Curious

[craigers]

I just switched from T-Mobile to AT&T, and I got the new iPhone 4S. I started out with a 200mb Data plan, but I was told that I should upgrade to at least the 2gb Data Plan. Im always on Wifi, at my house and at work, I was wondering what everyone else had for a data plan? Plus, If im on Wifi all the time could I get away with 200mb Data plan? I send alot of picture messages, and the guy told me if I use Wifi, its usually hit or miss. Cause I was getting Send Message failures when I tried to send a picture message on wifi, now that I upgraded to the 2gb data plan, I can send picture messaged on wifi with no problems.. weird. When I was on the 200mb data plan, I got errors all the time while trying to send picture messages over WiFi..

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

---

craigers wrote:

I just switched from T-Mobile to AT&T, and I got the new iPhone 4S. I started out with a 200mb Data plan, but I was told that I should upgrade to at least the 2gb Data Plan. Im always on Wifi, at my house and at work, I was wondering what everyone else had for a data plan? Plus, If im on Wifi all the time could I get away with 200mb Data plan? I send alot of picture messages, and the guy told me if I use Wifi, its usually hit or miss. Cause I was getting Send Message failures when I tried to send a picture message on wifi, now that I upgraded to the 2gb data plan, I can send picture messaged on wifi with no problems.. weird. When I was on the 200mb data plan, I got errors all the time while trying to send picture messages over WiFi..

---

everybodies usage is different do the apps and habits, watch your usage over the next few months, if you consistantly exceed the 200MB plan then upgrade to the 2GB, or conversdaly upgrade to teh 2GB and watch your usage, if you stay under 200MB for the month then downgrade.

If you utilize Imessage for texts and mms messages that uses data, it does not use the text plan, if you send via the text plan them mms data is included in the texting plan. Woud look for other reasons for the send errors, havent had a issue with mms over wifi, there is no correlation between data size plans and being able or not being able to send mms messages, they are two totally different access methods for data transmission

[E the P]

---

craigers wrote:

I just switched from T-Mobile to AT&T, and I got the new iPhone 4S. I started out with a 200mb Data plan, but I was told that I should upgrade to at least the 2gb Data Plan. Im always on Wifi, at my house and at work, I was wondering what everyone else had for a data plan? Plus, If im on Wifi all the time could I get away with 200mb Data plan? I send alot of picture messages, and the guy told me if I use Wifi, its usually hit or miss. Cause I was getting Send Message failures when I tried to send a picture message on wifi, now that I upgraded to the 2gb data plan, I can send picture messaged on wifi with no problems.. weird. When I was on the 200mb data plan, I got errors all the time while trying to send picture messages over WiFi..

---

I have the 200mb plan and it works fine for me.  I have wifi at home and work, which covers about 90% of the time I'm using data.  What kills most people is streaming video and online games away from a wifi spot.  I agree with the previous reply, monitor your data and upgrade if you find that you're exceeding the 200mb consistantly.

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

I *suggest* people who are new to iPhones, and metered plans, start with the 2GB plan, and stay on it for 2-3 months. That's gonna cost you $10 more a month for a few months. During that time, use your phone exactly as you plan to use it. At least a few times a month, check your data usage on the http://www.att.com/mywireless site.

If, after 2-3 months, your usage is NEVER over 200MB (or, to be safe, 175MB) then drop down to the 200MB plan.

Be sure to leave your phone plugged in every night, otherwise it will drop wifi at home about 15 minutes after it goes to sleep.

I've got three iP4s on the 2MB plans - our wifi coverage is similar to yours (constantly covered at home, work, school) and the usage for us is usually in the low 300-800MB range, sometimes well over 1GB.

Re: your issue: MMS (sending pictures via Messaging) doesn't use wifi, it uses the Cell network - that data is not charged against your data plan, it's charged against you SMS count. If you have unlimited messaging, then you have unlimited MMS. If the message is sent via iMessenger (between two iPhones running iOS5.x) then it WILL be sent using your data, over wifi if you are connected to wifi. It should not matter which plan you are on.

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

Agee with start high and drop down if you can. If you have an overage, it will wipe out any savings from being on the lower plan.

[sandblaster]

---

youngjm wrote:
Agee with start high and drop down if you can. If you have an overage, it will wipe out any savings from being on the lower plan.

---

Though I agree this is the more prudent route, there is not much risk in starting with the 200mb plan because you will get warnings when you get close to the 200mb limit and you can always change to the 2 GB plan (even in the middle of your billing cycle) and backdate it to the beginning of that billing cycle to avoid going over that 200mb and getting charged for an additional 200mb.

[browski]

As mentioned, it all depends on your personal usage.

I am on wifi at home, work and school and I still get at or just above 2GB a month because I stream music when I drive. I have all of my push notifications off (for battery life), so it would be a bit more if I was constantly getting push notifications.

It's best to monitor your usage around mid month. If it looks like you are going over, you might be able to backdate your data plan. I know with messaging and minutes, you can backdate service to your last billing date if you are over or going over that month.

[craigers]

Thanks for all the info, I also noticed on my data used it looks like its sending and receiving data late at night when Im clearly in bed. Is this normal?

[tonester]

---

craigers wrote:

Thanks for all the info, I also noticed on my data used it looks like its sending and receiving data late at night when Im clearly in bed. Is this normal?

---

It's just the way AT&T does its electronic "bookkeeping" when updatng OLAM with your data usage; it is not meant to be an accurate indicator as to exactly how much data you used at a particular point in time.

[GeekBoy]

---

craigers wrote:

Thanks for all the info, I also noticed on my data used it looks like its sending and receiving data late at night when Im clearly in bed. Is this normal?

---

That is one of the reasns why someone suggested that you connect your iPhone to the wall charger every night.  If your iPhone is on AC it shouldn't turn the wifi radio off and what you are seeing as "nighttime traffic" might dimish or even vanish.  I know that when I started using my iPhone as my alarm clock (not only plugging it in every night, but leaving it on (app running which prevents sleep) that I don't seem to have any late night data traffic any longer (not that my "1:00am" traffic was eer really that high).

I just checked my latest bil and for the Nov-Dec usage period, I only had 2 nights with usage after 11:45pm (neither of which was later than 12:15am), and one moring with data usage before 7:00am (and it was close enough to call it 7:00am).  For that month's bill I used about 800MB of data traffic, and that included travels for Thanksgiving...  I owuld say that turning off the diagnostics data, and making sure I am connected to AC power every night has done away with almost all of my data usage reported at 12:30-2:30am that used to happen almost every night...