Just how much usage is 500mb per month...

Skyline On Fire

Skyline On Fire

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... On a mobile phone? I'm after my first smartphone (behind with the times I know, always enjoyed my week long battery life on dumbphones) and the majority of deals I see are 500mb per month data usage. This is barely anything on my computers, I use around 1gb a day usually. How little use am I going to see from this allowance?

The phone is the HTC Desire HD, on Vodafone,

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/buy/HTC-DESIRE-HD-TGPQT-FCON

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice etc...
 
I've got a Samsung Galaxy S, when at home it runs on the wifi (i.e. doesnt come off my allowance) when i'm at work (12 hour shifts) i'm on it a lot and i've never gone over my allowance. A lot of people forget the fact that you can run from wifi when at home. Hope this helps :)
 
i reckon you'd be hard pressed to use 500mb a month if you have wifi at home........
 
I have a Desire on an unlimited data plan but in the 9 months I have had it I've averaged 350mb a month and peaked at 493mb but that was on the first bill that covered more than a calendar month. I use the internet quite a lot every day but when I'm at home I connect to wifi which doesn't use up your allowance.

Unless you are really going to hammer the internet usage and don't have a wifi connection at home then 500mb a month should be fine. Just check what the charges are if you do use more.
 
I've never gone over my allowance, and that's with occasional tethering to a laptop. I use Opera mini as a browser as everything goes through their servers and gets compressed before being sent to you, which helps cut down the amount of data used while browsing.
 
Thanks guys,

James and Lynton, I've got WiFi at home so that wont be an issue, thanks guys :)

Rob, can I ask where/how you got unlimited data plan from? I've tried to find one but with no real luck so far, all seem to have fair usage limits etc...

Mark, thanks for the tip R.E Opera, I used to use opera on my computers, was quite a good browser, would you recommend opera mini over any other browser for android phones, for that reason then?



Also, is there a way of checking how much data you have used so far in the calendar month, on handset, and is it up to date and accurate?
 
Is fine for browsing / downloading a few aps etc I have never gone over my 500 mb but if u watch tv or anything it will hammer it. On iphone 4 the sky sports tv app uses around 4meg a minute i think to stream so a football match would take out a massive chunk!
 
Yeah I think with the exception of a few rare youtube videos I'll be staying firmly away from video services, I'd love to be able to download a LastFM or Pandora radio app and just listen to that all day, but I'm guessing that would also destroy my allowance.
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Rob, can I ask where/how you got unlimited data plan from? I've tried to find one but with no real luck so far, all seem to have fair usage limits etc...
Click to expand...
I'm on Orange but I wouldn't recommend going with them because the service is terrible.

For £30 a month I get 400 mins of calls, unlimited texts and unlimited data usage. Obviously the unlimited parts are subject to fair usage but I think you'd have the regularly be using several GB a month before then started to question you.
 
I like it better than the standard browser that came on the phone, it's much faster and has a better interface, just keep in mind that everything goes via the opera servers, so don't do your internet banking with it, just in case.
 
500mb for me barely lasts. Even though when I'm home and out I have the data turmed off and just use WiFI. I turn on cell data to just pull in a quick emails ot chat to the gf if not at home. I have to be careful as Vodafone charge an extra £5 if I go over...I'm using iPhone 4, don't know if that's using too much? Never have apps running in the backgroung though.... :thinking:
 
All unlimited plans are subject to fair use. Most people go nowhere near their limits. 500mb is a lot of data but when you break it down it's only 16Mb a day. that's a few apps, a couple of music files and some browsing......

I use mine a lot and don't think I go over 500mb although I have an unlimited plan. that unlimited is subject to fair use but unless you were downloading movies or the like using your 3G then you should not have any issues.
 
Is there any way of seeing an up to date count of how much data you've used so far in that month/how much you have remaining?
 
I've got an Orange San Francisco (Android) running on GiffGaff. My total data usage over the phone network for Feb was under 8MB. In Jan it was under 11MB. I only enable data when I need it and I download apps and sync over WiFi at home.

I use 3G Watchdog to monitor my usage.
 
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I'm on an O2 business contract. For £29.26 a month I get 700 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited O2 calls, unlimited UK landline calls, 500MB of Data and a new phone every 12 months (currently a HTC HD7).

Never got near my 500MB, I use wifi at home but data all day everywhere else including at the office.
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Is there any way of seeing an up to date count of how much data you've used so far in that month/how much you have remaining?
Click to expand...

With Android there's an App that shows that and also with T-Mobile you can track your usage online.
 
Same here.. i use Wifi whenever it is available. Im on 3 with a 1GB allowance. i frequently use my phone (HTC Desire) for navigation. I believe the Google maps application does not cache the maps so it downloads them every time you use the navigation app and i still haven't gone over 400MB.
 
On my iPhone 4 I've gone through 168 Meg in the last 11 days and I don't regard myself as a heavy data user :-).
 
I have a 3gb allowance and I've used 270mb in the last two weeks fairly heavy usage. You'll find that you use it for forum surfing, news, downloading from the Market etc, but not huge files that you might download on your pc. Avoid streaming Youtube vids too often and you'll be fine.

For browsers, go with an Opera Mobile and Dolphin HD combo. Opera doesn't yet support flash hence the need for Dolphin HD.
 
I have an iPhone and unlimited data but can tell you that I never reach anywhere near 500mb a month. When at home my phone connects to the wireless so that is used more than 3G. I use mine for facebook, tp, email, the odd video on YouTube and football info + news
 
I have 1gb of data and rarely use 200mb ish a month, that's basic browsing and emails on phone

I've switched off push settings though so I don't get notified on facebook messages for example until I go on, that used to take up a lot of data when i first got the phone

I also don't use wifi at home as I don't use enough browsing to warrant changing onto it
 
-Rob- said:
I'm on Orange but I wouldn't recommend going with them because the service is terrible.

For £30 a month I get 400 mins of calls, unlimited texts and unlimited data usage. Obviously the unlimited parts are subject to fair usage but I think you'd have the regularly be using several GB a month before then started to question you.
Click to expand...

Yea.. im on orange, and the internet service provided is crap... i've never had a speedtest over 1.5mbps... even then loading up google takes donkeys..

It's not even down to a particular phone as I have had 1 Blackberry, 2 x HTC Diamond II's, 1 x HTC HD2, and 1 x Iphone 4.

It's probably best that they provide me with crappy internet service, as it keeps me under the 750mb allowance :lol:
 
I have that, I'm always on the internet on my phone (outwith the wifi) and dont even use 100mb a month. I was very spectical about getting 500mb but i will say that its more than enough, I'm always on high usuage sites like facebook and hotmail and I dont use half of it. So its pretty good! x
 
Again, another 500mb user. I have a dodgy wifi on my iPhone so cant ever use it and even still with using apps and internet daily never come near to 500.. if you have wifi you will be fine :thumbs:
 
Based on the comments, wondering if mines faulty or something.... :thinking:

Sent from my iPhone 4 using TP Forums
 
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