How much data (3G) do you guys typically use a month?

[Randy]

Hi all,

How much data do you guys typically use a month on the S2. On 3g that is.. away from wifi

As i`ve just had a fall out with Orange who have just reduced my unlimited internet to 500mb without even telling me.

Thanks

 

[noremorse1985]

my first couple months my data usage was massive! but my home wifi was down, so was using the phone for everything everyday, so data was getting hammered.

since i got it sorted out, changed the auto sync settings my data usage is around 80mb, and that is from june 14th (rough figures using the 3g watchdog app)

When ever im at home or around a wifi network I use that if i can.

got a 1gb allowance with o2 but might well drop that to 500mb if my usage rates remain the same.

 

[Rudedawg]

Im usually in wifi mode but as above very little data. I do however have a 500 mb data package with orange for emergencies. Thats on top of my regular data plan. I always like to make sure im covered

 

[lotus49]

I've only had mine for a month but I used about 490MB, just under my 500GB limit.

I did ask O2 what happens if you go over and they just throttle you to the point of unusability but they don't charge extortionate amounts for data over the limit. I was pleased to hear this having once run up a

 

[Randy]

So do you suggest I disable the "Background data" box or the "Auto-sync" box.. or both?

 

[Miths000]

The GS2 is my first smartphone and I was curious to see whether the 1 GB plan I had chosen would be enough (I can't change it for the first six months), but so far after one week my traffic monitor app is reporting a measly 15 MB 3G traffic. And 716 MB on wifi .

I just haven't really felt the need to do any traffic heavy tasks when I've been out of the house - a quick check of a couple of web sites, two days where I played around with Google Maps a bit (including using satellite overlay for a little while) and brief use of Feedly. Plus some syncing with Evernote and Amazon Kindle.
Other than that my GS2 has been relegated to offline tasks like music player and Kindle book reading. Even though I'm sure there will be many months where I do end up using the web browser, feed readers etc. much more extensively on 3G, I suspect that as long as I stay away from things like video downloads and streaming, those 1 GB will be more than enough.

Of course my vastly more substantial wifi traffic use (not to mention the rather heavy data traffic on my PC, which amounts to around 150-200 GB download in a typical month) suggest that if I been using 3G for all those app downloads and general playing around, I might have been better off paying a little more for the 5 GB plan.

 

[lotus49]

So do you suggest I disable the "Background data" box or the "Auto-sync" box.. or both?

I would suggest you do neither.

My 490MB included a fair bit of tethered use. Small things like syncing, email etc are not going to make a dent in 500MB.

Unless you are going to use your phone as a modem/3G hotspot then you would be unlikely to get that close to 500MB and if you did, you'd be doing things like downloading videos and would know you were using loads of data.

Just keep an eye on it through the month but I bet you'll be fine. I'm not sure how you can check your usage but I dare say it's easy enough. I fell out with Orange years ago and vowed never to go back no matter what so my knowledge of them is rather out of date.

 

[noremorse1985]

So do you suggest I disable the "Background data" box or the "Auto-sync" box.. or both?

that is really down to personal preferance, if you use apps that need a connection to work (whatsapp ect) then i think its best to leave the background data box ticked and auto-sync un ticked.

auto sync will be for emails and updates (which can be heavy on data use)

 

[Kopite7]

I used to use 1.2 GB a month with 02 when it was unlimited because I used to stream music from spottily or listen to radio via my iphone. I have only used about 250 MB last 2 months as I now put my music in spottily and chose offline option so that I'm no longer streaming the music.

 

[LeanNSupreme]

I'm on a 500mb data plan and the most I've used was around 300ish. I'm use wifi probably around 80-90% of the time so that's why I don't use that much data. The one thing I do miss from my old Blackberry is data compressing, I wish Android phones would have that feature too.

 

[Slug]

I average between 500MB-750MB per month, mainly due to me streaming radio when I'm bored at work.

Small things like syncing, email etc are not going to make a dent in 500MB.

This is true. My own daily "background chatter" e.g. Gmail, 30min Twitter updates, 3-hourly weather updates and a few other tasks amounts to maybe 5MB on a busy day.

I'm not sure how you can check your usage but I dare say it's easy enough.

The "Your Orange" app, free in the Market, gives the same usage info as the "Your Account" section of the Orange web site.

 

[heshanj]

i got a 3gig plan. with auto/background sync on, couple of live widgets, fair amount of web browsing, map usage.. some streaming.. i dont think i'll get near 500mb per month. lol

 

[vtax]

roughly 100MB per month on Vodafone. push notifications on 3 email accounts/twitter/facebook and a few online widgets.

 

[Screech]

Last month on my non-smart phone I used about 2.8GB. This month I used about 1.5GB, but I was on travel with a foreign SIM for a week too. I often use WiFi when at home too.

I use streaming audio a lot while at work. Glad I have an "unlimited" plan.

 

[jspx1]

During my first full month usage of the S2 with 3's All You Can Eat data plan I used 15.4GB with my phone tethered to my PC & providing speeds up to 7.5 meg down and 1.6 meg up. The up link will actually run at 4.6 through a VPN.
Before signing up with 3 on a 2 year contract I checked what their idea of "unlimited" really is and they say that they call it "All You Can Eat" and refer to a blog post where someone uses 45GB in a month without any problems.
Next month I won't be renewing my TalkTalk land line ADSL contract, I'll be cancelling it and also cancelling the land line too.

 

[Shotgun84]

During my first full month usage of the S2 with 3's All You Can Eat data plan I used 15.4GB with my phone tethered to my PC & providing speeds up to 7.5 meg down and 1.6 meg up. The up link will actually run at 4.6 through a VPN.
Before signing up with 3 on a 2 year contract I checked what their idea of "unlimited" really is and they say that they call it "All You Can Eat" and refer to a blog post where someone uses 45GB in a month without any problems.
Next month I won't be renewing my TalkTalk land line ADSL contract, I'll be cancelling it and also cancelling the land line too.

Totally agree. I switched to 3's pay as you go all you can eat when I used my 500mb of data on O2 pay as you go in 2 days. I must have used at least 10gb already this month. Not bad since you only have to top up

 

[Randy]

Thanks for the input guys, been using "Watchdog" and it seems I will probably get away with 500mb a month. Even with the disgraceful tricks by Orange.. only allowing most of their apps to run on 3g.

So sod you Orange, i aint gonna use your apps. Can`t un-install them so i`m just gonna hide them.

 

[xmjox]

In my first 10 days of having the phone I used up my 500mb allowance and chose to upgrade to 1gb. So far this month (20 days) according to 3G Watchdog I've only used 350mb. I've mostly been on wifi though and have consciously not been using it much on 3G just to see what my 'average' use is. I would say I could probably get away with just 500mb but I'd rather be safe than have my phone totally unusable if I do exceed my limit as I'm on O2 UK and as lotus49 said, they just slow your internet down ridiculously if you exceed the limit. Although this is of course much better than charging you over the odds!

BTW - I have twitter refreshing every 4 hours and push Gmail but no other background syncing.

 

[mrvirginia]

i've used 274.37mb so far and there's 4 days left in my billing cycle...

 

[rjakings]

I am a little concerned with my data allowance, I have hardly used my phone today yet my allowance seems to have gone down by about 100mb!! Im through Virgin so dont know if they just take their time updating their account settings but it is supposed to be realtime!