2 GB’s Is More Than Fine For Me

If you read my post a month ago (New ATT Data Plans, What You Need To Know), I talked about the future of mobile Internet use for iPhone users. I recommended people switch to the 2 GB plan a month, saving $5 off their phone bill. I talked about my usage and where I suspected it would be once iOS 4.0 and its multitasking came out.

Well iOS 4.0 has been out for a while now, and Pandora’s been updated or multitasking. So now I have a better understanding of what my monthly usage is.

As you can see from the image below, I’m more than halfway through my billing cycle and I’ve used 493 MBs.

So how have I been using my mobile Internet plan so far this month? Well before I wasn’t able to run Pandora while driving because I had to use the Neocell as my GPS navigation (Got My Car Docked (iPhone Dock That Is)), and we all know Pandora couldn’t run in the background before iOS 4.0 (not counting Backgrounder). But now that Pandora can run in the background, I’ve been running Pandora behind Navigon when I drive. And I’ve ran Pandora a few times on the mobile Internet when hangin’ with friends via the Minimove (iPhone Remote Controllers Can Control Pandora), and a bit when goin’ shopping, using headphones or whatever. So I’d say I’ve used Pandora over my mobile Internet about 10 – 20 hours this month. (I know next month it’ll be more, because Navigon and Pandora were glitching a few times when Pandora’s update first came out and I wasn’t running Pandora at time.)

Other uses for the mobile internet has been emailing maybe 5 or 6 30 second videos, emailing maybe 20 pictures, downloading maybe 15 pictures via email, sending and receiving maybe 50 text emails, publishing three posts via Wordpress, maybe 4 hours of web surfing and maybe 2 hours of web apps, such as eBay, Twitter, etc.

That’s a lot of use for only half a month. And thankfully, I’ve only used 1/4 of my Internet usage. But that doesn’t account for the total Internet usage on the Neocell in the past 15 days or so. Whenever I’m able to get on wifi, such as at home, I do it. So about 80% of my time using the Internet on the Neocell is done over wifi.

So don’t think to yourself “Wow, he uses his iPhone a lot and only uses that much of his mobile Internet? Then I’m good…” if you don’t connect (or have) wifi at your home or work.

Check out the second image below, the one that shows the usage of all data coming into and out of the Neocell. This is since I upgraded to iOS 4.0, so since my billing period started, the actual usage is pretty close (it would be just a little higher). I’ve used over the 2 GB limit. Now I’m good because 80% of that **** was over wifi. But if you aren’t using wifi and you use your iPhone a LOT, be careful. You could o over the limit.

But, I’m pleasantly surprised that things like Pandora and emailing don’t suck as much data as I thought. As long as people have wifi to connect to every now and then, I don’t see anyone really going over the 2 GB limit. (Tether is a completely different, sad story though).

Oh yeah, if you haven’t gotten it yet, go out and get the AT&T myWirelesa app to monitor your data usage.

Peace, JbB

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