For those who consume multiple GBs of mobile bandwidth a month...

ManSnake

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 2000
4,749
1
0
What do you do to consume so much? Do you download torrents on your phone or what? I hardly ever run over 1GB a month. Most of the time it's around 500mb.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Pandora, Youtube, Slingbox, which is just a start. It's not that hard to figure out what eats bandwidth. There are people that use their phones for all their worth.
 

RedRooster

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
6,596
0
76
64kps radio stream = 8KB/s * 60 * 60 = 28.8MB/hour * 8 hour work day = 230MB/day of work * 20ish days of work/month = 4.6GB

I never thought it possible either, but making work half way bearable with some music is worth it.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
64kps radio stream = 8KB/s * 60 * 60 = 28.8MB/hour * 8 hour work day = 230MB/day of work * 20ish days of work/month = 4.6GB

I never thought it possible either, but making work half way bearable with some music is worth it.

I would sell my left appendage to be able to listen to music at work.

Call center FTL
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
Most of mine is podasts. I work 12 hour shifts, most of which is spent in my car. I get tired of music.
 

buzzsaw13

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2004
3,814
0
76
most of my bandwidth is from tethering, I can go through 2-3gb in a weekend without wifi
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
64kps radio stream = 8KB/s * 60 * 60 = 28.8MB/hour * 8 hour work day = 230MB/day of work * 20ish days of work/month = 4.6GB

I never thought it possible either, but making work half way bearable with some music is worth it.

thats where the bulk of mine comes from as well, however i dont listen for 8 hours every day, also IDK if the high quality option on various streams uses more bandwidth
 

ChAoTiCpInOy

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
6,442
1
81
It's mostly streaming services. With the addition of the Netflix app, among other streaming apps, mobile bandwidth is gonna be used more heavily.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
It's mostly streaming services. With the addition of the Netflix app, among other streaming apps, mobile bandwidth is gonna be used more heavily.

Which is sad cus carriers are giving us LESS bandwidth to work with. Mobile technology is growing so fast but the damn carriers are hamstringing us with low caps.
 

ChAoTiCpInOy

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
6,442
1
81
Well I think it was a preemptive move by the carriers because they knew streaming was going to start coming. So they offered the lower tiered plans to protect their bandwidth.
 

RedCOMET

Platinum Member
Jul 8, 2002
2,836
0
0
Well I think it was a preemptive move by the carriers because they knew streaming was going to start coming. So they offered the lower tiered plans to protect their bandwidth.

you mean to protect t heir infrastructure.. so they can plan their network to handle the usage in the coming years... ( yeah..... right :D)
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
Which is sad cus carriers are giving us LESS bandwidth to work with. Mobile technology is growing so fast but the damn carriers are hamstringing us with low caps.

Which is why I love Sprint, still unlimited data use. (not including tethering unless on an EVO/Epic using Hotspot)
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Which is why I love Sprint, still unlimited data use. (not including tethering unless on an EVO/Epic using Hotspot)

Sprint is still 5GB cap but they are very lax about it and will let you go over sometimes but not all the time.
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
0
most of my bandwidth is from tethering, I can go through 2-3gb in a weekend without wifi

Why are you using your cell account rather than your home broadband? I only use cell data when I'm out of my home and can't get free WiFi. Even then I don't start up torrents or download linux distros while on it. It just doesn't make sense to me.
 

Demo24

Diamond Member
Aug 5, 2004
8,356
9
81
I've only done it once, 1.24gb in July. Did it by web browsing, navigation/maps(I would estimate 60-80 hours of that), and some Pandora. Yeah, I was constantly on my phone that month!
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
Rhapsody, Pandora, Netflix, AirVideo, SlingPlayer, WunderRadio, Skype Calls, YouTube... just a few. :]
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
Sprint is still 5GB cap but they are very lax about it and will let you go over sometimes but not all the time.

No it's not. Data used on the phone is unlimited. There is no 5GB cap. The 5GB cap applies to data cards and tethering plans on some phones.
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
I guess I don't understand it either, cause I don't use streaming ANYTHING. Pandora? Slacker? Meh, I have a couple GB of my favorite music on my storage space (16gb internal, 8gb external), unlimited skipping, it costs nothing, and it's not subject to signal quality issues.

I also don't bother with streaming video, either.
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
Unlimited plans are usually never unlimited. They have an unofficial cap of 5GB.

Ok, you can think what you want but it doesn't make you right. Take a look at the Sprint forums with Sprint employees, it is unlimited. Yeah, if you somehow manage to use 30GB's your going to have a problem but 10GB's is not. Again, as long as your not tethering. Every other carrier explicity states 5GB's, Sprint does not. Sprint employees says it's unlimited, on private web sites where they have no interest. Here is the TOS, show me where it says it's limited.http://shop.sprint.com/en/legal/legal_terms_privacy_popup.shtml Heck find me ONE person who has gotten charged an overage for in-network data overage that wasn't related to tethering.

Here is unlimited hotspot http://shop.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/mobile_hotspot_popup.shtml I have seen folks use ungodly amounts of data on that without issue.

The fact is Sprint has a crap load of bandwidth and not very many subscribers. They are using that to try and leverage more users. If they every get to the point where they have a subscriber count that starts to strain the network they will do what the others have and start doing caps, they are not at this time.
 

GT1999

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,261
1
71
I didn't used to go over 500MB, but now with Netflix being out for the iPhone, I could easily go over the 5GB "unlimited" cap without any problems at all. Unfortunately it's a little buggy and I think their servers get overloaded, kicking me out of the movie -- even on my 22Mbps WiFi in my apartment.
 

wirednuts

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2007
7,121
4
0
i thought there was a federal law just passed that allowed anyone to tether their phone any way they want? meaning you dont have to pay extra to do it?
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
i thought there was a federal law just passed that allowed anyone to tether their phone any way they want? meaning you dont have to pay extra to do it?

Nope, not a chance. They passed a law that makes it legal to jailbreak or root your phone and install any software you want. It doesn't make it legal to tether against the ToS of your carrier.
 

pyr02k1

Member
Jul 21, 2010
76
0
66
NerdRagePros.com
best ive ever done was just over 5gb one month. mypod + revision 3, twit and a bunch of podcasts and forgetting to put the phone on wifi when im home. normally im in the 2gb range now, mostly because im watching the small videos OTA as opposed to downloading higher quality with mypod. verizon hasnt said a word to me about it as of yet, so no worries until my contract is up.