fact that both gmail and hotmail do NOT download images if an e-mail arrives with pics. You generally have to click on a authorise link to download rest of the e-mail with pics. I never download pics on my push setup. waste of bandwidth IMO.

Do whatever you want to do man.

ahmad

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#244899 10-Aug-2009 18:31

Am I receiving too many emails? Browsing Geekzone forums (mobile enhanced) too much? Chatting on IM+ Lite too much?

I'm up to 23Mb after 3 days usage.

I will need to up it to 240Mb next month just in case.

How much are you guys using each month?

DeroyBoy

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#244990 10-Aug-2009 22:07

I'm on 500MB plan and its not enough for the surfing I do on the iphone. Used 550MB last month all on the phone itself (no tethering)

DrCheese

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#244995 10-Aug-2009 22:17

Ahmad, just taking a look at your speed tests around Dunedin, and I'm guessing that has taken up around 8 MB of your data cap. I'm assuming you've only done one test in each of the six locations. If not, it might be considerably more than 8 MB.

I've used around 800 MB in one month with vodafone, but this has involved a hundred or more speed tests and a few TV news programs of 150 MB each.

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bonkiebonks

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#244997 10-Aug-2009 22:31

I've also realised I've been using more data on XT than I was on Vodafone. When I bought the iPhone 3G, and signed on a Broadband 1GB plan, I used hardly 300MB a month, less than half of what I was entitled to.

Having just switched to XT last week, I've already used 600MB!!

I'm not saying there's a problem with Telecom's data accounting, but I think XT works so well on the iPhone that downloading/updating apps on the iPhone over HSDPA is so convenient I don't update via Wi-Fi or iTunes!

ahmad

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#244999 10-Aug-2009 22:32

Oh I was using another SIM card for those tests :) Kindly supplied by someone :)

I am aware that the first few days of usage will be atypical (novelty value), but it still seems high.

Maybe I'm getting too many emails to my Yahoo!

I will upgrade to 240Mb next month and see how I go with "as normal as I can" usage. Luckily I entered this calendar month's usage on the 8th of the month. Next month will be the first full month.

ahmad

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#245002 10-Aug-2009 22:41

bonkiebonks: Having just switched to XT last week, I've already used 600MB!!

It's NOT unusual to use more when it is faster. You don't really notice how fast you burn through it.

It's like switching from dial-up to broadband really.

(sorry, forgot to put the "NOT" in my original post)

billgates

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#245022 10-Aug-2009 23:40

Yep the speedtests from speedtest.net are 2MB in size as well so watch out for that as well.

Do whatever you want to do man.

ahmad

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#245024 10-Aug-2009 23:46

Something I found on testing though, which made a friend question the methodology of Speedtest.net.

On the Vodafone test where the speed was extremely slow (in the underground bunker of the Merdian Mall food court), the total data used was minimal during the test.

Then the XT SIM was used, the speed was fast, and this used a LOT more data than when I tested with Vodafone.

So it seems that the test is more probably a "timed test" (time a constant, not a variable), which the data downloaded is variable depending on the speed it can be downloaded at?

I'm not expert on these matters but it led my friend to question the test.

I used a LOT of XT data due to the faster download speeds over the 6 tests.