Do I Change Carriers and How Much Mobile Data Do You Use?

nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 08:37

So I am on a really old Telstra prepaid deal, $60 recharge gives $1000 ($60 for whatever and $940 bonus cap) of worth of calls (which I never use up) and 3gb of data. Then I can use the $60 of whatever portion to get another 3gb of data.

Essentially this gives me 6gb of data and $940 worth of calls on Telstra 4g. It also has the advantage of mobile Foxtel, Telstra thanks and visual voicemail.

However, recently (since I got my iPhone 6 plus maybe) I've noticed my data usage go through the roof. i don't know if the larger screen used more data (YouTube giving me high res video) or if Telstra is just trying to get me off this amazing deal.

I won't go Optus because no visual voicemail and poor reception in my area so I am tossing up at whether or not to go Vodafone.

I do make several international calls so the $50 prepaid with included international calls seems tempting as I'm currently using Google hangouts to call the US but that won't stay free forever.

Anyway, I guess I just want to ask, how much data do you use a month? What phone do you have?

Poll Options

  • 11
    Stick with Telstra
  • 1
    Go with Vodafone
Mobile

Comments

  • ProjectZero on 30/12/2014 - 09:01

    i don't know if the larger screen used more data

    Personally, I don't think it would be this. I could be wrong though.

    May I ask what phone did you have before, did you have 4G previous? I've noticed that my data (3GB btw from the $50 red on voda) gets used pretty quickly now that I am able to access the 4G network. I used to be on Optus and because the reception was poor, I could barely get on the H+ network, as such my data never really exceed 1GB.

    Do you have mobile hotspot on for your other devices? Perhaps you go on it more often because the network is faster?

    • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:16

      no, im pretty much on wifi most of the time as i have it at work and at home.
      so the only time i use cellular data is when im on the road which should be nothing because i dont even use maps and when we are out shopping.
      my kid uses youtube but no longer than 20-30mins and thats maybe once a week

      edit: i had an iphone 5 before

  • [Deactivated] on 30/12/2014 - 09:09
    +1

    Bigger screen shouldn't be the issue, maybe due to the 1080p resolution? You could try setting YouTube to only play 720P or even less to see if that makes any difference. Watching YouTube on cellular is not recommended though, unless you get unlimited but that doesn't exist in Australia anymore.

    • ProjectZero on 30/12/2014 - 09:14

      unless you get unlimited but that doesn't exist in Australia anymore.

      Did that even exist? The ALDI/Kogan technically wasn't unlimited… i think it was 5GB a month.

      • ESEMCE on 30/12/2014 - 09:20

        more importantly, no more than 700mb/day for no more than 3 days straight. (or something similar to those restrictions)

      • [Deactivated] on 30/12/2014 - 09:23

        I was talking about the Optus $2days on 3G, their new 4G $2days is only 500MB a day, so 15GB a month.

        • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:46

          you cant really say its 15gb a month because there is no way you would download exactly 500mb a day, if you exceed the 500mb, they charge you another $2.

    • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:17

      yeah i think its because of youtube running 1080p but there is no setting on IOS to change the res down for every video. seems you have to do it each time you watch a video. what a piece of…
      im going to give the app a 1 star review

  • ESEMCE on 30/12/2014 - 09:23
    +2

    Sounds to me like you're on a dream plan. Saving $10/month to get significantly reduced coverage on Vodafone seems like a bad deal to me.
    Work out what's chewing data and resolve that problem.

    • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:23

      yeah, i dont think ill be able to justify changing this plan.
      especially since telstra thanks gives you $10 movies
      i was pretty interested in getting international calls but vodafones deal only runs till march 2015 unless they extend anyway so that killed any chance they had of getting me.

  • jzdhgkd on 30/12/2014 - 10:41

    I'm not in the Apple world so can't offer much help, but there would likely be an app that will give you an individual data usage breakdown on a per-app basis and then you can work from there (unless apple doesn't allow it of course)

    • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:24

      yep as per b2tf below, you can get it from cellular.
      its just crazy how much data youtube uses in a short period of time.
      i would estimate around 1gb for 30mins of video

  • b2tf on 30/12/2014 - 10:45
    +1

    If you browse to Settings->Cellular it will give you a breakdown of which app is downloading how many MB. For me FB was the killer app when it came to downloads.

  • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:21
    +1

    so its definitely youtube chewing the data.
    its because the new phone is a 1080p screen so youtube is sending everything high res.
    youtube is 1gb of the 1.5gb ive used so far (the rest going to safari and facebook)
    im just going to disable cellular data for youtube until they let you set the resolution lower for cell data.
    might have to load up the phone with videos for the youngin till then

    • ESEMCE on 30/12/2014 - 11:35
      +1

      You can change the default resolution setting for your account, dunno if that over-rides the auto-resolution on mobile though.
      Pretty stupid for them to not have a manual resoltuion setting on Cellular.

      • nimnomnimy on 30/12/2014 - 11:47

        thanks ill check that out

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