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Comments on news posted 2013-12-24 11:32:14: According to new analysis by wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma, U.S. consumers used an average of 1.2 gigabytes a month over cellular networks in 2013, up from 690 megabytes a month used in 2012. ..

YDC
join:2007-11-13
Hewlett, NY

YDC

Member

I am on a diet

I eat less than one gig for the whole family. The rest offloads to my wireless connections at home and work. When I do try to use Verizon Wireless on a Samsung Galaxy no less, the speed is pitiful so anything I do usually times out. Why? Because all of this is hype. It can be fast, but the wireless companies will never have enough frequency coverage and base station coverage to make it work except under ideal conditions. In New York's suburbs where there are so many connected this is just a dream and money ploy. It can never work without all the carriers sharing the same frequencies and using wide channels, which they will never do. Bottom line.. forget about it! Merry Christmas everyone!
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: I am on a diet

Am using over 10GB/month on Sprint - no meter watching. Able to use phone to fullest and not what carrier wants to limit me to.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

Capped bandwidth, capped progress

1.2gb is expensive right now.

The carriers are printing money in the low 2010s with these insane prices. The problem is, we're forced to take them if you want a phone.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: Capped bandwidth, capped progress

said by Mike:

The problem is, we're forced to take them if you want a smartphone.

Fixed it for you.

rebus9
join:2002-03-26
Tampa Bay

1 recommendation

rebus9 to Mike

Member

to Mike
And one thing those statistics surely don't take into account is how people deny themselves content while not on wi-fi, due to the ridiculously low caps.

There are a lot of things I want to do on my phone while out and about, but the hefty overage fees above 2 GB are a constant nagging thought. So when I take some great photos or video of something special, I wait until I'm in back in a wi-fi hotspot before sending to family and friends. Ditto for other bandwidth consuming services. Once, I watched Netflix while my wife shopped, and was shocked how much of my 2 GB limit was consumed in about 30 minutes. Never made that mistake again.

Bottom Line: I stay under 2 GB/month because there is a financial penalty if I don't. It has nothing to do with how much data I need, and is NOT an accurate reflection of how I would LIKE to use my smartphone.

The carriers VERY MUCH affect HOW my phone is used, based solely on their pathetically low caps.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

Re: Capped bandwidth, capped progress

That's what I do. I used to have ATT so I learned to stay under 200mb... even though I have a gig now.

Zenit_IIfx
The system is the solution
Premium Member
join:2012-05-07
Purcellville, VA
·Comcast XFINITY

Zenit_IIfx

Premium Member

I dont know how....

I dont know how people eat up 1.2gb a month. It must be multimedia streaming.
My phone is used to check email/quickly google things/navigation. Thats it.

Data usage is normally under 500mb a month.

When Wifi is available, I use that. Even if my data is no-overage unlimited, if I go over 500mb on my T-Mobile plan it reverts to EDGE only speed (which really does not affect me much, half the time I am in a refarmed 3g/4g/LTE zone, and the other half I am in an EDGE-only area)

I know people who pretty much check facebook all day long, stream music, watch movies, etc on their LTE Wow smartphones. Its getting to the point that it looks like an addiction. They cant put down the smartphone, they are always touching it.

Thats good for the Wireless companies profit!

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

1 edit

aaronwt

Premium Member

Re: I dont know how....

said by Zenit_IIfx:

I dont know how people eat up 1.2gb a month. It must be multimedia streaming.
My phone is used to check email/quickly google things/navigation. Thats it.

Data usage is normally under 500mb a month.

When Wifi is available, I use that. Even if my data is no-overage unlimited, if I go over 500mb on my T-Mobile plan it reverts to EDGE only speed (which really does not affect me much, half the time I am in a refarmed 3g/4g/LTE zone, and the other half I am in an EDGE-only area)

I know people who pretty much check facebook all day long, stream music, watch movies, etc on their LTE Wow smartphones. Its getting to the point that it looks like an addiction. They cant put down the smartphone, they are always touching it.

Thats good for the Wireless companies profit!

All my music is in the cloud. So I use Amazon music to access my music and also the Pandora app for other music. Both of those always put me over 1GB a month. I'm on Verizon unlimited data.

I'm at 3.3GB right now with two more days left. Plus if I use Slingplayer or access my twelve IP cameras at home, that also uses data.

I rarely do anything over WiFi. When I get home my phone connects to WiFi, but i don't use it at home. I guess any updates at home would be over WiFi. But it seems like my phone does most of the updates when it's connected to the LTE network.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA to Zenit_IIfx

Premium Member

to Zenit_IIfx
It's an average. The median is probably a LOT less. Most users just don't use that much. The Unlimited users are probably skewing the whole thing, as there are data hogs out there chewing through 5-10GB/mo or more.
BiggA

BiggA to Zenit_IIfx

Premium Member

to Zenit_IIfx
I've also found that after a while, the novelty wears off. I used to use my phone a lot more. I still couldn't live without it, but I just don't use it as much, unless I'm traveling, in which case I'm on the thing all the time, and burning through data like noboby's business. But grandfathered on the AT&T 2GB plan, which is the best data plan ever offered, a few overage blocks a year isn't going to kill me.
biochemistry
Premium Member
join:2003-05-09
92361

biochemistry

Premium Member

Re: I dont know how....

I always thought my Verizon Unlimited Data Plan was the best data plan ever offered.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: I dont know how....

Definitely not. That's effectively about $50/mo, I'm paying $25/mo, actually less with discount.
DMWCincy
join:2004-04-27
Fairfield, OH

DMWCincy to Zenit_IIfx

Member

to Zenit_IIfx
I average 4 to 5 GB a month of data but its almost all streaming audio from Slacker Radio at work. Lucky for me I am on Sprint and have 4G LTE at work.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32 to Zenit_IIfx

Premium Member

to Zenit_IIfx
I've been back with Sprint for one week and a handful of days and I'm already pushing almost 2GB of data. When I had Sprint before, I'd average 7-8 GB per month, on Verizon I was paying for a 10GB plan. I used to stream Pandora or Sirius XM while working at my old job while driving around all day long. Never hit my cap, never really came close, I'd average about 8.5GB a month. Now I use a lot of data doing remote desktop connections into servers. I have four email accounts constantly checking for new email, my work voicemail automatically gets forwarded to my work email, which I check on my smartphone. Every voice mail is a 2 or 3 meg wav file that I download.

Stream some football from the NFL Sunday Ticket app when I can't be near a TV, look at the latest stupid video on YouTube, download an app update or 6, use Shazam to identify a song playing over a store loudspeaker, some web surfing, checking prices on Amazon or eBay. It all adds up pretty fast.

I'm addicted to my smartphone and use more cellular data than most. Once Sprint fully launches LTE in my market I expect my data usage to skyrocket.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Not Me!

Not even close. I am on Sprint so I use perhaps 10MB a month if that since Sprint data is still useless where I live. In fact, over the last two years I have had my iPhone 4S, I have used approximately 500MB of data total according to a monitoring app I run. Now on WiFi, it is another matter where I run around 5 to 6 GB a month easily. In fact, I push more on WiFi because I cannot use my 3G data.

In other news, expect Verizon and AT&T to lower the monthly basic data bucket from 2GB to 1GB with $10 overages per GB. That will nicely cover that .2GB as extra profit.

NoExaflood
@comcast.net

NoExaflood

Anon

No overloaded data nets because of wireless caps

There is no overloaded data nets on wireless because of caps by Verizon & AT&T prevent users from doing stupid things like streaming video all the time to their mobile devices(especially tablets with cell capabilities).

If Sprint keeps unlimited data on their LTE network and finally widely rolls LTE out, I guess we will find out if large numbers of video streamers bury Sprint' network.

Dr Demento
I Vant Blud
join:2002-01-02
Denville, NJ

Dr Demento

Member

Re: No overloaded data nets because of wireless caps

Stop making up shortages. 'Network shortages' on LTE usually occur most often in areas that see sudden rushes of people such as popular urban neighborhoods at night. Any other 'excuses' to cap usage if it is not an emergency is just humbuggery.

corey389
join:2001-06-17
Warwick, RI

corey389

Member

I do

I use about 10 G a month i stream music about 5 hours a day 6 days a week and at the gym i vpn to my home and stream movies or TV shows for about a hour 5 days a week. I get about 30 Mb down on T-Mobile lte and i have the unlimited plan.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

how is doubling every year...

...not an exaflood?
Not THE EXAFLOOD that some pundits pumped up until it popped, but an unexpected massive growth.
It go back to the classic checkerboard problem- Would you rather be given a penny doubled everyday for a month or $1,000 a day for the rest of your life?
taking the pennies yield 64 fold after just 7 days, and over 10.5 million on the 31 day.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

There is no exaflood because they can simply add more capacity by adding more cells and in metro they can augment with all the capacity they are just turning up. Verizon has been slowly adding since they already had low freq so their cell density was weak, and that caught them in the shorts.

Sprint has like over 100 Mhz and will be TD-LTE which can adapt. The question is how quickly can the get backhaul up and running.

Also VZ is JUST lighting up AWS spectrum and Sprint all that Clearwire bounty and juicy Nextel. Tmobile is busy refarming and AT&T has swaths of free spectrum. If thATT gets Lightsquared add that to the bounty. Sprint is swimming in spectrum.

Long story short, there is NO collapse coming, and when they move to advanced even more capacity.... They will slow the growth by caps...
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

said by elefante72:

There is no exaflood because they can simply add more capacity by adding more cells

It's really not as simple as just plopping down more base stations. There's a limit to how many times you can split cells, particularly with single frequency LTE deployments. Even where it's feasible there are stumbling blocks, and it costs a fair amount of money.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

said by Crookshanks:

There's a limit to how many times you can split cells, particularly with single frequency LTE deployments. Even where it's feasible there are stumbling blocks, and it costs a fair amount of money.

Well, if they didn't half-ass it in the first place, they wouldn't have to spend more to upgrade their equipment.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

Ah, the armchair wireless network engineer. Verizon thanks you for your input.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

said by Crookshanks:

Ah, the armchair wireless network engineer. Verizon thanks you for your input.

Why? It's true. Get the job done as cheaply as possible, right?
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

As cheaply as possible? They've spent tens of billions on the LTE rollout, tens of billions on EVDO before that, and billions more prior to that on the original voice networks. They continue to spend billions more as they add more capacity. Picking on Verizon in particular is amusing, since AT&T still hasn't finished their LTE roll out, Sprint is in shambles, and T-Mo offers cutting EDGE speeds of 120kbit/s at my address and doesn't service your hometown at all.

You still want to bellyache? Consider this: We now have devices that were unthinkable just five or six years ago. Go back a decade when wireless data networks were first designed, when "cutting edge" was a Blackberry doing compressed push e-mail and "web browsing" consisted of accessing mobile optimized sites that were largely text only. You seriously think you could do better than Verizon, knowing what they knew at the time, and having access to the same resources they did?

Give me a break.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

I will give them a break on that, sure. Verizon knows that LTE is the future. The only reason at&t is building an LTE network now is because their deal acquiring T-Mobile fell though and they're in a panic. Sprint and T-Mobile only bother with larger cities.

They all could have saved and waited until LTE-A went official, then go nuts and upgrade everything. Although, I think most LTE gear is firmware upgradable to LTE-A, but I could be wrong.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

1 edit

xenophon

Member

Re: how is doubling every year...

This isn't 100% accurate but indicates Sprint is rolling out LTE well beyond cities...
»sensorly.com/map/4G/US/U ··· 10sprint

I'm visiting a rural area in Florida now and get Sprint LTE. No cable so we are watching Netflix and other video daily with phone to TV. Probably going to hit 20GB just this week. No Tmobile BTW.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to SimbaSeven

Member

to SimbaSeven
Verizon is doing just fine I think. They've had a handful of LTE markets where speeds have dipped below what was advertised, but they're moving with haste to correct the problem. The contrast with AT&T of yesteryear is obvious.

Either way, saying they half-assed the LTE deployment is laughable on its face.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to Crookshanks

Premium Member

to Crookshanks
...
said by Crookshanks:

It's really not as simple as just plopping down more base stations. There's a limit to how many times you can split cells,....

Even worse, the logistics break down as the doubling continues.

adding 1 new cell per area this year is easy, and 2 next year is doable but in just a few years it's 50 or 100' and 200's...
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer to tshirt

Premium Member

to tshirt
said by tshirt:

Would you rather be given a penny doubled everyday for a month or $1,000 a day for the rest of your life?

Unfortunately, in today's corporate speak, 'a penny doubled every day for a month' is just .62
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

I use a few hundred megs....

I think that's only because my home broadband connection does the heavy lifting. I have a 32gb memory card in my phone and I preload it with music and videos (if I need them to pass the time). I rarely stream youtube videos or music.

My cap is 1gb so I could use more.. I guess I've got myself in the habit of using the phone to check email/web surf but save updates/videos/music for the real internet connection.
bartolo5
join:2001-12-03
San Carlos, CA

bartolo5

Member

10GB/month here

I'm with T-Mobile here and I'm raking in around 10GB/month here without thinking too much about it. I'm on the unlimited plan so I'm not always trying to get back to WiFi when available. I don't think I do anything out of the ordinary, but I do let my apps auto update over cellular and do plenty of music streaming, photo sharing and the like. I've noticed that being on LTE which is blink fast usage has gone up from when I was just on HSPA, but then I'm on the unlimited plan so it's fine. T-Mobile network seems to be handling the load well because it almost never slows down.
tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL

tkdslr

Member

T-mobile. I chew up 5 to 6GB monthly..

After 5GB for the month, I hit the slowmo lane. 60-120kbit/sec..

These days I really have to watchout for video's.. they really suck down the bandwidth..

Same goes for all those adverts.. (block as many as possible..)
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

too easy

If I didn't have my galaxy s4 turn off any background data, I could easily blow through 5 gigs with just standard crap running in the background.. Its sickening.. TO those of you that down play the data concerns. Understand that the smartphone is a 300 to 1000 computer.. If your not using it, your not using your sense's for the value of the tool your carrying around.. Its a smart phone, it should be usable without making a car payment to the wireless providers.. I don't need unlimited, but a more reasonable caps and manageable prices would definitely be a great start... I just want to use my device within reason without having to pay a $1000 phone bill. Its like how they used to bill us for text messages, it was crazy profit with virtually no over head on their part... The thing that pisses me off is that both att and verizon are obviously holding hands in their price fixing, while the other carriers with lesser coverage have much more feasible prices... T-mobile has the best plan imo, with unlimited phone data, and 2.5 gig hotspot.. My entire family could manage this very very very well and be more than thrilled.. But tmobile hasn't quite reached us yet... 5 minutes east yes, but not at home.. Not yet.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Simon707
@bell.ca

Simon707

Anon

Caps must go

I can't offload anything here, as the mobile broadband option is the only option other than sattelite for the home. And sat's ping are way too slow for me to even start considering it as a "broadband" option.

I can't get away with under 10gb every month. And at the price per gig, I usually fork out 100 or 120$ per month, for a 5mbps down, 1 mbps up connection.

Remove the cap, slash the price by AT LEAST 2, then were talking. It's a HOME SERVICE, not a friggin toy ( cell ). I don't mind them charging stupid prices for smartphones, but home service should be a WHOLE LOT cheaper.

nekkidtruth
YISMM
Premium Member
join:2002-05-20
London, ON
Netgear R7000
Asus RT-N66
Hitron CODA-4582

nekkidtruth

Premium Member

Not sure why...

...This should be a surprise to anyone. Times change as does technology. This would actually be significant news if it were a finite resource. I just wish carriers would adjust their plans to reflect these changes in use. Thankfully I have access to a carrier that gives unlimited data (unthrottled up to 5GB, throttled after that but still). As far as I'm concerned, there should be no plans over $40 that lack at least 1GB of data.

Anon E Muss
@myvzw.com

2 recommendations

Anon E Muss

Anon

Re: Not sure why...

spectrum and bandwidth IS a finite resource.

nekkidtruth
YISMM
Premium Member
join:2002-05-20
London, ON

nekkidtruth

Premium Member

Re: Not sure why...

Your point? The amount of data being transferred is not.
QLR
join:2009-06-23
Tallahassee, FL

QLR

Member

I normally use between 4 and 6 GB per month

I am still billing between 4 and 6 GB per month. I only have wifi at home. I can't use the wifi at work, and I'm not at one spot long enough to take advantage of free wifi. I billed 11GB last month when I went to Atlanta; no one there had internet. I am definitely using more data this year than last. I am using a Galaxy Note 2; last year, I was on a DROID RAZR MAXX... more capabilities leads to more data use, I guess.

w0g
o.O
join:2001-08-30
Springfield, OR

w0g

Member

So that's 1.2GB average..

With all the users who hardly use their service, maybe pay and not use at all because they use it like dumb phone, and users who also only use it to connect email/Facebook a little. These people are: non-users, being used to manipulate the statistics. In the past, I thought the companies were using these users to claim that everyone else was bandwidth hogs and to justify overages and caps to charge the actual users of the service more money.

I easily chew through 10GB/mo, using my phone for everything I do. I don't do much video, mostly downloading files, updating my website, uploading video a good bit .. tethering my laptop on top of that, and Nintendo 3DS, too.

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

whfsdude

Premium Member

40+ Gigs/month

Click for full size
(screenshot taken yesterday)

I easily do over 40 gigabytes a month in streaming podcasts and music. I tend to avoid WiFi due to inconsistent IPv6, My home network has it, XfinityWiFi and work do not.

My subsonic server is on v6 only which is where some of my music lives, and all of my podcasts.

Thecomedian
join:2013-12-09

Thecomedian

Member

Keep using more data!!!

I love reading articles like this, I think you should use as much cellular data as possible.

Joan Avon
@172.56.32.x

Joan Avon

Anon

Im consuming 20gigs+ a month with T-Mobile.

I have truly unlimited data that has always performed for me here in Portland Oregon at LTE speeds and never throttled or slowed artificially. To top it off they had by far the best prices, dropped the contracts and came up with their cool jump upgrade program which I love for about $95 a month.
striker325
join:2009-08-11
Pacoima, CA

striker325

Member

average 5gb

I am averaging roughly 5gb monthly for my mobile connection. I try to consume less data but i always end up using around 5gb.