Given the recent news about AT&T’s decision to shift from unlimited 3G data plans for smartphone users to a new 2GB cap, we were curious how much data you actually use on your device.
Personally, I use the iPhone each month tethered to my MacBook for a two hour train commute to and from work. Taking a peak at my stats revealed that I’ve downloaded 4.1GB of data and uploaded nearly a gig, which would put me at over 5GB in the past three weeks alone. This is a train ride mostly consisting of blogging, email, skype audio chats and RSS reading with the occasional YouTube video.
AT&T hasn’t specifically said that tethering data will impact your 2GB monthly limit but, if it does, this is not the plan for heavy mobile users on the go. AT&T users can login to AT&T’s Wireless site and select, “See Data Usage” for a closer look at their usage.
You can check on your iPhone by visiting Settings > General > Usage.
So, about how much data are you using each month (Sent + Received)?
I use about 250MB/mo, but I am not jailbroken and don’t tether. The new data limits will save me about $20/mo between myself and my wife’s phone. She uses <50MB/mo, so she can go onto the $15/mo plan.
i’ve only busted the 200mb plan once in the past 7 months. my wife barely has any, <50mb/mo. so right away, i can go from $60/both unlimited to $30/both for 200mb/mo.
Thx ATT, who says they’re evil?
Unless you’re tethering, I don’t know how anyone is using over a gig a month. In 18 months I have 538 mb sent and 3.1 gb received. I don’t exactly stream movies or anything, but would consider myself more than an average user.
Surely if you pay an additional $20 a month for tethering, it will go beyond just the 2gb.
I’m tethering via a jailbroken iPhone 3GS.
Im not 100% sure, but checking via your phone by visiting Settings > General > Usage. Tells you how much data you have used over the lifetime of your phone. UNLESS you reset your statistics. My usage floats around 300mb a month. My question is, Will I be able to teather via Bluetooth with my wifi iPad?
Jobs was reported as saying “No.”
I barely use 3GB a month on my ADSL connection. 200MB tops on the iPhone, but I am in Australia where the best provider is worse than AT&T.
I maintain a quiet blog, upload a few dozen photos a year, and buy a dozen songs a month. When commuting, I’m usually working on local files since my work is mainly coding and documentation.
I use around 500mb/month on my 3gs, but that is because I get horrible service in my home (which I work from) so I am always on wifi. I wouldn’t feel so horrible about this, other than I was planning on jailbreaking once it is out for 4.0 so I can tether to my iPad. I thought for sure this was smarter than buying a 3g iPad. Lets just hope that nothing happens to my grandfathered unlimited plan (AT&T can mess things up pretty good, I use to work for them and saw it all the time) so I don’t have to deal with this.
I barely use any data at all on my phone. Of course I don’t have an iPhone or even a smart phone (because honestly if it isn’t an iPhone whats the point?). Been waiting for the iPhone to hit a network other than AT&T in the US for way too long now.
I am so glad I did not get the 3G iPad !! :)
I use sprint mifi. Very good speed and reliable. Can’t get that from AT&T. Atleast not yet. Hopefully soon but I’ll be in line for the next version of iPad by then ;)
I’ve used internet tethering since OS 3.0 with my danish carrier, and I got unlimited data, so I’ve used internet tethering a lot, which brings my total data usage on my 1.5 year old iPhone 3G to 10.8 GB recv. and 0.8 GB sent, meaning about 600 MB per month.
btw I used to dislike my carrier, because of a bad signal now and then, but after hearing about these new AT&T prices, I really like my 25$/month unlimited data usage w/ tethering plan :) And I’ve never experienced a dropped call!
In my last 7 months I never exceeded 150MB. I don’t have the patience to watch video on my phone, but I suppose if the network were faster I might feel different.
What I don’t get is the extra charge for tethering after they are already billing by the GB anyway.