Smartphone Data Plans

jcgriff2 · Jan 26, 2014

I'm looking at data usage plans for a yet-to-be-purchased Smartphone.

Verizon - $40 line fee + data plan -

250MB $20/mo
500MB $40/mo
1GB $50/mo

2GB $60/mo
4GB $70/mo
6GB $80/mo

8GB $90/mo
10GB $100/mo
12GB $110/mo

14GB $120/mo
16GB $130/mo
18GB $140/mo

20GB $150/mo
30GB $225/mo
40GB $300/mo

50GB $375/mo

All data access plans include Shared Data and Unlimited Talk & Text

http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-everything.html

How much data (GB) do use in an average month?

Per Verizon -

Read More:

bassfisher6522 · Jan 26, 2014

I'd recommend using Straight Talk, if you have it in your area. No contract, one set price for either calling/text or calling/text/data...$35 and $45 respectively. The only problem is that the smartphone needs to be unlocked....I've found that most mobile carries wont unlock their phones. So you'll have an initial upfront cost of an unlocked phone. I was looking at the Samsung SII, at that time it was close to $700. I found the Google Nexus 4 for half the price...there are some trade offs...eg no micro SD slot. The only down side to Straight Talk is with there data service...depending on the sim card provider...the data service can be throttled. The data package is 2 GB...

I've found this Straight Talk service to be and excellent choice for my wife. She has a very nice smart phone, that we pay only $45 a month...flat rate, and what little she uses the 3G for the internet, I've not seen the data throttled as others stated.

Nexus 4

Welcome to Straight Talk

Will Watts · Jan 26, 2014

I use around 500mb - mobile plans are a lot cheaper in the UK though.

If you're connected to WiFi a lot then data shouldn't be a huge issue. I can't imagine using more than 1-2GB even if I was never connected to WiFi, but my usage habits are different and maybe data is calculated differently in the US.

Tekno Venus · Jan 26, 2014

I have a 250MB plan - but that's very tight. I hope to be able to upgrade to 500MB, but that depends on cost.

John - Unless you're planning to stream videos over mobile internet, then I highly doubt you'd ever need more than 1GB.

Depending on the smartphone OS, there are many ways to monitor your data usage.

x BlueRobot · Jan 26, 2014

I have 500MB of data, but never reach that limit. I get 300 minutes and 3000 texts for £10 a month.

tom982 · Jan 30, 2014

I have unlimited texts, 500 minutes and 1GB of data for £10/month. I've gone over my data maybe twice in the last year?

Tekno Venus · Jan 30, 2014

What network are you with Tom?

tom982 · Jan 30, 2014

GiffGaff - it's still relatively unknown but it's incredible! They use the O2 network so signal is never really a problem, and the prices are great:

SIM Only Deals and Plans | giffgaff.com

I have a recurring £10 goodybag so it's essentially the same as a normal contract, but not with a fixed length and it's a lot better value. You can bump yourself up to unlimited data as well for an extra £2 a month :)

If you do consider joining, would you mind doing so via this link?

https://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/tom982

I get £5 credit for referrals

No worries if not though.

Tekno Venus · Jan 30, 2014

Ahh yes, I thought as much!

I am actually looking for a new phone at the moment because my contract has run for two years. My current phone is a HTC Radar which has served me well. I have little money to spend on a phone, so am currently set on buying the Moto G. It's great value at <£160 for the 16GB model - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moto-16GB-Sim-Free-Smartphone/dp/B00ECBREB6.

I did look at GiffGaff and going PAYG, but I don't really want to pay out for the phone outright. I can get the same phone for £10 with Orange and keep the existing contract. Although GiffGaff has a much better deal, I'm still probably going to stay with Orange for the lower outright cost. It's a shame though, because Giffgaff have amazing deals... I may just get a SIM as a backup.

x BlueRobot · Jan 30, 2014

My 3 contract runs out in a couple of weeks, I'm deciding wherever to stay with them or not. The signal is really poor in my area.

jcgriff2 · Jan 31, 2014

How many times/day are you on the forum?

Do you know how much data is downloaded to a Smartphone for Sysnative?

Do you always use the mobile skin?

tom982 · Jan 31, 2014

Tekno Venus said:
Ahh yes, I thought as much!

I am actually looking for a new phone at the moment because my contract has run for two years. My current phone is a HTC Radar which has served me well. I have little money to spend on a phone, so am currently set on buying the Moto G. It's great value at <£160 for the 16GB model - Moto G 16GB Sim Free Smartphone - Black: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics.

I did look at GiffGaff and going PAYG, but I don't really want to pay out for the phone outright. I can get the same phone for £10 with Orange and keep the existing contract. Although GiffGaff has a much better deal, I'm still probably going to stay with Orange for the lower outright cost. It's a shame though, because Giffgaff have amazing deals... I may just get a SIM as a backup.

I saw the Moto G in the paper a few weeks back and they were raving about it - the reviews were outstanding.

Yeah that's a great deal at £10/month including the phone. The total cost of the way I do it actually worked out to be a little bit more expensive than having a contract including the phone (iPhone 5), but my Dad is working a lot in the Netherlands at the moment so I can call him for 5p a minute - apparently installing apps on his phone is a security risk, so no VOIP for me until they bring it to the iOS BBM app.

jcgriff2 said:
How many times/day are you on the forum?

Do you know how much data is downloaded to a Smartphone for Sysnative?

Do you always use the mobile skin?

1. It varies - probably average around twice a day
2. Since December 24th, I've used ~95MB on web browsing (not just Sysnative, and I use the web quite a lot). I just reset the statistics and loading Sysnative, the Windows Update forum, then 10 threads at random has used 2.5MB of data
3. Very, very rarely. It doesn't support usercp.php so I have to view the Desktop site

Tom

Laxer · Feb 1, 2014

Of data usage I use about 3 GBs through the carrier but, probably 20GB or so over wifi....

This is mostly because I have some down time between classes at school and do lots of video streaming.

If it's just you on the plan John I would go with 2GBs, if it is you and one of the girls might want to step it up.

As for sysnative, it doesn't use much data as the phone catches most of it.... Therefore as long as you dont frequently clear it there is very little data loaded per page...

I use the "Desktop"(full) version of the site on my phone as I hate the mobile skin :grin1:

@tom, moto G is a pretty good device. I was looking at getting a new device around christmas. If I was going to buy it myself I was going to get the nexus 4 as I thought it packed the best bang for the buck. (easily found used for cheap)

My father decided to get me a phone for christmas and told me I wasn't allowed to get the Nexus 4 :lolg:

T-mobile doesn't offer the motto G or I might have considered it as it is slightly smaller but, I ended up going with the Nexus 5 which is faster anyways :grin1:

Like what was stated above, the nexus line doesn't have SD slots... They did this so they could speed up the file system...

I enjoy my Nexus 5, has solid battery life... The only problem I have noticed is it does get HOT when I am charging it and streaming a movie... Granted I do have a case on it so it can't breath but easily temps of 100F :shame2:

jcgriff2 · Feb 2, 2014

Laxer said:
As for sysnative, it doesn't use much data as the phone catches most of it.... Therefore as long as you dont frequently clear it there is very little data loaded per page...

I use the "Desktop"(full) version of the site on my phone as I hate the mobile skin :grin1:

So... the phone caches like IE does?

But what about if you literally went through 100s of threads/day on the phone? I can understand that header, footer would be cached, but surely not new post content.

Laxer · Feb 2, 2014

New post content for the most part is just text
:grin1:

jcgriff2 · Feb 2, 2014

jcgriff2 said:
Laxer said:

As for sysnative, it doesn't use much data as the phone catches most of it.... Therefore as long as you dont frequently clear it there is very little data loaded per page...
I use the "Desktop"(full) version of the site on my phone as I hate the mobile skin :grin1:

Click to expand...

So... the phone caches like IE does?

But what about if you literally went through 100s of threads/day on the phone? I can understand that header, footer would be cached, but surely not new post content.

I'm still not clear about your statement in RED - If I'm looking at new posts, that info obviously was not cached from a prior view.

Do you routinely look through most new posts; hence the reason you use 1-3 GB/month?

Any guess as to how much data would be d/l if I were to check out 100 new posts/day? (I do of course understand the amount of text in a post matters - like one of mine v. most others!)

EDIT: I'd put the question this way -- if you were to clear your phone for this thread & then opened this thread - going through each post through this one (#16) - how much data was downloaded?

Laxer said:
New post content for the most part is just text
:grin1:

No images - like icons?

Tekno Venus · Feb 2, 2014

I'll post back fully with proper numbers and data later but... I visit Sysnative two or three times a day and view a few threads each time. I am careful with my data usage but I use less than 250MB a month. It's tight, but I manage it.

I have a Windows phone - I have always found them light on background data usage

If you use android, you can enable a setting in the chrome web browser to compress all downloaded pages before you receive them, reducing data usage significantly.

And you're not going to spend ages looking at threads on your phone tbh. Its slower than on a PC, its harder to type out long posts and the screen is small.

I can get you some numerical answers to your questions later.

jcgriff2 · Feb 2, 2014

You mean.... that I might have to use............. something other than IE?

tom982 · Feb 2, 2014

100 is going to take ages, but I did 20 and I think that's a large enough sample. In the BSOD forum this time, loading every page of every thread on the first page (20 threads) used 3.6MB of data, but I enabled the Chrome data compression that Stephen mentioned and it got it down to 2.9MB. That includes this thread.

No images - like icons?

There might be the odd new smiley here and there, but the bulk of the larger images (logo, avatars, sigs etc.) will already be cached so the only additional data that you will need to download will comprise mostly of text.

Wrench97 · Feb 2, 2014

its harder to type out long posts and the screen is small.

You realize you you're telling this too right? :hysterical:

250MB $20/mo	500MB $40/mo	1GB $50/mo
2GB $60/mo	4GB $70/mo	6GB $80/mo
8GB $90/mo	10GB $100/mo	12GB $110/mo
14GB $120/mo	16GB $130/mo	18GB $140/mo
20GB $150/mo	30GB $225/mo	40GB $300/mo
50GB $375/mo

Smartphone Data Plans

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