Data usage question

[ting_90320]

Hi, did anyone notice a difference between PM mobile data calculation and other carrier's mobile data calculation? I used to use Koodo and I have a 1GB plan which would last me a month without issue. I just switched to PM and one night I noticed I already used 21MB of data (all I did was browsing through no more than 10 websites using chrome with the data saver on). I checked my mobile data tracker basically everytime I opened one new web page my data usage increased by more than 1MB (when comparing to Koodo's couple hundred kbs probably). With this rate 4GB won't last me a month at all.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[srlawren]

Hi @Catie,

You said you have 13GB... is that a 90 day 12GB plan plus one 1GB add-on?  I guess so eh?  Unfortunately, the only meter that counts is the one at Public Mobile's end of the equation.  If they think you've used up all of your available data, then you're out of data.  You can either wait for your next renewal, or add another add-on to help get you there.  You may want to review what apps are using up your data and look for ways to reduce that.  Many apps can be set to only sync data to the cloud while you are connect to a Wi-Fi network.  I do this with Google Photos, for example, but many have it.  Or you can tell them to only sync or auto-refresh when connected to WiFi.  Also if you are using an iPhone, you should make sure you do not have the WIFi Assist feature turned on, as it uses mobile data to speed up your connection even while connected to WiFi.

[Catie]

I have 13 GB, my phone says I've used 12.4 but PM has cut me off as my data is gone.  That's an almost 10% difference.  That seems like a lot to me.

[ReillyWood]

Hi @windyday

   I'm not sure what you mean by "papers" but I had a case with Telus about 2 months ago (before switching to PM) where I suddenly had 300MB used one day for downloading emails.  It had never been that high before nor since (for email).  No idea what caused that though.  I did switch after to a different email program so maybe that somehow fixed the problem (though I had been using native Android email for a year and a half beforehand).

  Re: your issue, does the 100MB show under both Android's Data Manager and on the PM website?

  Rob Wood

Edit: re: the 300MB noted above, I don't believe that was in anyway Telus' issue and I had the 300MB based on what Android was telling me.

[windyday]

I seem to be having this problem too.... I literally turned my phone on for one hour and have been downloading some papers and 100mb is gone already... I used to have 300mb to last a whole month! Even browsing normal websites never seemed to take up this much data. I read through the other comments and am still a little stuck on the issue :S

[ReillyWood]

@Eug - ya, that's what I was wondering.  I've also only been looking at this for a few weeks.

  I'm also not worried about this at this time, as the difference is small, but I was wondering why it's that way.  I'm guessing/assuming that @srlawren has stated it correctly.

  Rob Wood

[srlawren]

@Eug @ReillyWood it's because carriers count the data that leaves their towers, and not all of that makes it to your iPhone, and your iPhone can't count the bits it didn't receive.

http://gizmodo.com/5943251/how-carriers-miscalculate-your-data-usage

Hopefully that helps!

I know you didn't ask about htis part, but if anyone is curious about data usage on their iPhone, this article on Apple's site may be helpful:  https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201299

[Eug]

---

@srlawren wrote:

Hi @Eug, I notice you edited out the part of your reply to me where you said that your data usage was all real-time.  I was coming here to mention that there are two different areas in self-serve that display your data usage, and that the overview and my add-ons page shows the current total, while the usage history details page shows your daily usage but only lumped together and updated once a day.  But I'm guessing you must have noticed that in the meantime already?  🙂

---

Yes, I had assumed you were talking about the total, but when I re-read the message I realized you weren't. So I edited out that part.

But the other point is that PM's data usage calculation is consistently higher than my iPhone's. I don't know if your reason is the main reason or if it's due to something else as well (such as rounding), but in my limited experience it's about a 5% or so difference. Maybe a bit more than 5% with my usage pattern, but definitely much less than 10%.

[srlawren]

Hi @Eug, I notice you edited out the part of your reply to me where you said that your data usage was all real-time.  I was coming here to mention that there are two different areas in self-serve that display your data usage, and that the overview and my add-ons page shows the current total, while the usage history details page shows your daily usage but only lumped together and updated once a day.  But I'm guessing you must have noticed that in the meantime already?  🙂

[Eug]

---

@ReillyWood wrote:

  Interesting.

  @Eug - how long have you been seeing this?  

  Rob Wood

---

What do you mean? Are you talking about my seeing the increased usage on PM over what my phone says? (I edited out the part about the real-time stats.)

I checked for a bit on my wife's iPhone in September and October, but I've only really been following this really closely on my own iPhone since last week. Expect to use about 5%+ more on PM than what an iPhone says.

This is not a big deal for me since I typically only use 2.5 GB per month, but would be useful knowledge to have if I'm roaming in the US for example, where the data buckets in the plans are much, much smaller.

[ReillyWood]

  Interesting.

  @Eug - how long have you been seeing this?  

  Rob Wood

[Eug]

---

@srlawren wrote:

@ReillyWood the data usage area is only updated once a day, which is why it only shows 34MB, as it is lagging.  This is the one that shows under usage history if I remember correctly.  On the overview page, you can see in your add-ons section a summary of how much data you've used, and I believe that's the 57MB figure you're talking about.  That number is real-time (or very near to it).  So as you use data throughout the day, that number will go up, but the usage history info won't update until...sometime overnight.  I'm guessing 12AM eastern or somewhere in that neighbourhood, but I'm not sure if it's triggered right at the day change or at some other point during some overnight processing.

Regarding the phone's info not exactly matching what's in your add-ons summary, that seems to be normal. The discrepency is normally a matter of a few MB, and can fluctuate a bit depending when you look. There are a number of technical reasons for it, which I believe boil down to your phone can only track the data that it actually receives, where some small number of packets are lost in transmission and need to be re-sent, and the PM systems count the actual sending of the data, whether or not it was properly received by your phone.  This is a vast oversimplification and I'm probably not doing it justice. The main takeway is that at the end of your 90 day cycle, if you look at the difference as a percentage of the data used, it's going to be a miniscule percentage, and not enough to worry about.  

---

Based on my usage in the last several days, it seems like a reasonable estimate may be that PM's recorded usage is around 5% higher than what my phone says. Definitely not more than 10% than what the phone says anyways. So, just to be safe, what one can do is just take the phone stats and multiply by 1.1 to give yourself an estimate with a big cushion.

This is not too far off my results with Fido when I was roaming in the US, but is different than my results on Fido in Canada.

[ReillyWood]

  Thank you.  

  Was mainly wondering because I didn't notice this difference with TELUS.  But I won't worry about it for now.

  Rob Wood

[srlawren]

@ReillyWood the data usage area is only updated once a day, which is why it only shows 34MB, as it is lagging.  This is the one that shows under usage history if I remember correctly.  On the overview page, you can see in your add-ons section a summary of how much data you've used, and I believe that's the 57MB figure you're talking about.  That number is real-time (or very near to it).  So as you use data throughout the day, that number will go up, but the usage history info won't update until...sometime overnight.  I'm guessing 12AM eastern or somewhere in that neighbourhood, but I'm not sure if it's triggered right at the day change or at some other point during some overnight processing.

Regarding the phone's info not exactly matching what's in your add-ons summary, that seems to be normal. The discrepency is normally a matter of a few MB, and can fluctuate a bit depending when you look. There are a number of technical reasons for it, which I believe boil down to your phone can only track the data that it actually receives, where some small number of packets are lost in transmission and need to be re-sent, and the PM systems count the actual sending of the data, whether or not it was properly received by your phone.  This is a vast oversimplification and I'm probably not doing it justice. The main takeway is that at the end of your 90 day cycle, if you look at the difference as a percentage of the data used, it's going to be a miniscule percentage, and not enough to worry about.  

[ReillyWood]

I'm wondering about this too.

I signed up yesterday, on November 2nd.  I use a data tracking app on my phone which shows that I've used 53.5MB since yesterday (which also matches what the Android data manager says).  The PM usage stats say 57MB.  But when I total up the PM usage data, it only shows 34MB (plus something called "data event", about 5 times, each showing "1" in the data column, don't know what that means).

I'm not too concerned about this at this time but would like to find out if PM is counting data the same as my phone.  Didn't have this problem (that I recall) on TELUS.

Rob Wood

[parousia52]

Using phone as a gps (Google Maps, in my case) does not cost a lot than you guess. 🙂

[srlawren]

@ting_90320 You mention 4GB... are you on the 90 day 12GB promo plan?  If so, then you have an average of 12,288 / 90 = 136.5 MB per day.  You should be fine.  🙂

[ting_90320]

Thanks...yeah it is 21 MB only for web browsing in less than a day, lol. But I guess 4GB should be fine if I don't use it crazily...

[sportymi]

My iphone mobile usage is pretty close to PM's record. 21mb for surfing internet doesn't sound out of range. 1GB is 1000mb, don't be too worried!

[Chaos_Scorpio · Accepted solution]

did you perform a speed test when you first signed up (it uses data to do the test). 

Did any of the pages have videos that loaded?

I don't notice the data usage unless videos are being used or downloading files; I average 1-1.5g a month ... now I am using my phone as a gps with live traffic when I drive so I expect it to go up but now 4g a month is maybe obtainable... HA!

[Sameer]

I haven't noticed it too much.

If you have iPhone, you can check your usage by going to Cellular in the Settings. It will tell you the MB each app used so far. I'm sure its easy to find on Androids too. Also, the self serve in PM website shows you when you use data and how much.

I would double check these and monitor for a week if you are concerned.