New User Question. Does MMS Texting take up data?

[Jarvar]

Helping another member setup their phone. They have the $30 plan which is unlimited Canada wide calling and unlimited international texting with 500MB LTE Lite data.

I have been indoors at home all this morning. However after setting up the Samsung SGH-i727r LTE for Multimedia Messaging I sent a few trial picture messages to my own phone.

After doing so, I noticed that the data usage under the settings increased by a MB or more. Does this mean that MMS text messaging consumes data? or did the increase in data usage just happen to coincide with the sending of pictures?

Much help would be appreciated since this is only a 500MB plan.

Thank you.

[jp2]

Looks like it may depend on the IOS operating system you are running. Have you looked in cellular settings at the bottom?

Data roaming can be on or off. With PM I just leave it on because the service is prepaid there are no extra charges so if you go to the US or some other roaming area the service just won't work unless you purchase an addon. 

I found this article that could be helpful for you to save data since I'm not familiar with the iPhone. http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/10/tips-to-reduce-high-data-usage-on-iphone-ios-9.html 

[stonechucker]

Data Witness PM is available on only the Google Play store.  It's written by a subscriber of PM, @IWIK.

Within the settings of Data Witness PM, you can tell it to exclude the MMS app from the data calculation.

It's great because it works with the 30 and 90 day cycle lengths, rather than having to reset the start date most months of the year in the stock Android app.

[Jarvar]

@stonechucker

Is Data Witness an Android app from the Google Play Store? I found My Data manager on the play store, which is what I use on the iPhone. Is there a method to exclude MMS data?

Thanks.

[Jarvar]

@jp2

Would you happen to know where this setting is that can be turned off? The Wifi Assist.

I found out how to turn on Restrict background usage.

Also, should Data Roaming be turned on or off?

Thanks again for your help.

[stonechucker]

I don't know if it's been said yet, but YES, MMS does use cellular data, however, it is 'zero-rated', so you will not be hit with usage on your 'plan or addon' data.

Public Mobile does not charge for MMS data usage.  But you do need your cellular data turned on to use.

I use Data Witness on my phone for tracking the data usage.  In that app, I can tell it not to include the MMS data in the usage counter.

[Jarvar]

@Tanzyknight

On that I think you are correct. Thank you for clarifying that.

[Tanzyknight]

Yes I think they are .I know you need to have your data on for it to work but it doesn't seem to use actual data

[Jarvar]

@Tanzyknight

It would appear as is @GreatCanadian and @ShawnC13 may be correct on this one.

I think there is a difference between MMS and Data. When I log into the self serve and check my usage there is a difference between SMS, MMS and Web with the amount of Data consumed. Since there are also plans that have MMS Texting without Data plans, this would make sence.

Well I hope they are right, but the View usage seems to confirm their explanations. 

I guess only a memeber of the  @CS_Agent could clarify this without any uncertainty.

[Tanzyknight]

I believe it does seeing as you need your data on to send and receive pictures.

[jp2]

@Jarvar you can leave it on if you want as long as the user understands it. It will use data even when you are on WiFi to increase the up and downloading speeds if you have a poor or slow WiFi connection more data will be used.

I always turn it off because I do all of my heavy usage while on WiFi if I had assist on but the WiFi was slow I maybe burning through my data quickly. Which brings me back to setting a low data usage warning for the first month so you will know if something is happening before its all gone

[GreatCanadian]

Allow it to use VPN. There are no issues with this app.

GC

[Jarvar]

@jp2

I have Wifi Assist turned on. Why turn it off?

I'm not disagreeing with you, I am just trying to find out why.

Thank you for your assistance.

[jp2]

If the user has never had data before there are probably a few setting you want to check. 

-Ensure WIFI assist is off

-Restrict data usage on all apps the you don't need using data in the background 

-Set a low data usage warning then continue increasing through the first month so the user gets used of how much data is being used. Also if there is a setting that is incorrect and it starts using all your data you will get the warning and can investigate before all of your data is gone 

[Mike40999]

If your phone doesn't have any data, you still need to turn on data icons on your phone, it allowed you to sent and receive text messages (sms) thru your phone.

[Jarvar]

@GreatCanadian

Well one person uses an Android, I think it's close to 4.0 operating system. So I setup the Data Usage setting on that phone for their billing cycle.

On my own phone, I am using an iPhone and I followed the suggestings to install My Data Mgr which seems really detailed and accurate as to how much data I use or have left each day. I don't have location use setup, but it automatically wants to use VPN. 

Do you have any experience with that? Does it consume more battery or slow things down?

Thanks,

[Jarvar]

@jp2

Thanks. Well for this user it is their first time with Data so we didn't need to track it before. Our old plan allowed us unlimited MMS texting, but they didn't have data and we turned it off so we wouldn't incur any charges.

We actually do text back and forth a lot and there are lots of pictures involved with a family so I'm sure it adds up. It's good to know that there's such a detailed usage data available just in case I am unsure about it. I am glad that there won't be any way to go above the allotted data so there won't be any unexpected surprises at the end of the month. I am just trying to set everything up so that their phone doesn't require constant fiddling and adjusting throughout.

[GreatCanadian]

@Jarvar What phone do you have? Android or iPhone. You can install a data manager that is configurable to 30 day plans. My Data Manager is a good one that will show you how much you have left PER DAY if you want to average it out over the 30 days. 

GC

[jp2]

I haven't seen a pdf just the online page. I just go by the usage bar built into my phone as you say it messes it up a little but unless your send a lot of pics it will be close. If I get to the end of the month and hit my limit I just turn it off because there aren't overages with PM the data will just stop working when you run out. 

[Jarvar]

@ShawnC13

@GreatCanadian

Thank you for your answers. How do I check this?

I am fairly new with Public Mobile. So the settings application Data Usage shows an increase in data, but that would create errors in my tracking.

Is there a method for the Public Mobile Account to show data usage by day?

Okay nevermind, I am checking it out now as we speak. It's actually very detailed usage. Is there pdf bill at the end of each billing cycle? or is it just viewable online like that?

[GreatCanadian]

I believe MMS does use data. The data used by MMS is filtered through a proxy and is not charged. That's why you need data turned on. Doesn't matter in reality though, as it won't use any of his 500 mb.

GC

[ShawnC13]

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@Jarvar wrote:

Helping another member setup their phone. They have the $30 plan which is unlimited Canada wide calling and unlimited international texting with 500MB LTE Lite data.

I have been indoors at home all this morning. However after setting up the Samsung SGH-i727r LTE for Multimedia Messaging I sent a few trial picture messages to my own phone.

After doing so, I noticed that the data usage under the settings increased by a MB or more. Does this mean that MMS text messaging consumes data? or did the increase in data usage just happen to coincide with the sending of pictures?

Much help would be appreciated since this is only a 500MB plan.

Thank you.

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No it doesn't use data.  You must have data turned on but it won't count against your data bucket of your plan.

[GreatCanadian · Accepted solution]

MMS does use data, but it does not count against your data bucket.

GC