Sending MMS texts (pictures/videos) on iPhone will eat into your data usage

[aztracker]

I could not for the life of me understand why my data usage is so high every month. So after resetting my cellular data usage on the iPhone on the date of my new billing cycle, I began to compare it to what ATT is reporting. The difference I found is astounding.

As of today, my iphone reports that I have used  359.8MB of data. ATT is reporting that I've used 1.2GB. It seems rediculous until I realized that ATT's meter reported higher usage shortly after a day of sending pictures and videos via MMS. That's right, MMS, with iMessage disabled, as I know iMessage will send in straight data, caused a huge spike in my usage by ATT, but not by my iphone. If I was a betting man, ATT does not differentiate between pictures and video (data) sent via MMS form from regular data. This bothers me to no end as I am paying ATT for unlimited SMS and MMS already and it should be excluded.

[wingrider01]

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@aztracker wrote:

I could not for the life of me understand why my data usage is so high every month. So after resetting my cellular data usage on the iPhone on the date of my new billing cycle, I began to compare it to what ATT is reporting. The difference I found is astounding.

As of today, my iphone reports that I have used  359.8MB of data. ATT is reporting that I've used 1.2GB. It seems rediculous until I realized that ATT's meter reported higher usage shortly after a day of sending pictures and videos via MMS. That's right, MMS, with iMessage disabled, as I know iMessage will send in straight data, caused a huge spike in my usage by ATT, but not by my iphone. If I was a betting man, ATT does not differentiate between pictures and video (data) sent via MMS form from regular data. This bothers me to no end as I am paying ATT for unlimited SMS and MMS already and it should be excluded.

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they do kow the difference, have a qmd device with no data on it and unlimited texting, no issue with getting charged for data when MMs messages are sent.

[anton697]

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@aztracker wrote:

I could not for the life of me understand why my data usage is so high every month. So after resetting my cellular data usage on the iPhone on the date of my new billing cycle, I began to compare it to what ATT is reporting. The difference I found is astounding.

As of today, my iphone reports that I have used  359.8MB of data. ATT is reporting that I've used 1.2GB. It seems rediculous until I realized that ATT's meter reported higher usage shortly after a day of sending pictures and videos via MMS. That's right, MMS, with iMessage disabled, as I know iMessage will send in straight data, caused a huge spike in my usage by ATT, but not by my iphone. If I was a betting man, ATT does not differentiate between pictures and video (data) sent via MMS form from regular data. This bothers me to no end as I am paying ATT for unlimited SMS and MMS already and it should be excluded.

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Waiting to see what the AT&T and/or Apple iOS/iPhone pundits have to say about the discrepancy in those numbers, regardless of whether or not anyone else believes the OP's theory as to what may have caused the increased data consumption as being reported by AT&T.

[dwill05]

Not sure what you are expecting "pundits" to say about it. No one here as any idea what might have happened. That needs to be taken up with AT&T and Apple. All i can say is that I've had an iPhone since day one of the original iPhone I started tracking my usage since they dropped the unlimited plans, even though I was still on unlimited at the time. My usage has been pretty consistent and predictable and I haven't seen any large unexpected data charges and the iPhone data counter and AT&T have been pretty close over time (taking into account that the AT&T data report may be a couple of days delayed)

[KatMFDog]

Just dial *DATA#(*3282#)/*DATO#(*3286#) (Spanish) to check your data/text package usage. AT&T does not differentiate between pictures and video (data) sent via MMS form from regular data. MMS are free messages that travel over the Internet, but have no fee! Your device is tracking the data used per direct access to the page, & does not tally your device refreshing updates such as mail, webpage, Facebook! Most webpages are designed to refresh to assure optimal viewing! Be sure to exit out the page and watch your bill deplete!

[KatMFDog]

MMS are free messages that travel over the Internet, but have no fee! No fee being to access the actual Internet!