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neo911 · ‎08-20-2016

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 ?

dboxtvinfo · ‎10-23-2016

Is the data legit? Too disagree.

Buy what is the whining about?
Who wants too leave pm?

dboxtvinfo · ‎10-23-2016

Agree

stonechucker · ‎10-23-2016

Well, I honestly don't know how PM calculates the data I use, and I can't be bothered to do it myself.

Does anyone know what PM does? Is anything zero rated? Maybe I should know how things are calculated. I've had my curiosity piqued now.

Alexo · ‎10-23-2016

It does sound rude, and quite unbecoming of a "model citizen".

The purpose of this community is to provide constructive support, not snooty "if you don't like it, get out" comments.

If the phone does not correctly report the data usage, alternative apps can be suggested (like the My Data Manager mentioned above), but if PM is miscalculating the data usage, they should be called out on it.

ute1978 · ‎10-23-2016

@bradgao

Hmmm, I am sorry to say this, and I don't mean to sound rude, but if you don't like the way PM operates I think you are better off with one of the "couple of different couriers" out there.

I personally use My Data Manager for tracking my data on the phone and in the whole 90 days, the data is off by 9MB. I repeat 9MB in 90 days. I can live with that...

bradgao · ‎10-22-2016

In my particular case, I've never allowed wifi assist for one minute ever since the beginning of iOS 9 and I never used iTunes on my iPhone nor listening to any music from it. For the iCloud you are talking about, there is an isolated list at the bottom of cellular usage page called System Services which includes everything iCloud with Siri, email, Find my iPhone etc. This usage is absolutely included in the total celluar usage which I found by comparing my friend's iPhone usage on the same version iOS 9.3.5 with the website stats at a different carrier. I have used the same fair method from the beggining of billing period and the other carrier did not surprise me with 20% extra calculated data. Adding that my data is always off when I leave my phone charging over night. My point is, how could it always been exactly 20% more after I've monitored my usage for a month? There is definitely a flaw in your way of data calculations. I've seen no other carriers calculated data this way. Period.

Ionut · ‎10-22-2016

@bradgao Actually the iphone storie it's something else. They are like couple of things which drain your data without notice and this thing doesn't count into your Data usage. Something like Wi-fi Assistant which improve your strenght signal in exchange of trading Data. It won't show. Also i cloud, listening music on HQ into the itune and so one will affect your data:P

bradgao · ‎10-22-2016

I have always been using different iPhones in the past, but whenever I go to PM self serve site now, I discover that my data usage is more than my iPhone's stats from my day one's manual reset. My data stats on iPhone shows approximately 80% of what's been calculated by PM, all the time. So if you have 2GB, think again, it's actually 1.6GB to use. I have used a couple of different couriers worldwide, this is first time. (I checked the differences after my data has been completely switched off for at least a day).

neo911 · ‎09-02-2016

@Alexo

Hmm. Well, that is weird. The connection should not really consume any data when the cellular data is turned off.

Maybe some other member from the forum can explain, someone who is conversant with mobile tech.

You should also await reply from the admin/moderator.

But yes good detailed observation from your side !

Alexo · ‎09-02-2016

And the Saga continues...

The data usage keeps inching up, now at 0.365MB

Yes, the increase is miniscule, but it should not be happening at all, since I have cellular data turned off!

The usage history has an additional entry:

Date/Time	Call Type	Data Usage	Usage Type	Charge
01/09/2016 2:57	Web	0 MB	MB	$0.00

Again, less than 1MB but the phone could not have accessed the web at all, given that cellular data is turned off since August 30th.

So far I have witnessed:

~5MB of data usage erroneously reported.
Data usage report adjusted down by ~5MB.
Data usage increase reported when the phone's cellular data is turned off.

I would like an explanation, since it seems that Public Mobile's data tracking cannot be trusted.

Maybe @Shazia_K can comment?

Regretably, I have to end the experiment soon since I want to use the data that I am paying for.

neo911 · ‎08-31-2016

@Alexo

the 1 pm data usage is not at that particular time but as i said earlier PM posts the data usage for the entire 24 hrs usually at noon-1pm.

Are you using any third party app to monitor data usage ?

and finally yes, your observations are interesting indeed. It would be great if you could track it over a couple of days more and then collate the data.

Alexo · ‎08-31-2016

@dboxtvinfo wrote:
Always make sure you dont have automatic uploads or updates and monitor your wifi. There ahould be no sorcery involved with bandwith, what you uses is what is counted.

1) My cellular data is currently turned off completely, for the purpose of testing this. I said it clearly in a previous post in this thread. It's there to see. Therefore no upload/download should be taking place on cellular data.

2) Wifi does not use cellular data by definition.

3) How do you explain the reported usage being 5.646MB at around 1pm today, then going down to 0.356MB at around 6pm?

Incidentally, Koodo seems to have similar inaccuracies (and their self-serve portal looks like a carbon copy of PM's so I think they are using the same system).

Kayfun101 · ‎08-31-2016

Well then turn off data for a day and monitor it best way to get a accurate reading

Alexo · ‎08-31-2016

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?

srlawren · ‎08-31-2016

@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/highlig...

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/tr...

Hopefully that helps. 🙂

>>> ALERT: I am not a moderator. For account or activation assistance, please click here.

Kayfun101 · ‎08-31-2016

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

Alexo · ‎08-31-2016

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?

Alexo · ‎08-31-2016

@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.

ellenyw · ‎08-31-2016

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.

neo911 · ‎08-31-2016

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.

Alexo · ‎08-31-2016

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.

Kayfun101 · ‎08-28-2016

Kayfun101 · ‎08-28-2016

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

kevindo27 · ‎08-27-2016

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.

terence · ‎08-22-2016

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?

ute1978 · ‎08-22-2016

@neo911 wrote:
thanks @ute1978

No worries. I am glad I could help.

neo911 · ‎08-22-2016

thanks @ute1978

ute1978 · ‎08-21-2016

@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.

Log in into your account.

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.

neo911 · ‎08-21-2016

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.

Pier · ‎08-21-2016

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

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