Teacher
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23 Messages
iphone 2am unauthorized data usage
Beginning on June 16, my original iphone began transmitting 2+MB of data "internet/MEdia Net" at 2 am every morning. Prior to this, my records show a daily data transmission at that time in the range of 8-50KB.
I changed to the 200MB plan when I upgraded to iphone 4 on June 24 and have begun monitoring data - that is how i discovered this escalation in data use. Both existing and new iphones are always on wi-fi at 2am. On 6/25, this 2am data usage jumped to 5MB, so I have switched off cell data altogether.
What is going on? At this rate, my iphone will use all 200MB of data in a month with these 2 am data uploads. I saw complaints about this on the Apple forum with no solution provided by ATT.
For 2 1/2 years, with my original iphone, I used an average of 30-50MB of data per month, so I was quite comfortable signing up for the 200MB plan.
Is ATT going to fix this problem?
Signe
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.7K Messages
14 years ago
Also, when ATT does implement 4g, it will be based on a technology called LTE. This is the same technology Verizon is implementing on their 4g network. Sprint's 4g network is based on something called EVO and many in the tech community would say it is not true 4g. You might want to do a little research on download speeds from Sprint's 4g network. You may be surprised. Bottom line, 4g to an ATT CSR means LTE so the CSR would be correct that no service provider yet offers an LTE based 4g network.
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wingrider01
Expert
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12.2K Messages
14 years ago
200-300KB average
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click_clack
Guru
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748 Messages
14 years ago
Sprint's 4g is wifi currently. I also read today somwhere that Sprint was looking at going to LTE also, moving away from wifi 4g. And you are correct that no one currently has LTE available for retail service in the US yet....
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sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.7K Messages
14 years ago
OK, EVO is actually the name of Sprint's 4g phone made by HTC. The technology behind Sprint's 4g network is not wifi, it is WiMax which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. Apparently it is very close to wifi technology as it is based on a 802.16e wireless standard.
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lizbethk
Tutor
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10 Messages
14 years ago
Just activated my iPhone 4 on Friday 8/20/2010. The phone was delivered to my house, so it's never been away from my wifi. So in theory it should ONLY be using my wifi and NOT any celluar data. So why would my phone even be eating into my data plan? So why I am also having this (almost) 2am usage?
1921KB
Looking at the Usage > Cellular Network Data > Recieved as shown on my phone - the number is close to what was reported in my account BUT I still want to know WHY it's cellular data?
How do I assure that I'm only using my wifi when the phone is here at home? I have gone ahead and set my Cellular Data to OFF. Will have to see how that effects it. Are there any other settings I should turn off?
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johninsj
Professor
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3.1K Messages
14 years ago
Turning off cell data will assure that the only data that's used is wifi data. You will not be able to send/receive mms messages either.
When you activated, did you accept Apple's offer to send diagnostic data? If so, that can be the source of unexpected data. Otherwise, even with wifi on (mine is always on as well, and I am generally under wifi coverage except when commuting) your device may choose cell data over wifi if it is sleeping, and wakes to check email or otherwise perform some background network (push) transaction. You can see this yourself - suspend the device with an active wifi connection. Leave it alone for an hour or so. Wake it up, and note that it's now showing 3G - and after a bit flips back over to wifi (assuming you've NOT turned off cellular data, of course!)
For me, this amounts to a trickle of data in a week - perhaps 5MB total - with email checking hourly on two imap and one exchange account.
Regarding the "2am usage" there are a million posts about how the accounting system batches up transactions over the day and reports them in the middle of the night, as well as the unexpected by some users fact that allowing your iPhone to send diagnostic data to apple means you will actually use data sending diagnoistic data to apple. Here's how to undo that setting if you set it
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/07/27/speed-up-itunes-sync-of-your-iphone-or-touch-by-only-selectively-sending-diagnostic-data-to-apple/
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lizbethk
Tutor
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10 Messages
14 years ago
Is there any way to assure that the phone only uses wifi when wif is available, even when sleeping? I'm thinking if my iPod Touch can do stuff when it's asleep using wifi, why can't my iPhone 4?
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signem
Teacher
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23 Messages
14 years ago
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johninsj
Professor
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3.1K Messages
14 years ago
Yes. Turn off cellular data. That will force it to use wifi. Your iPod Touch doesn't have 3G, so it doesn't have a choice. Like I said, it should just be a trickle of data, if at all, unless you have a lot of notifications enabled (facebook, IM, etc) and even then it shouldn't be hundreds of MB.
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galvins8888
Contributor
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1 Message
14 years ago
I thought about this for a while and it seems some inside information is needed. The average AT&T support person doesn't know how billing works and Apple doesn't have a clue what's going on in the mobile switching network.
I'm pretty sure you are looking at a single line item that usually includes your whole day's worth of data service.
I worked at AT&T, and wireline and wireless bills are tallied at the end of the day. The system collects billing records from many different switching areas of the network and tallies it in one line item.
During the day when you first establish an IP connection the network determines whether you are a data enabled device, it keeps your same IP address open, even though you may move into another cellular center's routing towers (e.g. in the SF Bay area there are at least two, one in San Jose, the other in San Francisco.), that way you are not constantly getting new sessions with Google, MobileMe, et cetera.
Telephone calls and data sessions all have a midnight or 1AM cut off time for billing (i.e. you will never see a call billing record go longer than 24 hours, even if you talk for three days.) Around an hour or two later all the remote data centers have reported your data usage to your home billing office (register), from there it gets itemized on your bill around 2AM.
Further explanations:
- You see some smaller data records during the day, e.g. 45kb or 341kb. That's when you turned off your phone completely, reinitialized it, got off a plane in a new city, anything to cause the iPhone to close the previous session and start a new IP session (the old session also times out eventually or gets closed when a new one starts.)
- Also, sometimes remote AT&T data centers batch their billing records and send them a day or two later (creating another billing record.) If you are away from your home data register for a few days, you might not have any tally that night. (Often/mainly if you are in a different area code than your phone number.)
- Data users on other phones have the same 2AM records if they keep the session open all day. NB: a Blackberry may close every IP data session intentionally - RIM thinks it adds more security to Exchange Mail than keeping the session open. Also, if your kid's picture phone goes into browser mode or transmits a picture, there is also a short data session that ends and gets a data record during the day.
- Look at your usage: watch some YouTube, navigate with Google Maps during the day, then look for the total of the data usage in the data detail of your iPhone on the AT&T Wireless site. It shows up at night.
- If you think any "data" is leaking out of your iPhone at night (remember "Only the Paranoid Survive"), power down. The data usage from the previous day will still be posted at 2AM, it doesn't need your phone on. [The WiFi or 3G questions in this discussion were a red herring.]
Frankly, its a pretty tricky business counting packets from a wireless device than can travel through several cities and hundreds of cell towers a day.
Cheers,
J
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