Data usage and tracking is horrible

[Greg_R844]

I've been a customer for over a year now.. I just switched my plan down to the $15 plan because I generally don't use more than 200 mb of data and most of my calls are incoming. My question is, this plan switched over today and I see on my account overview page that I've already used 5.311 mb of data and using the plan and add-ons/usage history there is nothing to support that number. I've been on wifi in my house, sent two text messages to my son (which are showing up as 1 + 3) so where did this usage come from?

Why is your usage history so bad, impossible to account for and is this ever going to be improved? I'd like to recommend Public Mobile to people but I'd be embarrassed to explain that you really don't have much of a way to track and/or filter things to get answers about usage.

[Greg_R844]

I'm good all.. I've done testing based on mimmos links. Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@mimmo wrote:

@Greg_R844   i'm pretty sure its a onetime 5 mg,  that appears then dissapears,  it doest accumulate else over 30 days it would be 150mb and people would have noticed.

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That was my testing. My phone just checks email accounts. I pre-check them before this test.

Data off and then flip in and out airplane mode.

Open overview page.

Take note of counter number.

Turn on data.

Refresh overview page.

Take note of counter number.

Turn off data.

Refresh overview page.

Take note of counter number.

Turn on airplane mode (rather than a time consuming shutdown).

Refresh overview page.

Take note of counter number.

Turn off airplane mode.

Refresh overview page.

Take note of counter number.

In my case, the number settled to about 0.080MB or something like that just for checking email.

[mimmo]

@Greg_R844   i'm pretty sure its a onetime 5 mg,  that appears then dissapears,  it doest accumulate else over 30 days it would be 150mb and people would have noticed.

[Greg_R844]

Thanks mimmo,

It's kinda of a "that's the way it is" answer and after spending 30 yrs in IT, programming, more than once, data comm programs between systems I have a hard time swallowing the ghost or buffer answer but I don't expect a 100% technical answer here. My worry was if I get hit up for 5+ mb of data per day that isn't accounted for that could theoretically use up 150mb over a 30 day period and with this new plan there is only 250mb.

I'll accept your answer, thanks for pointing me to the links.. I'll monitor it for the coming month and see what happens.

Cheers,

[MoreYummy]

At lesst show daily usage, if no details/

I doubt they will come, its long wait for many other features.

[DL888]

I don't think PM or any other carrier can tell you specifically what used data. For that you may can check your phone as it should log data usuage base on the apps installed on your phone. 

That said, I too wish PM would break out data usage per day as oppose to a running total.

[mimmo · Accepted solution]

@Greg_R844  that 5mb somehow is a type of buffer, from what i recall it dissapears when you turn off your dta and appears when on.

when i was tracking my data usage via data witness app and pm  ( after a couple days of usage)  i found the usage to be very close between the two.  

im sure if you search data buffer in the community you will find some more details.

edit found the links:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Data-usage/m-p/410346/highlight/true#M960...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Self-Serve/quot-Ghost-Data-quot-Usage-history-droppin...