topic Re: Data Usage Calculation in Get Support

Data Usage Calculation

neo911 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 20:05:06 GMT

Hi,

I have been tracking my call and data usage through the 'self serve' account page.

The calls and text usage is pretty accurate and is updated almost instantaneously.

But I quite could not understand the data usage calculations.

Is the data usage calculated only on a daily basis (combined for the entire day) ? and then the total data usage is displayed or does it get displayed as and when you use it ?

Re: Data Usage Calculation

NDesai — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:38:07 GMT

Not sure about the usage history, but the main data count on the overview page instantly updates for me.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

kevindo27 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:50:32 GMT

I usually get data updates daily, don't know the exact time though.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Pier — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 04:07:14 GMT

Hello!

You can track your data on your self serve service page as well. It does not count a daily use, but minus what you use from what you have. If you use 200 megabytes everyday, you will see your quantity of data is going down gradually.

Just enjoy your service with no fear

Re: Data Usage Calculation

neo911 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 22:26:22 GMT

hi @kevindo27, by updates you mean usage updates on the 'my account' page ? or do you get an email/text message with data usage updates ?

was curious if such an option is available for daily tracking of data usage.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

ute1978 — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 03:37:41 GMT

@neo911 wrote:
hi @kevindo27, by updates you mean usage updates on the 'my account' page ? or do you get an email/text message with data usage updates ?

was curious if such an option is available for daily tracking of data usage.

Go to the "Plan and Add-ons" tab.

Go to the "Usage History" tab on the very right.

There you can see the exact data usage for every day for the last 90 days.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

neo911 — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:29:19 GMT

thanks @ute1978

Re: Data Usage Calculation

ute1978 — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 16:40:16 GMT

@neo911 wrote:
thanks @ute1978

No worries. I am glad I could help.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

terence — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:49:21 GMT

Is it just me, or has the total data usage tracking disappeared?

I'm positive I used to be able to see exactly how much data is left for my 90 day period (I'm on the previously offered 1GB/90 days package, so pretty much use all my data within this period), but this seems to have disappeared.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Re: Data Usage Calculation

kevindo27 — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 19:14:27 GMT

Yeah, so I go on the my account page. I would also like to clarify that the updates for the data usage are instantly calculated, as I just tried using data, it updated on the My Account page.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Kayfun101 — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 18:27:54 GMT

Well with my old provider I was on 1 gig and. Would go over a lot so this service gives me 3 gig a lot more with no fear on a 90 day plan plus I turn data off wean at home wifi is the best for it keeps costs down

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Kayfun101 — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 18:28:59 GMT

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Alexo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:19:39 GMT

In my opinion the data calcilation is highly suspect.

I switched to a plan with data on August 30th around 1pm or so.

I have no reception in the office, so for the most of the day my phone was in airplane mode.

The phone reports a total of 734KB data usage for the 30th of August (half of the day, midnight to noon, I was under a grandfatherd plan with a data booster pack, so at leasst some of the usage was done before the new plan's data took effect.

PM claims that the usage was 5.536MB, over seven times the amount reported by the phone.

The history usage shows no data usage during that period.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

neo911 — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 14:05:11 GMT

Hi @Alexo

Well, yes sometimes you do feel that the data consumed is more than you actually used but many times the phone uses some data to register to the network or update some system settings.

If you use an iphone you can go to cellular and disable cellular data for the non-essential app and even switch off 'refresh background data' to avoid additional data being used.

5 mb is still not a lot of data.

Keep a track for over a week.

PM compiles the data usage over 24 hour and posts it around noon time. And in the main tab you can see data usage instantaneous.

Hoping this helps.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

ellenyw — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 14:37:33 GMT

I think PM also rounds up to the nearest 10kb, but that should not have such a big impact. I also had this problem where my phone would use ~5mb of data and I would get charged with my previous provider but I spoke with them and they said it's just due to startup and background processes sometimes.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Alexo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:01:57 GMT

@neo911 wrote:
Well, yes sometimes you do feel that the data consumed is more than you actually used but many times the phone uses some data to register to the network or update some system settings.

If you use an iphone you can go to cellular and disable cellular data for the non-essential app and even switch off 'refresh background data' to avoid additional data being used.

With all due respect, this has nothing to do what I feel and everything to do with what my phone measures, as Android reports background data usage as well as foreground. It even breaks it down to foreground and background per application.

@neo911 wrote:
5 mb is still not a lot of data.

The problem is with the amount of data but with the fact that it is unexplained. And if you are looking at the ratio between the phone's reported usage and PM's reported usage it becomes more alarming. If I am going to be dinged 7MB for each MB I actually use, it is going to be painful.

Note that I do not claim that this is actually the case, just that it is one possible scenario arising from the numbers. An explanation of the discrepancy will go a long way.

@neo911 wrote:
Keep a track for over a week.

PM compiles the data usage over 24 hour and posts it around noon time. And in the main tab you can see data usage instantaneous.

This is exactly what I am doing.

As of this time:

My "data used" is now reported as 5.646MB (up from 5.536MB)

Android reports 837KB (up from 734KB)

Usage history is:

Date/Time	Call Type	Data Usage	Usage Type	Charge
30/08/2016 10:28	Web	0 MB	MB	$0.00
30/08/2016 10:28	Web	0 MB	MB	$0.00
29/08/2016 12:11	Web	0 MB	MB	$0.00
29/08/2016 12:11	Web	0 MB	MB	$0.00

My plan commenced *after* the reported time of 08-30-2016 10:38, because on ‎ 01:02PM I was still on my old plan and any data would have been deducted from my addon. Therefore, there is no record of data usage since the start of the plan.

The measured data difference was 103KB

The reported data usage difference was 0.11MB (112KB), about 10% higher but can be explained by various rounding and overhead.

The other 5MB is still unexplained.

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Alexo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:08:42 GMT

Something strange is going on.

The add on usage now reports 5.648MB, which is a little higher than the previous value.

But since I have no reception in my office, I put the phone in Airplane mode.

Question: how is this possible?

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Kayfun101 — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:47:34 GMT

Ha if you got more then 3 gigabytes of data you should be ok yea it is wired but really don't worry about it every company has growing pains ok for you have apps running in the back ground those apps send and reserve ragulerly so in theory it's normal

Re: Data Usage Calculation

srlawren — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 17:27:56 GMT

@Alexo this has been discussed frequently. Please see the explanation on these related threads:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Data-usage-experiences/m-p/65048/highlight/true#M8156

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Self-Serve/Data-Usage/m-p/65898/highlight/true#M5215

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/data-usage-amount/m-p/61492/highlight/true#M7768

Hopefully that helps. 🙂

Re: Data Usage Calculation

Alexo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 22:28:23 GMT

And now the usage is shown as 0.356MB -- as if the counter was rolled back.

What the tartarus is going on? Is it completely random?