In what increments is data usage recorded—bytes, kilobytes, megabytes?

[Satellites]

Howdy, all.

I've spent a few hours scouring the Community site and Googling and have failed to find an answer on my own.

My question is just as it is in the subject line, but to expand a bit for context and clarity, here's my situation: I'm considering purchasing a data add-on to allow me to check for real-time transit info when I'm out and about, turning off data at all other times to prevent other apps from bleeding off my allotment.

So, if I were to use quantity X of data in one session, will PM deduct exactly X from my add-on, or does it do some rounding (similar to how a voice call that lasts 3:01 deducts 4:00 minutes from one's plan allotment)?  Basically, if I use only ~100k of data at a time, I really hope that that's not going to dock to 1MB from my add-on.

Thanks in advance for any helpful info!  (And feel free to direct me to any existing threads that may exist on this matter—I Googled in the first place to save the annoyance of asking a question that may already have been answered.)

[wetcoaster]

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@stonechucker wrote:

@Satellites , no one has mentioned that data events are recorded twice a day, at 12 hour intervals in the usage listing.  AM and PM are not designated, and it’s a 12 hour clock, based on Eastern Timezone.

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@stonechucker 

I think the operative part of the sentence that you didn't mention is "in the usage history".

The counter on the self serve landing page is reporting real time (or as close as possible to real time as it gets) for me.

(I'm not on the computer, so grabbed already edited pictures from my gallery, my most recent usage history looks very similar, and being 22 days into my current plan cycle, I've used 3519.684 / 5120MB...)

[Anonymous]

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@stonechucker wrote:

@Satellites , no one has mentioned that data events are recorded twice a day, at 12 hour intervals in the usage listing.  AM and PM are not designated, and it’s a 12 hour clock, based on Eastern Timezone.

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All I can say is my own observations.

Turn data off and flip in/out of airplane mode.

Refresh the overview page and take note of the data counter.

Turn on data.

Refresh overview page.

How much did the counter increase?

Notice how quickly it responded.

Depending on what all your phone did upon seeing an internet connection...the counter should have gone up exactly 5.293MB if your phone did very little.

Now turn off data again and flip in/out of airplane mode.

Refresh overview page.

How much did the counter decrease.

Notice how quickly it responded.

Depending on what all your phone did upon seeing an internet connection...the counter should now be the original amount + (the 5.293 - the actual usage the phone did for that moment).

All assuming of course that your phone didn't use more than 5.293 for that session.

My hunch would be that it keeps taking 5.293 chunks of buffer as more and more data is used.

[kav2001c]

The word "wasted" is not even mentioned in my response to you @RossN 

Re-read the above post

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@RossN wrote:

@kav2001c @I don,t know why you keep saying wasted that is not what I said that was your term you should get some sleep lol I think your wasted

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[RossN]

@kav2001c @I don,t know why you keep saying wasted that is not what I said that was your term you should get some sleep lol I think your wasted

[kav2001c]

@RossN 

Except the problem with that is the data use is NOT updated in real time

Anything you are viewing on your self serve is totally inaccurate

No idea what youbme is talking about but it is not accurate

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@RossN wrote:

@kav2001c  here is one of many examples in the help section @youbme wrote:

For those who may be skeptical about 'ghost data', simply login to your self serve account, look at how much data it says you've used with your phone fully connected to the network. Then put your phone on airplane mode and reload your self-serve page. I just checked and my data usage dropped by exactly 5.293 mb. After turning off airplane mode and reloading the page, the data returned!

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[stonechucker]

@Satellites , no one has mentioned that data events are recorded twice a day, at 12 hour intervals in the usage listing.  AM and PM are not designated, and it’s a 12 hour clock, based on Eastern Timezone.

[Anonymous]

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@kav2001c wrote:

@RossN 

???

There is no way 5+ MB are being "wasted"

That sounds more like a phone issue on your end Ross

I have left phones connected to network for an entire month and not wasted that much data

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 @kav2001c 

He didn't say "wasted". He said deducted and returned. When you turn on data on your phone, it grabs exactly 5.293MB as a buffer for the session. Now maybe your phone does nothing else but check for emails. This takes a little traffic even if it finds no emails. Flip in/out of airplane mode or restart the phone and that buffer is flushed and you're left with the little consumption your phone took rounded up to the next KB.

I have found in my observing that the counter updates pretty rapidly.

[RossN]

@kav2001c  here is one of many examples in the help section @youbme wrote:

For those who may be skeptical about 'ghost data', simply login to your self serve account, look at how much data it says you've used with your phone fully connected to the network. Then put your phone on airplane mode and reload your self-serve page. I just checked and my data usage dropped by exactly 5.293 mb. After turning off airplane mode and reloading the page, the data returned!

[Satellites]

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@RossN wrote:

@Satellites you may also notice that if you turn data on even if you do hardly anything there will be an amount approx. 5.2 mb deducted from your total this amount will be returned to your total if you either toggle in and out of airplane mode or wait an hour or so

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Thanks for the warning... I gleaned this from another thread that I came across while searching for an answer, but it sounded like a phone issue to me—I can't see how toggling airplane mode would reset PM's official tally of one's data usage.  Am I missing something here?

[Satellites]

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@kav2001c wrote:

Data used will NEVER be 100% accurate

Not on any carrier

Some data is always lost to overhead

Some data is corrupted due to error and request gets resent

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Okay, good additional info, thanks.

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They do round up which I think is what you are really asking

(eg 1 second call = 1 minute used, 1 byte of data = 1 kb used)

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Yeah, I guess I was asking two questions: what unit is data measured in, and do they round up? 🙂

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The service terms clealy state they do round up @RossN  + @mojorising  + @Satellites 

https://publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Public_Mobile_Terms_of_Service.pdf

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Yep, there it is right at the bottom of page 3: All data usage is rounded up each session to the nearest kilobyte.

Didn't think to look in the ToS, but disappointed that Googling didn't bring it up for me. 😛 Thank you very much!

[RossN]

@kav2001c  I think you better do some research my friend you are talking when you should be listening

[RossN]

@kav2001c  is that what you mean Data
All data usage is rounded up each session to the nearest kilobyte. 

[will13am]

@Satellites , I thought the round off was kBytes.  There's also consideration of a data session where rounding up doesn't take place with each data byte but rather see the the of a data session.  

[kav2001c]

@RossN 

???

There is no way 5+ MB are being "wasted"

That sounds more like a phone issue on your end Ross

I have left phones connected to network for an entire month and not wasted that much data

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@RossN wrote:

@Satellites you may also notice that if you turn data on even if you do hardly anything there will be an amount approx. 5.2 mb deducted from your total this amount will be returned to your total if you either toggle in and out of airplane mode or wait an hour or so

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[LovesToPM]

@Satellites 

My understanding is data usage is recorded by KB.
Beware: The data counter is not necessarily updated in real-time.

[RossN]

@Satellites you may also notice that if you turn data on even if you do hardly anything there will be an amount approx. 5.2 mb deducted from your total this amount will be returned to your total if you either toggle in and out of airplane mode or wait an hour or so

[kav2001c · Accepted solution]

Data used will NEVER be 100% accurate

Not on any carrier

Some data is always lost to overhead

Some data is corrupted due to error and request gets resent

They do round up which I think is what you are really asking

(eg 1 second call = 1 minute used, 1 byte of data = 1 kb used)

The service terms clealy state they do round up @RossN  + @mojorising  + @Satellites 

https://publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Public_Mobile_Terms_of_Service.pdf

[mojorising]

Your monthly data that comes with your plan will be used first before it starts deducting from your add-on. The exact amount of mega bytes is counted and there is no "rounding off".

[RossN]

@Satellites hi in my experience here they don't "round up" the data they have always been fair with me