Contributor
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1 Message
Being charged data when on wifi
I've chatted with 3 different reps regarding being charged data when on wifi. I have copies of my live chats and trouble ticket numbers and a promise to contact and resolve with 1-2 business days and nothing! I've had about all I can handle of ATT and their customer service! It's all Lies to appease you for a few days and then you have to start all over again to try and get the issue resolved! Ridiculous!
GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
9 years ago
There is a good chance that there is nothing for AT&T to "fix". Many (if not all) current smartphone makers configure their phones to turn off the wifi radio if the screen goes into sleep mode and the phone is not connected to external power. They do this because the wifi radio uses a lot of battery and they want to be able to report that "you now get X more hours of battery life" and they do this by turning off the wifi radio. Also some of the phone makers will use the fastest data connection available, so if you have slow wifi and fast LTE, it will use yoru LTE connection. Lastly, the latest Apple iOS now has a setting that they turned on by default to use "wifi assist" where the phone will use your cellular data if it is having problems with yoru wifi connection. None of these issues are caused by AT&T, but they all cause many users to suddenly use more cellular data.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.2K Messages
9 years ago
If you are looking at when data is being charged to your account, you need to understand how data is reported back.
Data reporting is not done in real time. The actual data use could have been hours, or days earlier. Towers often report data back in 3 hour intervals during non peak hours.
Towers note when a connection to a particular IMEI/ESN (which is unique to your phone and SIM card) opens, pass to a new tower and closes. Once it closes, it sends data totals back.
The connection closes when you leave a tower's area, connect to wifi, turn an app off, turn off your phone. Think of each tower like a faucet with a measuring cup with your phones IMEI number on it. It notes when you connect, when you pass on to another tower and disconnect because you are connected to wifi, turned apps off, or turned the phone off. It is then that each tower can measure and starts sending back totals. This is of course when you are home, on wifi, phone off and asleep.
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kdfederer
ACE - Expert
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13.1K Messages
9 years ago
And it will depend on the phone. Apple has added a wifi assist in IOS 9 that will allow your phone to access cellular data while on wifi if the phone determines that the wifi signal is insufficient.
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Barneybeach
Contributor
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1 Message
7 years ago
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.2K Messages
7 years ago
@Barneybeach Did you read the previous posts?
Data is not reported in real time. There is a delay of 3-72 hours. Your phone is an independant meter of your data use. If your phone says it used data, then it did. Track your data for the entire month.
But the way, 15.685 what? Kbs? MBs? 15 MBs of data or .01 gig. At that rate, you will use less than 1/2 a gig a month.
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