Poll: How much cell phone data do you use a month? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: How much cell phone data do you use a month?

10 pointsjwarzech23 comments

With most of the US carriers eliminating unlimited data plans over the last couple years it got me curious as to how much (on average) cell phone data a month does the HN crowd use a month?

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I work from home, so it entirely depends on how often I went out that month. With latest versions of Android (at least), there is (effectively) no power penalty to not having wifi enabled permanently. I use 3G Watchdog to monitor usage. I'm on course to have used a whopping 4MB by the end of this month (I expect that will mostly have been email polling while shopping etc.); but if I'm out and about, bored and / or in need of research / maps / etc., I could easily blow that in 10 minutes. But I'd have a hard time going above 10MB a day. I simply don't use data intensive services often enough outside.

I have a Sprint 4G phone, and the usage history graph only shows 3G, which averaged 595MB/mo over the last 4 months. There is a note that says:

4G Data: We can't show your 4G usage here; however our 4G devices have unlimited access

I'll bet my usage is much, much higher, since I live in Los Angeles, and get full 4G coverage at home and at work, and I use it for video chat on Fring, watching HD video on YouTube, and tethering my laptop while at work.

Irish mobile operators(specifically 3) just began to introduce 'all you can eat', or unlimited, data plans.

As I understand it, the AUP is limited to 1TB per month - more than my residential 500GB cable cap. I know several people who tether their laptops and phones, to use it in their own homes.

Personally, I use less than 100MB mobile data a month, but I also don't use a conventional (Android, iOS) smartphone any more. I went dumb ;)

I only pay for the 200MB per month plan from AT&T, so I always use less than that....

The plan determines my behavior, not vice-versa. I'm careful to turn on WiFi both at home and at work. I can't allow myself to listen to streamed music in the car. And I have installed DroidWall (a firewall app for rooted Android phones) and blacklisted certain "chatty" apps from using the network over 3G.

That's a big jump from 250MB to 2GB. You might want to add <500MB and <1GB .. In the UK at least, the "unlimited" cap is set at ~500MB.

Ack. I use <500mb

I added 'Under 500MB' but I'm not sure if HN lets me reorder the poll options so its at the bottom. Seriously 500MB is considered unlimited in the UK? I think in the US a lot of 'unlimited' plans start throttling at 5GB.

> Seriously 500MB is considered unlimited in the UK?

Until the advertising standards people get hold of it, I expect. Rather like "Up to 8Mb/s" broadband, it's just asking to be taken down, but it seems likely that carriers will continue to brand obviously limited packages as "unlimited" until they're forced to be more honest.

My fiance has a 2GB cap and I have unlimited, she went over one month and I couldn't figure out how cause I didn't think I used that much and I stream Pandora/Rhapsody/Sirius on my phone quite often. I finally checked my usage statement and was shocked to see I average 2.5 to 3.5GB. I think my max was over 6GB one month due to streaming Netflix for a few hours.

I never wondered how much of my "unlimited" iPhone data plan I was using until AT&T introduced their tiered plans a year or so ago. When I at that time checked my usage history I was a little surprised to see that I was rarely using more than 200MB per month, so I actually dropped down to their $15/month plan and ended up saving some money.

Under 5gb, over 2gb. comes from streaming subsonic/pandora at work and on the road. without that, I'd be well below 2gb

I don't really think the average (or even fringe) usage today has much to do with the what the data caps are now.

The caps are put in place today, I imagine, only in order to set a precedent. Then, 5 years from now when using more then 5GB is very common they can justify the much larger charges that will follow.

I use mine mainly for streaming audio or music, but I don't think I've ever used more than a gig or two in a month. I've got an unlimited plan via Wind Mobile in Canada. If it were a faster and more stable data connection, I'd consider replacing my wired internet at home with it. No dice, at least not yet.

About a gig and a half, but I don’t stream music/video or use my phone as a mifi. Luckily this is on a 2gb/month contract that my company pays for so it’s not really an issue. I’d definitely use more if I was on an unlimited service though.

I average somewhere between 1.5-3GB without any Netflix streaming and fairly light tethering to my laptop. I do a lot of audio streaming via Rdio, but otherwise I'm really not sure where the data's being consumed.

Blast, I voted wrong (the jump is a bit much). I think my peak was 800MB. Sprint's data history graph makes it look like they charge you over 800MB, but that may just be bad design.

Also, I have "unlimited".

I used to watch Netflix over 3G a LOT. Now, not so much.

Back then I was at about 3GB, now I'm at like 1.5GB (which is a bit more than I expected, frankly)

I use under 2GB per month but with so much going mobile, I can easily see myself pushing that limit soon. Cell phone carriers shouldn't be afraid of growth.

I think the fear of growth is because the growth is moving faster than their infrastructure.

Here in Guatemala, there are 3 carriers and their "unlimited" is 3GB for smartphones. Blackberries do have unlimited data, don't ask me why.

For the first time ever I just passed 1Gb in a month, entirely due to watching two 45 minute shows on Netflix over 3G.

My wife uses more than 5 gigs a month.. almost all of it is Netflix over 3g.

~800M

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