I need help

[Crackdaddyo]

I have only been with T-Mobile for months. I have unlimited texting and data on the phone. But I don't use my phone as a hot spot at all. And every month I show data being used from my hot spot. I have it blocked on my phone and live out where no one else is in range. My question is how is this possible. I have talked to T-Mobile and 2 people have said that it is not possible and one other said that the phone does it on it's own. The thing is that they give you 500 megs a month free, but if you go over that then they cut your phone back to 2G or you have to pay extra for 2.5 gigs of hot spot. But I don't use my phone as a hot spot. Is this just a way for T-Mobile to rip people off. I just don't understand this.

 

[jhawkkw]

Have you tried performing a factory reset to wipe the phone and see if some rouge app is accessing it?

 

[Crackdaddyo]

Yes I have

 

[Crackdaddyo]

It seems like it happens when I use a lot of data it jumped from 65 megs to 350 megs over night but I was on Netflix for about 3 hours over night. I use a lot of data each month I average about 18 to 20 gigs on my phone but not as a hot spot. And my phone is a Gs4

 

[jhawkkw]

Hmm, that is peculiar.

 

[SEMIJim]

.

 

[mogelijk]

A quote from that link "Good quality (uses up to 0.3 GB per hour)"
Good Quality being their lowest quality setting.
0.3GB is equal to 307.2MB

Three straight hours would've used much more.

Again I would suggest the OP upgrade to the $70 truly unlimited if he/she intends on using netflix.

You could consider going with Virgin Mobile, They have a higher bandwidth cap at 2.5GB.
With 300Minutes Unlimited Text and Web you would only be spending $35 a month.

I don't understand the Virgin Mobile suggestion. We don't know if Virgin Mobile has decent coverage in his area. We know he is using a Galaxy S4, and we know he couldn't get a similar quality phone on Virgin Mobile (and would have to purchase a new phone). I just don't see Virgin Mobile as a good alternative here.

Instead, if he only cares about data, T-Mobile has a $30 plan (cheaper than Virgin Mobile) that gives 5 GB of unthrottled data or, as others have mentioned, have a completely unlimited plan. Not to mention the various MVNOs that use T-Mobiles network that have various plans at similar price points.

Beyond that, he seems happy with his T-Mobile service but just needs to figure out why his hotspot appears to sometimes be turned on.

 

[bob60626]

Fwiw, I've gotten the tethering upsell several times on my AT&T Note 1 while NOT tethering to ANYTHING with the hotspot feature off (and never on my T-Mobile S2 while tethering to my T-Mobile branded tablet!). Customer service didn't have an answer. I ended up restarting the Note to get rid of it.

 

[jhawkkw]

Cell Phone Plans | Cheap Cell Phone Plans & Unlimited Data | T-Mobile
$50 for 500MB is all I've been able to find.
Maybe you should give links to this elusive $30 plan so he can switch to it.

It's the plan I'm on, and they do a very good job of not advertising it. The link you provided is for their postpaid plans and not their prepaid plans. Those you can find here : http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

 

[jhawkkw]

Wow, I just found it... They sure do hide it don't they.

I might consider that plan this coming month, as I now have home internet and there is no way I will use 5GB on the phone alone.

The issue is that you can't change to it, it's for new activations only (unless they've changed it recently). So if you already have an account set up, you'll need a brand new SIM and activate a new account with a new number.

 

[tube517]

Wow, I just found it... They sure do hide it don't they.

I might consider that plan this coming month, as I now have home internet and there is no way I will use 5GB on the phone alone.

It's a great plan. Using Google Voice/SparePHone (VOIP app) I rarely use any of my 100 minutes of talk. Even use Viber with my wife and the reception is crystal clear.
With Wifi at work and at home, my data usage is usually below 700 MB/month.