Question about data usage on iPhone

[jonmark]

Ok so, I recently converted (back) to the iPhone from BlackBerry .. and first let me say, it feels good to be back. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm like the prodigal son returning back to the glory, haha.

Anyways, with the new AT&T data plans and everything, I have been trying to keep an eye on my data usage. Right now I'm on the DataPro package which is 2gb of data a month ... I wanted to start with that to be on the safe side and track my data before seeing if I could go down to the 200mb a month plan.

I barely started using the iPhone 3GS yesterday, got it set up and everything and today I look at the usage on there and it says 7.0mb sent, 134mb received ... Seriously?? I've used 141mb of data in ONE day? Does AT&T charge on the sent AND received? Or just the sent? The sent usage seems to be more of the amount of data per day I'm used to using - and I wasn't even on my iPhone hardcore yesterday.

So what's the deal? Which gets charged? Does anyone know?

And by the way, I tried going on the AT&T site to see how much they have me down as used for data and it said since I recently changed data plans my usage wouldn't be available until the next billing cycle - July 12.

 

[jonmark]

Sweet, thanks for the help guys ...

 

[ghostface147]

Jeez. Calm down. It's only been one day since you asked and frankly, since today was the release of 4.0 software, we were busy playing with one part of our new toys this week. Anyways, where are you looking for usage stats? If you are doing it in the settings of your phone itself, that's your problem. It counts ALL data, even if you use wi-fi. If you were logged into your AT&T account and it still shows that amount, then get with AT&T. A good program I use is the AT&T wireless app. It keeps me fairly up to date by a few hours.

 

[bjames2785]

im not sure about the send/receive charges but i would imagine they handle it like all the other US carriers and charge for both but like i said im not 100% about AT&T.

As far as the 141 MB of data with light usage, coming from blackberry you have to remember that all data sent/received by blackberry is compressed to a fraction of the data that say, an iPhone would use completing the same tasks.

im converting to iphone from blackberry as well. as far as i can see security and data compression are the only 2 things blackberries do better than iphone. security isnt even an issue for me because im not a business user so its really one benefit blackberry has to the average consumer.

hope that helped.

 

[jonmark]

Lol sorry it was more of a sarcastic humor thing, didn't mean to sound rude ... Yea, I downloaded the wireless app for AT&T and have tried tracking online but it won't update since I recently changed the data plan. I've heard some iPhone users say that within a months time they rarely exceed 500mb a month of data; if what the data my iphone is reporting is true - even with my light use - then i could easily exceed 700mb in merely a week! Maybe I am reading it wrong though, i guess all I can do is wait till the next bill cycle when AT&T will actually tell me my data usage.

 

[ghostface147]

Screenshot from your phone please. I'd like to see where you are getting this information from as far as data usage. I use almost 800 megs a month, but I kept my unlimited plan.

 

[jonmark]

Ok how do I do that? Lol I took the pic, I'm posting from my iPhone .. The attach button on my reply says choose file from computer ..

 

[jonmark]

Ok I think I figured it out, lol ... and since I got those numbers yesterday, that's when I turned on my wifi and since I turned on the wifi yesterday the numbers have remained the same ... which leads me to believe that the recorded data on there does not record wifi usage, just the 3G/edge data.

 

[w00dy]

You should get the AT&T app. It's free and it tells you a total usage of data

 

[ElectroLund]

Woody, I disagree. I have the myWireless AT&T app. There?s no actual data listed under its Usage screen. The ?data? tab only shows text messages.

 

[jonmark]

I found out that by dialing *3282# from your phone, AT&T will send you a text message with up to date data usage and text message count. I've found it to work very well, especially programming it and saving it in my favorites, makes for a quick easy source.

 

[ElectroLund]

oops, strike that. There?s a button called ?Individual? which does in fact show the data consumption for each line on the account. Nice little app!

 

[freeflight410]

Jeez. Calm down. It's only been one day since you asked and frankly, since today was the release of 4.0 software, we were busy playing with one part of our new toys this week. Anyways, where are you looking for usage stats? If you are doing it in the settings of your phone itself, that's your problem. It counts ALL data, even if you use wi-fi. If you were logged into your AT&T account and it still shows that amount, then get with AT&T. A good program I use is the AT&T wireless app. It keeps me fairly up to date by a few hours.

if you look in the settings it says "cellular network data" therefore it's referring to data over your phone carrier and not wifi. i just watched a video over wifi and it changed neither the sent nor recieved sections.

 

[ts86]

if you look in the settings it says "cellular network data" therefore it's referring to data over your phone carrier and not wifi. i just watched a video over wifi and it changed neither the sent nor recieved sections.

I would disagree, my usage in settings and the usage in the my wireless app are different. I would agree with the statements that the usage in the general settings menu is tracking all data including wifi as it usually shows me around 700-1000mb a month and my cellular info online with att only shows about 150-250 mb of usage.