The new iPhone 15
tberry4301's profile

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3 Messages

Thursday, December 20th, 2012 11:40 PM

new iphone 5 data usage

I just upgraded my phone from a blackberry to an i phone 5. My prior data plan was the lowest,  200mb per month and most months  on average I use around 40 mb.  I am just not a big user of my phone and since my work is home based, if I do use the web on it, it should be connecting to the wifi.    I just happened to check my usage for the new phone today, and was surprised to find that I have almost exceeded the 200mb in 4 days!  I've used it a little more since upgrading it because of the novelty, but was wondering why such a drastic increase.  Is it the phone?   if anyone had any thoughts on what is generating all this use I would appreciate i.  The itemized summary is showing that I am sending out 40,000+ kb at a time on a regular basis.  As I've said, I have not changed my data habits much, maybe a little more since its new but am baffled and worried about my bill.

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Master

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4.1K Messages

11 years ago

When I upgraded from a Blackberry to an iPhone (about 3-4 years ago), I was only using 40-60MB a month on my unlimited data plan with the Blackberry, and my iPhone usage was closed 500-700MB a month at first, and was in the 700-800MB range by the tiem I upgrded to an iPhone 4 18 months later.  At the end of the 2 years with my iPhone 4 I was using 800-1200MB a month.  In the 3 months I've had my iPhone 5, I've used about 3.6GB, or averaged about 1200MB a month.

 

The iPhone in general does use much more than a Blackberry, and once you have the device, you want to start using it, especially since you generally have to pay for the higher data plan, there's no harm in using it as long as you keep below the limits and don't incur overages.

 

One thing to consider is that the iPhone will use wifi, but if you don't have external power connected, after a short time of "non-use" the iPhone will turn off the wifi radio toi conserve power, and any data usage then will be over cellular.  Another observation made is that the iPhone 5 in particular seems to even power off the wifi if you have external power attached, unlike older iphone devices.

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ACE - Master

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10.3K Messages

11 years ago

You also need to check your settings on an iPhone.  There are a lot of settings that will automatically connect and use up data without you knowing unless you turn them off or adjust the frequency, like diagnostic data, push email, automatically checking Facebook, Twitter, etc.

 

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

What provider do you have your iPhone through (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc..) Keep in mind, browsing the web, receiving emails, imessaging to another iPhone, Siri, etc will eat up data.

Also, you are comparing Apples to Oranges. Blackberries are nowhere close to what iPhones, Android OS & Windows OS based phones are like, when it comes to using data.

Looking at our use, my son & I have used over 350mb out of a group plan of 6gb for the past month, due to web browsing, emails, downloading stuff, I really would not worry about it, unless you go over, then you need to rethink your how you are using the phone, and what may be using data (Siri, Push for email, traffic updates to maps, etc.).

Contributor

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3 Messages

11 years ago

Thank you for your reply. I will probably be using my iphone much more as well, it is very user friendly and easier to accomplish tasks. Maybe that is why my blackberry usage was low was it was more cumbersome to use. Appreciate the input

Contributor

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3 Messages

11 years ago

Thanks for your input. I have the same provider as with the blackberry. (Att). I expected as you said it had a lot to do with the phone. Time to upgrade to more data I suppose. I appreciate your help.

Teacher

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13 Messages

11 years ago

If I can’t use my service due to the slow rate you are providing to my UNLIMITED DATA PLAN then your throttling is INTERFERING WITH USE OF MY SERVICE that I am paying for monthly. This action unresolved by ATT is going to cost you money such as it is now costing me money because my time is not free.

 

[Legal discussions are not permitted per the Guidelines]

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1 Message

11 years ago


@tberry4301 wrote:

I just upgraded my phone from a blackberry to an i phone 5. My prior data plan was the lowest,  200mb per month and most months  on average I use around 40 mb.  I am just not a big user of my phone and since my work is home based, if I do use the web on it, it should be connecting to the wifi.    I just happened to check my usage for the new phone today, and was surprised to find that I have almost exceeded the 200mb in 4 days!  I've used it a little more since upgrading it because of the novelty, but was wondering why such a drastic increase.  Is it the phone?   if anyone had any thoughts on what is generating all this use I would appreciate i.  The itemized summary is showing that I am sending out 40,000+ kb at a time on a regular basis.  As I've said, I have not changed my data habits much, maybe a little more since its new but am baffled and worried about my bill.


This post says your problem was solved.  Really??  I have been battling excessive data usage with iPhone ever since ios6 updated last October 2012...it is a nightmare how much the iphone uses in data.  All of it is a mysterious "Internet Media.Net Sent" that no one can explain.  Doing all the same things as before Oct 2012 but huge MB of data are sent from the phone at all times of the night and day, even when phone "should" be on wifi.  

 

We have 6GB shared plan for 3 iphones.  Only one uses excessive amounts.  No more iphones for this family when we can switch.  So done with iphone despite all its coolness.

Master

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4.1K Messages

11 years ago

You may have answered your own question...  You say that the iPhoen "should be on wifi",  which seems to indicate that it isn't or it wouldn't be using so much cellular data.  I know when I first got my iPhone 5, I had issues where it was turnign wofo off, even when connected to external power.  I reported that problem to Apple, and I think it was resolved in one of the 6.1x releases for my iPhone, as it doesn't appear to be droppig the wifi when connected to AC power any longer.  I know that some other people have reported that their iPhone will still turn off wifi even if connected to AC power, which isn't what Apple says should be happening, so it is possible that whatever issue is causing this for them is also causing it for you.

 

Try contacting Apple and see if they have suggestions for resolving this.

Expert

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12.2K Messages

11 years ago


@GeekBoy wrote:

You may have answered your own question...  You say that the iPhoen "should be on wifi",  which seems to indicate that it isn't or it wouldn't be using so much cellular data.  I know when I first got my iPhone 5, I had issues where it was turnign wofo off, even when connected to external power.  I reported that problem to Apple, and I think it was resolved in one of the 6.1x releases for my iPhone, as it doesn't appear to be droppig the wifi when connected to AC power any longer.  I know that some other people have reported that their iPhone will still turn off wifi even if connected to AC power, which isn't what Apple says should be happening, so it is possible that whatever issue is causing this for them is also causing it for you.

 

Try contacting Apple and see if they have suggestions for resolving this.


still drops wifi when charging and going into hibernation. If oyu have a decent wi-fi router that has some diagnostics to show active connections you can verify this yourself. In addtion when the phone comes out of hibernation and you watch the symbols you will see it takes about a second for the wi-fi indicator to pop up, which also indicates the radio is off

Master

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4.1K Messages

11 years ago


@wingrider01 wrote:
still drops wifi when charging and going into hibernation. If oyu have a decent wi-fi router that has some diagnostics to show active connections you can verify this yourself. In addtion when the phone comes out of hibernation and you watch the symbols you will see it takes about a second for the wi-fi indicator to pop up, which also indicates the radio is off

This is not Apple's design or intention, so you should go to Apple and submit a bug report.  This does not happen for all iPhones, so it could be a hardware issue, or a specific software combination of things which causes it.  In any case, it is not the designed operating mode so it should be reported to Apple so that it can be repaired (software or hardware).

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