• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Data usage while sending MMS

irrumator11

Lurker
Jun 14, 2012
2
0
I've been racking my brain over this issue for a while now...hoping someone will have suggestions.

I have a rooted Sony Xperia Ray (Android version 2.3.4).
I'm on AT&T, do not have a data plan, but do have their text messaging plan, which includes MMS messages. On every single bill so far, I have been charged for data, even though I only ever connect to the internet thru wifi.

At first, I thought that I was being wrongly charged for sending/receiving MMS, as I know that it uses mobile data. After contacting AT&T customer support, the CSR suggested that maybe my phone is using data for some other background purposes while I'm sending/receiving MMS, i.e. it's taking advantage of the temporary connection to the mobile network to do some of its own updating.

When I look at the details of my data usage on my phone bill, I can see my MMS messages (for which I am not charged, as expected), and then I can see "Data Transfer" charges, the timestamp on which is off by 1 minute from the MMS messages. For example, I have an MMS message on March 2nd at 4:20PM, and then a Data Transfer on March 2nd at 4:19PM. Not every MMS message has a corresponding Data Transfer charge. So it seems that *sometimes*, there is data other than MMS data that is being sent whilst mobile data is turned on by messaging.

I have background data turned off, all syncing turned off, every app is on manual update, so I cannot imagine what would be using data. I installed Onavo, to track data usage by app, but all I'm seeing is "Androis OS + Other" as the program using data.
Is there some background Android updating or something going on, that is taking advantage of mobile data while MMS is being sent/received? How can I figure out what this is?
 

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones