topic Data Use Discrepancy in Get Support

Data Use Discrepancy

DMcAP — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 06:52:04 GMT

Using public mobile to replace a dial-up internet account so I am very aware of data use. I cannot account for some very high usage in my account (340 mb and 510 mb). My iPad does not show any such usage in its history. Does public mobile really get the data use correct and how do we check or correct discrepancies?

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

ShawnC13 — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:16:36 GMT

@DMcAP wrote:
Using public mobile to replace a dial-up internet account so I am very aware of data use. I cannot account for some very high usage in my account (340 mb and 510 mb). My iPad does not show any such usage in its history. Does public mobile really get the data use correct and how do we check or correct discrepancies?

I use a data tracker app and it is pretty close. Not sure what they are on iOS is it data manager. Although I have a large data bucket I may have some discrepencies that I don't even worry about them. I just check my data usage to see if I am close to my limit

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

stonechucker — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:19:48 GMT

@DMcAP, not sure if you've taken into account, data amounts are posted twice daily, and listed without designating AM/PM.

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

Theknight — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:24:26 GMT

I have been switching between many providers and I have never seen any significant discrepancy in terms of data usage

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

ShawnC13 — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:30:40 GMT

@stonechucker wrote:
@DMcAP, not sure if you've taken into account, data amounts are posted twice daily, and listed without designating AM/PM.

That is a great point but I beleive in this case the PM usage is showing higher than what they beleive their actual use is. I need to remember the posting only twice a day tahnks for the reminder

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

stonechucker — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 18:50:06 GMT

With it being an iOS device, my thoughts lead directly to the WiFi Assist option being enabled, but if you've been doing this for a while, I'm sure it's already disabled. I don't have a cellular iOS device, so I wouldn't know what to look for other than that.

On my Android, I find very little difference between my installed data monitor, and the PM reported values. It's within 100mb / 90-day cycle. I've been here for 2+ years now, and haven't had a reason to question the data meter.

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

will13am — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 19:23:06 GMT

This topic comes up from time to time. The data meter is properly calibrated and legal tender. Evidence has never been brought up which refutes the meter accuracy.

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

srlawren — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 20:26:15 GMT

@DMcAP wrote:
Using public mobile to replace a dial-up internet account so I am very aware of data use. I cannot account for some very high usage in my account (340 mb and 510 mb). My iPad does not show any such usage in its history. Does public mobile really get the data use correct and how do we check or correct discrepancies?

@DMcAP are you looking in your usage history page? If so, are you seeing those 340 and 510mb figures with a time stamp on or near 12:00? Please note that the usage history page is not real-time. Your usage is reported approx every 12 hours (around midnight and noon, eastern times) and shows the total used since the last update (so over the previous 12 hours). So what you're seeing is you used 340 or 510mb over the course of the 12 hours leading up to that update.

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

DMcAP — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:15:39 GMT

Thanks for all the comments. I am keeping a close watch on the data use as given the high amounts I won’t last the 30 days! Now have a VPN data monitor installed on the iPad to see what that is doing (as opposed to the history on the device) but the hotspot from my old Samsung mobile cannot be monitored as it is a bit too old! Maybe it is eating some data but I don’t think so.

Yes, happy that the usage is not real time on the public mobile site.

Re: Data Use Discrepancy

DMcAP — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 17:51:38 GMT

The latest on the monitoring. The VPN monitor is often over and sometimes under the recorded usage shown on public mobile. I have found that some ordinary web sites have a heavy data load, especially if you get signed out of accounts like outlook. For Kijiji users, that is a data heavy site. The way ahead is to just monitor regularly and avoid sites that are not efficient.

I am one month in on public mobile. The VPN monitor will be in place for a complete month once my account rolls over to its second.

Thanks for all the comments.