Hi, and the amount of data useage with desire

[Geryatrix]

Hi to everyone from a complete noobie, and my username is accurate.

I have decided to go to a smartphone on 13th June when my present contract expires. My Query is, I am in the U.K. and if I look at contracts for the iphone they normally include unlimited Wifi and 1Gb of wireless data, whereas the Desire seems to come with only 500Mb of wireless.

I would much prefer to get a Desire, but I am concerned that I could be lumbering myself with excess charges if I go over the 500Mb limit.

I have never had a phone with an Internet connection before so I'm sure that there will be a lot of playing going on at least to start with.

Could you please give some indication of the amount of 3g you use in a normal month, and if you think that I should worry about going over a 500Mb limit.

Thanks in anticipation.
Geryatrix

 

[mrlongbeard]

Aren't T-Mob still offering a 3Gb FuP on android handsets??

 

[tomq]

Hi to everyone from a complete noobie, and my username is accurate.

I have decided to go to a smartphone on 13th June when my present contract expires. My Query is, I am in the U.K. and if I look at contracts for the iphone they normally include unlimited Wifi and 1Gb of wireless data, whereas the Desire seems to come with only 500Mb of wireless.

I would much prefer to get a Desire, but I am concerned that I could be lumbering myself with excess charges if I go over the 500Mb limit.

I have never had a phone with an Internet connection before so I'm sure that there will be a lot of playing going on at least to start with.

Could you please give some indication of the amount of 3g you use in a normal month, and if you think that I should worry about going over a 500Mb limit.

Thanks in anticipation.
Geryatrix

i have wifi at home and work but when im at my mates or out and about i use 3g for net surfing, maps, downloading apps, but have never gone over 150mb out of my 500mb.

 

[galfwender]

T-Mobile - 3gb
3 - 1gb
Virgin - 1gb
Vodafone - 500mb for standard phones and 1gb for iphone and possibly desire
Orange - 500mb I think, hard to tell on their rubbish website

 

[OFI]

Aren't T-Mob still offering a 3Gb FuP on android handsets??

Correct.

All T-Mobile contracts come with 3GB data with a Fair Use Policy.

Three (3) offer 1GB.

I've hardly used any data so far as I use wifi at home and signal isnt great at work.

 

[denno69]

I think 02 is unlimited with an excessive usage policy. I have just got 300 mins + unlimited texts and data (internet) for 30pm with Desire costing

 

[Geryatrix]

T-Mobile - 3gb
3 - 1gb
Virgin - 1gb
Vodafone - 500mb for standard phones and 1gb for iphone and possibly desire
Orange - 500mb I think, hard to tell on their rubbish website

Unfortunately there are only two providers that have coverage where, South Devon, I need to use a phone on the internet, either 3 or Vodafone.

3 offer unlimited internet, but if you read the small print they only allow 500Mb under their FUP, and the charges for any Mb over are considerable.

Vodafone offer 500Mb on the Desire and 1Gb + Wifi on the iphone.

 

[weirdNumber]

T-Mobile - 3gb
3 - 1gb
Virgin - 1gb
Vodafone - 500mb for standard phones and 1gb for iphone and possibly desire
Orange - 500mb I think, hard to tell on their rubbish website

For the sake of completeness. T-Mobile FUP is 1Gb on standard phones and 3Gb on Android and Windows mobile devices.

As denno69 points out. The o2 FUP is vague but implies no fixed data allowance just some caveats against what they deem to be unfair practices.

In terms of monthly usage, like everything it depends. If you avoid excessive video or audio streaming via 3g then I would be surprised to see usage exceed 500mb for a month. Unfortunately Idon't know for sure as I have never monitored my usage.

 

[matttye]

I've had my Desire for almost a month now and I've only used 77MB of my 500MB. I use WiFi a lot though.. do you have WiFi at home?

If I didn't have WiFi I probably would have used about 2 gigs or more by now easily.

With having WiFi at home most of my browsing comes from when I'm on the bus to/from work or on the train.

And a little tip: it's usually better to use apps than websites where possible, because a lot of apps use APIs rather than download the entire page and then parse the data.. meaning that less data is used

 

[OFI]

O2 reserves the right to impose further charges, impose network protection controls which may reduce your speed of transmission,

which is exactly what happened with my unlimited unrestricted broadband actually

3 offer unlimited internet, but if you read the small print they only allow 500Mb under their FUP, and the charges for any Mb over are considerable.

You are quite correct it looks like they've changed the packages to only allow 500Mb. Talk about going backwards, how sad.

To know how much bandwidth you will use will really depend on your usage habits.

When I used a mobile dongle for 2 weeks I stopped downloading anything and only used it to browse but did use it for 6-8 hours in a day. I was using anything from 120Mb to 220Mb in a day.

However browsing mobile sites for half hour and checking your emails each day you'll most likely be fine

 

[Geryatrix]

Thanks for all the replies so far, but to confirm my concerns, now I have retired I tend to spend weeks at a time away from my home and it's Wifi, therefore I would like to check e-mails, play a few you-tube videos and generally pass the time away when the fish arn't biting, too windy for sailing and too wet to walk the dog.

Obviously with time on my hands, and a new toy in my pocket, I'll be doing a lot of playing.

 

[matttye]

Thanks for all the replies so far, but to confirm my concerns, now I have retired I tend to spend weeks at a time away from my home and it's Wifi, therefore I would like to check e-mails, play a few you-tube videos and generally pass the time away when the fish arn't biting, too windy for sailing and too wet to walk the dog.

Obviously with time on my hands, and a new toy in my pocket, I'll be doing a lot of playing.

It's worth asking your provider what they can do for you if you're going to go over your allowance, most allow you to buy extra data.

Orange offer 750MB for

 

[Pojken]

I have 5 GB/month and only used 355 MB in the last 15 days. I also just got my first smart phone and have been looking up things left and right. A large chunk of that was done via tethering, too. Hehehe...

I think you'll be okay on 500MB. Do they throttle you after you go over or charge you? If I ever go beyond 5 GB, they'll only throttle me until the end of the month (though, I will likely never go anywhere near that).

Tim

 

[nx1977]

10gb? Who offers that???

 

[Pojken]

Sorry... I have a 5 GB plan and I'm in Sweden with 3. It's part of my plan 399 sek plan (approx 35 GBP or 40 Euros). I could have gotten a larger plan, but I knew I wouldn't use it. I like that I get a supposed 6 MBit and 5 GB allowance - it seems enough.

Tien

 

[czechplastik]

Be wary of Vodafone, they have recently announced that they will charge users who exceed the 500mb cap. The other carriers are taking more of an 'advice & warning' route at the minute, i.e you'll get a text but unless you regularly and excessively exceed you're unlikely to be billed.

If you have a wifi connection at home/work I wouldn't be too worried about it, since the 24th April I have used 64.95mb of cell data. I'm with O2 so capping isn't really an issue for me but I wouldn't be too concerned if I was capped to 500mb.

 

[EmperorKabir]

i was really worried about overusing it, but I seem to have used about 200mb out of my 1gb limit. I think the only thing that would up it a lot would be sat nav, and that's only if i used it loads.

I think 1gb is enough for anyone really, unless you are abso-freaking-loutely hardcore downloading hd movies or something non stop.

 

[Geryatrix]

From the replies it sounds as though 500Mb will be enough most months, but occasionly I could need more.

Thanks to everyone who's taken the trouble to reply.

Geryatrix.

 

[Ghâshûl]

I've used around 900MB so far (since around april 19th), but I have a 10GB limit, so I haven't restrained myself.

 

[biondi]

Hi, how do you know how much data you've used? Can you find that out in settings somewhere?

 

[OtterGod]

Hi, how do you know how much data you've used? Can you find that out in settings somewhere?

3G Watchdog application is great for this - ignores all wifi traffic and you can set it to give a warning once you've used over a certain (user-specified) percentage of your 3G allowance.

 

[Casual Pete]

Hi, how do you know how much data you've used? Can you find that out in settings somewhere?

You need an app for it,I recommend "3g watchdog" it's an excellent app.



Edit:Beaten to it

 

[Pojken]

Hi, how do you know how much data you've used? Can you find that out in settings somewhere?

Check with your provider. Mine - 3 in Sweden (Tre) - offers a login account that will allow me to see the details. I can see exactly how many SMS/MMS/Data that I used at any point.

Tim

 

[galfwender]

which is exactly what happened with my unlimited unrestricted broadband actually



You are quite correct it looks like they've changed the packages to only allow 500Mb. Talk about going backwards, how sad.

To know how much bandwidth you will use will really depend on your usage habits.

When I used a mobile dongle for 2 weeks I stopped downloading anything and only used it to browse but did use it for 6-8 hours in a day. I was using anything from 120Mb to 220Mb in a day.

However browsing mobile sites for half hour and checking your emails each day you'll most likely be fine

Yep it seems 3 have changed their plans in the past few weeks, 500mb now, but the FUP says there is an option to buy an additional 2gb, but no mention of the price anywhere.

I don't understand why they make this kind of information so hard to find.

So I think the state of play is as follows:

o2 - Unlimited (providing you don't tether or really abuse it)
T-Mob - 3gb
Virgin - 1gb
Orange - 500/750 depending on plan
3 - 500mb free, option to buy a 2gb package
Voda - 500mb

A note on Voda tho, I was with them before switching to Virgin for the Desire, and their retentions team offered to match the 1gb data, so they may well do it if you ask them, maybe point out that they give their iPhone's a 1gb limit too.

 

[OlleX]

Is there a data counter in the phone for data received over the 3g/gsm network?