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Netflix data usage

Hi,
So like an idiot I "upgraded" to the new T-Mobile "unlimited" plan with the 2 GB limit. At the time, it made sense to switch; I'd save money on minutes, and I'm not a heavy data user. Right now I use ~200-300 MB a month. At most, I've used 6xx MB recently. My data heavy data apps right now are Pandora and Sling player. And, I'm on wifi when at home, and on campus.
However, I have now started to deeply regret my derision now that Google has announced their new cloud and music services, Netflix has finally launched their app for select android devices (including my N1), and T-Mobile announced free Wi-fi calling on new devices. I'm not asking for pity or reticule, but I need some questions answered.
Does anyone have any idea how much data the new Netflix app uses when using 3/4G? AT&T iPhone users, some of you use Netflix with similar caps, how easy is it for you to reach the cap? Those of you have gone over the 2GB limit on T-Mobile, how badly did they throttle you, if at all?
Finally, I thought I'd share my two cents worth on data usage and caps. I'll gladly stay a capped customer on T-Mobile if such moves allow T-Mobile to return to profitability without the likes of AT&T. Data is data, and data caps on home internet service are abominations. However, bandwidth is not free, and broadband cell service is one of the most expensive last-mile solutions to maintain; it is also primarily a supplemental form of connectivity for most customer So, I have no problem with T-Mobile trying to make a buck and stay afloat, so long as they maintain their current levels of quality and customer service.

those are some good questions. I do know that streaming video takes ALOT of data. So you would be able to do mabe 2 full netflix videos a week would be about my guess. but then again you stream audio too so in doing that, I would say maybe 1 video a week.
I have a friend with the SGS4G and he got put on that plan and hates it. He was using it alott, mainly bc he came from crappy verizon service with maybe 1mbps download to this phone which he hit 21mbps. anyways, when he went over 2gb and got throttled down to just under 2mbps. now that its later in the month, it seems to be they are slowing him down more. He lately has only been getting .06mbps
So yea, it sucks for him. reallly bad.

Well, that answers my throttling questions thanks. Video streaming is done using a variable bit rate, meaning that data usage can rise and fall along with the quality of the video. I'm sure Netflix takes data usage into account when streaming the video over cell. They recently had to preform similar actions for their Canadian costumers, many of whom are subject to ridiculous caps on their home internet connections. I also think that I will rarely watch a full-length movie entirely on 3/4G. So, I'm not too concerned as of yet. I'll experiment once my next billing cycle starts, track my usage, and report the results an a new thread.
I would be willing to bet your friend did a fair bit of tethering?

Let me get this straight. The straight up "Unlimited plan" is even more limited than the regular unlimited 4g web??? Wow, some of that att mentality is already creeping up into that dump i see....

xsteven77x said:
Let me get this straight. The straight up "Unlimited plan" is even more limited than the regular unlimited 4g web??? Wow, some of that att mentality is already creeping up into that dump i see....
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Yarp. You read that right!

go to sprint, fully unlimited bud

Here is my experience..
I'm on t-mobile with the MyTouch 4G. I haven't used netflix as of yet, but I do stream a lot on my phone with other various apps and websites to watch TV shows. I do accounting so I'm usually in my office alone through the day and I have the capabilities of watching shows on my phone, since accounting is extremely boring and i need something to keep me going.
Anyway, on average, a regular TV show (like friends), runs about 25 minutes. And in that time, I use anywhere from 70 - 100mb. Fortunately, I still have t-mobile's "unlimited" data which caps at 5gb.
I have reached the cap once, and for 2 days, they limited my throttle to edge speed! It was ridiculous!
There are a few apps in the market that help keep track of the data you are using. What I personally did was calculate how much data I could use per day and limit myself to that. I could check the apps to make sure I wasn't passing my limit. It's been working pretty well so far.
I hope this helped to whoever needed it!
Thanks are appreciated to all that this helped!

seanthegeek said:
Well, that answers my throttling questions thanks. Video streaming is done using a variable bit rate, meaning that data usage can rise and fall along with the quality of the video. I'm sure Netflix takes data usage into account when streaming the video over cell. They recently had to preform similar actions for their Canadian costumers, many of whom are subject to ridiculous caps on their home internet connections. I also think that I will rarely watch a full-length movie entirely on 3/4G. So, I'm not too concerned as of yet. I'll experiment once my next billing cycle starts, track my usage, and report the results an a new thread.
I would be willing to bet your friend did a fair bit of tethering?
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you're welcome dude. And yes, he made the soar mistake of tething his computer, then bridging his comp to his xbox a few times. lmao. told him it was a bad idea. the only thing i dont get is why they throttled him more. he's now getting slower than he did before. I dont think he tethers anymore...
you can also get Movie Stream app off the market. its pretty sweet. Watch movies without a monthly payment. it just streams them from a few different sites. Same Developers as TV Shows Stream app. pretty cool stuff d-('.')-b

desikilla said:
Here is my experience..
I'm on t-mobile with the MyTouch 4G. I haven't used netflix as of yet, but I do stream a lot on my phone with other various apps and websites to watch TV shows. I do accounting so I'm usually in my office alone through the day and I have the capabilities of watching shows on my phone, since accounting is extremely boring and i need something to keep me going.
Anyway, on average, a regular TV show (like friends), runs about 25 minutes. And in that time, I use anywhere from 70 - 100mb. Fortunately, I still have t-mobile's "unlimited" data which caps at 5gb.
I have reached the cap once, and for 2 days, they limited my throttle to edge speed! It was ridiculous!
There are a few apps in the market that help keep track of the data you are using. What I personally did was calculate how much data I could use per day and limit myself to that. I could check the apps to make sure I wasn't passing my limit. It's been working pretty well so far.
I hope this helped to whoever needed it!
Thanks are appreciated to all that this helped!
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Click to collapse
Your actually pretty lucky dude. Edge speeds really are not that bad in comparison to GPRS/1G/whatever you want to call it. Most of the time getting throttled means getting 1g speeds. I do know that if you go into networks and change it to edge only networks you can get edge speeds, but somehow you were lucky enough to get them off the bat.

According to Netflix streaming for one hour will use about 1gb of data, 2gbs for HD.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

k_nivesout said:
According to Netflix streaming for one hour will use about 1gb of data, 2gbs for HD.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
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bahahahaa. thats whyyy they want you to use wifi.
thats about the worse news you could tell someone who has a cap lmao

Yeah when I saw that I was pretty surprised. Sucks especially with carriers capping at 2 or 5 GB. Fortunately on Verizon with unlimited data.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

k_nivesout said:
According to Netflix streaming for one hour will use about 1gb of data, 2gbs for HD.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
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That's probably for desktop streaming, not mobile. Someone I know who uses it on the iPhone said it uses ~200-300 MB/2 hours.

looking at the quality of the mobile movies/shows I'd say about 250mb an hour

seanthegeek said:
That's probably for desktop streaming, not mobile. Someone I know who uses it on the iPhone said it uses ~200-300 MB/2 hours.
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I think this is about right. That did sound like way too much for mobile streaming but the FAQ didn't specify.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

[Q] How big should a data plan be?

I've searched the forum before posting this and couldn't find a similar thread, so here's my question (2 actually):
1)How big should a 3G data plan be, for the Nexus S?
2)Also, is there a way to allow only a few apps to connect to the internet through 3G, while the rest use only wifi?
I want to use it for checking mail on 2 accounts, send/receive about 40-50 messages daily (through whatsapp), a little navigation on Google Maps, 2-3 clips on youtube and checking a couple of webpages each day. In my country, unlimited data plans are a rarity and the most common are 50mb, 250mb and 500mb.Thanks!

I'm in the US and use my phone for just about everything all day so I eat up about 100 MB a day. I use wifi anywhere I don't get 4g coverage as well. I would say to be safe go with the 500 unless it is a major price difference. If you have access to wifi regularly and keep track of data usage a plan with even 250 MB should be OK. Hope this helps a little.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

Agree, but it depends on your usage, for me 250mb is enought, but some months i push the limit (what costs 6 cents for 1mb, not a big deal).

I'd recommend if can to get the 500 or if possible 1gb.
I'm using my phone for about the same plus surfing the net and my monthly usage is about 600 - 700mb.
Try the app Call meter 3g so you can keep track of your usage. It doesn't count wi-fi traffic.
Good luck
Sent from my Desire HD using my nose

Well, after some intensive reading over the internet, I think that I could settle for 500mb. In the android market, there's an app called Droid Wall (needs root) and that should make sure the only apps connecting to the internet through 3G are those I want. Thanks for your help!
Now reading about rooting the NS
EDIT: also, I've found something called 3G Watch Dog, so it's easier to keep an eye out on the data traffic over 3G.

flodb113 said:
Well, after some intensive reading over the internet, I think that I could settle for 500mb. In the android market, there's an app called Droid Wall (needs root) and that should make sure the only apps connecting to the internet through 3G are those I want. Thanks for your help!
Now reading about rooting the NS
EDIT: also, I've found something called 3G Watch Dog, so it's easier to keep an eye out on the data traffic over 3G.
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even if you don't use a firewall (like droid wall) stand-by usage is not that big, the problem is YOUR usage, you can easly take a month with 20mb if you only let it to stand-by, but if you watch 3 youtube videos, 20mb is gone!" =o)

Wow... I go over my limit of 5gigs almost every month I guess I am one of Those heavy data users I have been hearing about.... Too bad we have this terrible bit shortage I can only Hope the carriers stumble onto a new rich source of bits to satisfy my need
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

newspeak said:
Wow... I go over my limit of 5gigs almost every month I guess I am one of Those heavy data users I have been hearing about.... Too bad we have this terrible bit shortage I can only Hope the carriers stumble onto a new rich source of bits to satisfy my need
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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Well I think 5gigs is far.. I mean FAR from what I'm capable of over 3G. Whenever there's a wifi hotspot available, I prefer connecting to the internet through it. The 3G connection is just for those areas in which there's no wifi in sight.

500Mb is sort of like the minimum where I am. The quota usually comes in 500Mb, 1G, 1.5G, 3G, 5G...
For me, I will stay under 500Mb if I don't use services like Google Maps or Waze, if I do, I will be around 700-800Mb a month.

[Q] data cap/throttling

so is there any way to get past throttling? i tether to my computer and run out of data in less then a day of a new billing cycle. (yes i run thru 5 gigs in less then a day! hahaha) so is there any way shape or form to get rid of this horrible throttling issue?!?!?!

Nope. Not anymore.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

Real quick brother don't know if this will work for ya but I got throttled a few days ago and but chance was running speed test to see how slow it really had gotten and I managed to lose my data connection when it restablished I had my 4g speeds again.... I lost it again the next morning but attempted to recreate the event by running speed test and. Then cutting my data connection from the top bar and it worked give it a shot if you want and get back to me
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

Pornaholics Anonymous.
Lol. Jk.

Ivanstein said:
Pornaholics Anonymous.
Lol. Jk.
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I just cant stop, i feel like im walking on sunshineee.
haha for real though as of now i havent heard of a way to beat the throttle, its more provider side then phone side. I heard there is a plan that has the 5gb cap but never throttles, you have to ask for it specifically and its given to most long time customers (or people who threaten to cancel). Give it a search.

Consensus on Tethering?

So I have been only using EE4 ROMS because I have heard that rooting and using wifi tether apps on gingerbread will lead to my 4g getting throttled down and my VZW bill to skyrocket. Is there a consensus on whether or not this is true. And if its true on stock gingerbread maybe a rom like humble or gummy would have addressed this so that VZW cant tell? Its the only thing stopping me from making the jump. Thanks for your help!

haven't heard of it happening to anyone I know irl or on forums... I'd say yeah go ahead and tether just don't use huge amounts of data, I think with a little tethering and basic usage I hit 10-12gb a month and no cap/throttling
blazing through on my 4G Droid Charge

VZ can definitely tell what you're doing.
The question is whether or not they do anything about it.
They have never charged me, but I use as little data as possible when tethering.
~John

jmorton10 said:
VZ can definitely tell what you're doing.
The question is whether or not they do anything about it.
They have never charged me, but I use as little data as possible when tethering.
~John
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A common misconception is that VZW "knows" that you're tethering, which isn't entirely accurate. They have the ability to tell, but due to the nature of that ability, it wouldn't be economical to do it to all of the tens of millions of people with data plans.
One way they can tell is by looking at where the data packets from your phone are going. It is illegal for them to look "inside" of the packets, of course, but they can kind of guesstimate how likely it is that you're tethering by detecting where the traffic is going. Your phone wouldn't have any normal reason to be sending a ton of traffic to Call of Duty's servers, for instance.
At the end of the day, VZW makes more money from your monthly fee than they would charging you an ETF and degrading your plan, which would almost certainly cause you to jump ship. They most likely target a minority of people to make an example of as a deterrent to scare prospective root tetherers... But aren't going to do it to everyone, regardless of their ability to tell.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

vash1053 said:
A common misconception is that VZW "knows" that you're tethering, which isn't entirely accurate. They have the ability to tell, but due to the nature of that ability, it wouldn't be economical to do it to all of the tens of millions of people with data plans.
One way they can tell is by looking at where the data packets from your phone are going. It is illegal for them to look "inside" of the packets, of course, but they can kind of guesstimate how likely it is that you're tethering by detecting where the traffic is going. Your phone wouldn't have any normal reason to be sending a ton of traffic to Call of Duty's servers, for instance.
At the end of the day, VZW makes more money from your monthly fee than they would charging you an ETF and degrading your plan, which would almost certainly cause you to jump ship. They most likely target a minority of people to make an example of as a deterrent to scare prospective root tetherers... But aren't going to do it to everyone, regardless of their ability to tell.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
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^^^ this
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

vash1053 said:
A common misconception is that VZW "knows" that you're tethering, which isn't entirely accurate. They have the ability to tell, but due to the nature of that ability, it wouldn't be economical to do it to all of the tens of millions of people with data plans.
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This is correct & what I meant by my post although you worded it much more clearly than I did.
I agree about making examples of the idiots like the poster here who posted a scan of his VZ bill laughing about the fact that he used over 32 gigs of data the previous month & said he did that every month...............
~John

Nexus 5 on no data / low data plan.

Anyone here use their Nexus 5 on a prepaid cellphone plan that has no data or low data?
I am thinking about switching over to h2o's Unlimited Talk, Text and 500mb plan to save money and become less dependent on my cell phone. I find myself using about 5 GBS a month on straight talk but its nothing productive, just downloading the latest roms or downloading an app only to delete a few minutes later or checking facebook. I think I could get by fine just using wifi and then the 500MB to check email or use my GPS.
Thoughts?

brooksyx said:
Anyone here use their Nexus 5 on a prepaid cellphone plan that has no data or low data?
I am thinking about switching over to h2o's Unlimited Talk, Text and 500mb plan to save money and become less dependent on my cell phone. I find myself using about 5 GBS a month on straight talk but its nothing productive, just downloading the latest roms or downloading an app only to delete a few minutes later or checking facebook. I think I could get by fine just using wifi and then the 500MB to check email or use my GPS.
Thoughts?
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No disrespect but try to find a hobby, its just a phone

gee2012 said:
No disrespect but try to find a hobby, its just a phone
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I think you fail to see my point. This is XDA, where we talk about phones.

brooksyx said:
I think you fail to see my point. This is XDA, where we talk about phones.
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True, but me personaly is see no point in flashing just to flash

gee2012 said:
True, but me personaly is see no point in flashing just to flash
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I see no point in posting just to post.
But going off your post count and the lack of relation to the thread in your posts, you would disagree... Maybe you should get a hobby

brooksyx said:
I see no point in posting just to post.
But going off your post count and the lack of relation to the thread in your posts, you would disagree... Maybe you should get a hobby
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Oke, lets call you the winner, i don`t argue to argue. You posted to get feedback and now you don`t like what i`am saying you make it personal. Good day bro

Hi,
gee2012 said:
No disrespect but try to find a hobby, its just a phone
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Sorry but... Hobby can be phones, it depends of your point. Maybe because you are on stock non rooted (as I read if I'm not wrong) doesn't mean other users do not have their phones to test kernels, roms, tweak their phone as a hobby.
gee2012 said:
True, but me personaly is see no point in flashing just to flash
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For testing purposes?
Like you download an app just to see or to test, you can download a rom and flash it to test, right?
That being said, for the OP, not sure a low data plan will make you less "dependent" (maybe good for money), if you have access to wifi? You can always download all the last roms via wifi
It will depend of your real use apart downloading rom, maybe it will be enough with only GPS (again it depends the frequency of use, GPS can be a huge consumer of data ) and email...

gee2012 said:
Oke, lets call you the winner, i don`t argue to argue. You posted to get feedback and now you don`t like what i`am saying you make it personal. Good day bro
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But you didn't post relevant feedback at all. You meant complete offense and said I have no life just because I was asking about thoughts on switching to a lower costing phone plan. I don't see how that has anything to do with me having a life or not.

brooksyx said:
But you didn't post relevant feedback at all. You meant complete offense and said I have no life just because I was asking about thoughts on switching to a lower costing phone plan. I don't see how that has anything to do with me having a life or not.
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You stated in your OP that you think you download and flash too much and you want to cutdown on your plan. If you download 5GB of data and its usefull its fine, but if you delete most of it its a waste of time. It was not my intention to say you have no life, as i don`t know you Lets keep it at this, i never attack or judge users, you can read all my posts if you want.

Hammer_Of_The_Gods said:
That being said, for the OP, not sure a low data plan will make you less "dependent", if you have access to wifi? You can always download all the last roms via wifi
It will depend of your real use apart downloading rom, maybe it will be enough with only GPS (again it depends the frequency of use) and email...
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I mean dependent in terms of using the phone when I am out in about in public where wifi isnt available. I have no guilt about using my phone when I am sitting at home on the couch watching TV but it will deter the urge to browse the web when I am out with friends or something.

gee2012 said:
You stated in your OP that you think you download and flash too much and you want to cutdown on your plan. If you download 5GB of data and its usefull its fine, but if you delete most of it its a waste of time. It was not my intention to say you have no life, as i don`t know you Lets keep it at this, i never attack or judge users, you can read all my posts if you want.
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Telling someone they need to find a hobby usually implies that you think someone doesn't have a life.
PS it takes literally 5 minutes to download and flash the latest nightly of cyanogemod. I am not downloading a miillion different roms each month. Just staying up to date.
edit: also and saying "no offense" before saying something offensive isn't a hall pass to say something rude.

What's the issue here "Nexus 5 on no data / low data plan." or hobbies.....let's end the hobby discussion. Thanks

Only issue I can think of is that most of the Google Now voice commands seem to require an internet connection to work.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I am also on a limited data plan (400mb /mo) and find it kind of limiting. What i use is DS battery saver which turns off your data while your screen is off and turns it on every 30/45/60min for updates. It saves me some data and some battery so it's a win/win for me. I tend to limit my data navigation to mail/facebook and messaging apps and keep the cat gifs/videos for wifi/pc.
Another app you can try is onovo extend (it compresses the internet traffic trough their servers) but i found it a bit fiddly (never know if it's working or not and need to check it constantly) and i suspect it interferes with some apps (had a problem with my maps app but dont quote me on that).
Opera browser also compresses traffic for reduced data use.
Other than this, only your common sense and self control can bring your data use down. Being prepaid can't you buy more data anytime if you need it ?

brooksyx said:
Anyone here use their Nexus 5 on a prepaid cellphone plan that has no data or low data?
I am thinking about switching over to h2o's Unlimited Talk, Text and 500mb plan to save money and become less dependent on my cell phone. I find myself using about 5 GBS a month on straight talk but its nothing productive, just downloading the latest roms or downloading an app only to delete a few minutes later or checking facebook. I think I could get by fine just using wifi and then the 500MB to check email or use my GPS.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't download much but still using 2gb a month - maybe go for 3 gig and see how that goes? 500mb is nothing nowadays.

I think unless you actually turn the data off, you'd struggle to stay under a 500GB a month allowance. Having seen what mine does on a day when I Fine really use it, id be concerned. You'd definitely need to tweak your sync settings and/or turn off data. Possibily even use opera browser or similar to compress your web pages.
Managing that plan sounds like too much of a chore
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I have a voice and text only plan using WiFi when I need the type of downloads you describe. If I want to watch videos or listen to Music I carry a Meenova OTG micoSD card reader (check the N5 accessories section) and preload the files I need. I consider most of the data plans to be a huge consumer ripoff and am not willing not shell out the bucks for a minor convenience. My comments are definitely personal choice and there are so many WiFi hot spots around the impact of not always having Internet access hasn't hit me yet.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

3DSammy said:
I have a voice and text only plan using WiFi when I need the type of downloads you describe. If I want to watch videos or listen to Music I carry a Meenova OTG micoSD card reader (check the N5 accessories section) and preload the files I need. I consider most of the data plans to be a huge consumer ripoff and am not willing not shell out the bucks for a minor convenience. My comments are definitely personal choice and there are so many WiFi hot spots around the impact of not always having Internet access hasn't hit me yet.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
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I think this comes down to region too (pricing I mean).
In the UK you can get 200 minutes, 5000 texts and truly unlimited data for £12.90 a month (sim only). £15.90 if you want 600 minutes.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Why do you have to download ROMs and apps over 3G? Don't you have wireless at home?
I can easily survive a month with 500MB, while checking my e-mail a few times a day (about 10 e-mails over 5 syncs), checking a few tens of articles over feedly and reading at least 5-10 of them, playing 8 Ball Pool (by Miniclip) at least on hour, using Waze for at least half an hour and other occasional searches. I only install apps over 3G on rare occasions (once a week at most), and when I cannot wait until I get home. And sometimes I'm wondering how could I wisely use more data, not to pile it up at the end of the month.
But that's just me...

Both me and my wife manage fine on a 250mb monthly plan. Over 3G we only need the odd update for the weather app and the usual Whatsapp photos and videos, from other family members. Whilst the photos and vids do consume most of that meagre allowance it still works out fine. The videos will get downloaded when at home and using the wi-fi connection.
Knowing that we are "restricted" on a tight data plan (but managing fine) it does tend to discipline me to no longer bother about using the phone more "frivolously", in terms of data usage, and I suppose when I'm at home I'll use my tablet or PC, much bigger screens etc.
Neither of us feel restricted in our use, and it works out much cheaper, but it does focus the attention away from the phone and the habitual data usage which was neither important nor needed.