I'm not sure where to put this and I apologize if it's in the wrong section, but I only see forum sections for specific phones and I have an I535 and others have posted bill questions in their respective phone section.
I had a Verizon rep explain this to me but it sort of went over my head. When increasing the data package during the billing cycle (this is what the rep said), the way it works is they credit me for the full price of the talk/text/data plan that I've had for the duration of the billing cycle so far, then he did some math based on each day in the billing cycle, which I understood, and that equalled how much data I would be allotted for the rest of the billing cycle (what didn't make sense is why they calculate it that way but whatever), and would charge me for the entire billing cycle on the upgraded plan. Thus, I would be charged the difference. This makes no sense to me. Why not charge the difference and label it?
So I looked at my last couple of bills to make more sense of it and I noticed something. On my second to last bill, it shows a credit for the amount of the 4 gb plan, a charge for the 6 gb plan, and a charge for the 6 gb plan a month in advance. The following month (the latest bill) however, I was charged the normal price for everything. So, where the hell did that advance payment go? I've called twice today and been on hold for over an hour both times..I just don't have time to waste on hold. It seems like everytime I call VZW their automated line says they're experiencing unusually high call volume. Maybe if they made more sense out of their billing processes they wouldn't have so many calls. I don't know, I'm ranting. Am I missing something?
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I'm at a loss to understand my data use. I check email every 30 minutes or so, and have the phone configured to download 4K tops. I receive around 25 messages per day, so that is 100K in downloads. I have weather checked every 5 hours, and it records data use, at around 40K per day. T-Mobile says I use 1.5MB per day.
Moreover, when I switched from the Treo to the T-Mobile MDA, my data use went from 50KB per day to 1.5MB, and my behavior is not significantly different.
As I have an unlimited plan, this only matters in roaming, but it matters a lot there, as travel that used to generate $10 in charges is now generating $450.
Any ideas about what might cause such large unnoticed data use?
Like you, I have my Cingular 8125 set to check emails every hour and receive 40 - 50 per day with the full message instead of just the headers. In addition, my weather program updates the forecast and current conditions every 2 hours. I may spend 10 - 15 minutes a day web browsing. When I divided the total data useage on my last bill by the number of days in the billing cycle, it cames out to just over 2mb/day. WOW!! Didn't know how much I was actually using.
However, I also have the Unlimited Data Plan with Cingular, so I don't incur extra charges for it, but 2mb/day seems pretty high to me.
Hey!
While using Smartphones for more than 2 years and beeing a computer-enthusiast I'm pretty much stumped at the moment.
I just got a 350€ phonebill ....
The first thing i did ofc was check my online-bill and see there ->
At 5 different days my handy consumed 500mb each within a few hours .
I didn't use any trafficmonitoring tools since i NEVER(!) topped 200mb. I just used my phone to surf a bit and check for e-mails.
This month i installed Skype. I did NO Phonecalls and chatted for a few hours tops which resulted in horrendous 2 gig traffic (my contract covers 1gb)
Just wanted to tell you guys to take care!
This is why I use 3G Watchdog Pro and APN Droid, because, you just never know
I had a similar problem last year, had a £99 bill which didn't get capped at £45 over like it should.
I went really over on my last months calls/text allowance resulting in a pretty hefty bill (my fault I know!)
So I'm looking for a decent app that can monitor the number of minutes and texts I've used in a certain period, preferably setable so it can alert me when I'm low etc. An app with widgets would be perfect too
I've seen a few on the market but I was wondering if theres a general consensus to the best one
I've been using both AT&T and T-Mobile (StraightTalk and T-Mobile) contract free for several months now and regardless of what my signal is on the two, I always seem to get worse battery life with StraightTalk/AT&T. Has anyone else played around with using both in the same places for an extended period of time and had the same results?
I'm trying to decide which I'm going to go with and so far even though I get LTE service in less areas with T-Mobile, I'm almost tempted to stick with them just because 1) when I do have LTE service, it's a ton faster then AT&T and 2) I get much less battery drain on T-Mobile then I do with AT&T.
Even in places where I had worse reception with T-Mobile (which less face it, is very often), I still get less battery drain then when I switch to AT&T and have a much better signal. Not sure if I'm hallucinating or if anyone else has experienced the same.
For example, at the hotel I'm currently at, while on T-Mobile my signal isn't quite as good as it is with AT&T but it takes several HOURS before my battery % drops below 90%. On AT&T I have a much better signal but yet I'll be within the low 80s after 3 or so hours.
Has anyone else tried this and if so have you noticed the same thing?
battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.
simms22 said:
battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.
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Oh I realize all of that. When home and not on travel I pretty much utilize my phone at two locations. Home and Work. In both locations I used each network for about 2 weeks checking cell signals etc and using the phone the same way the entire time. During this time I've noticed one constant, my phone with AT&T always drains the battery much faster. To be honest I thought I was crazy but I double checked and ran for another couple of weeks..this time basically logging battery life with usage and connection quality. AT&T on average had a better signal but also drained the battery faster...usage was about the same through the test. So I did the same thing while basically sitting in a hotel for a few days and just letting the phone sit as I was mainly using a separate phone on Sprint. Same thing..the time I had the phone sitting there with AT&T it had almost a perfect signal but the phone drained quite a bit faster then T-Mobile with practically no utilization. Obviously I rebooted prior to each.
I realize this doesn't make any sense at all but it's something I'm noticing.
I just found your post, and I'm experiencing the exact same issue. To quote a post I just made on reddit:
I've been a T-mobile prepaid customer (the $30 5gb plan) since I've had the N5, and recently I decided to switch to Straight Talk for the better coverage (I got the AT&T compatible SIM). I've been using the Straight Talk SIM for the past week, and I've notice two very odd things:
1. Battery life is significantly worse on Straight Talk. Unfortunately I don't have any before and after screen shots, but to provide context, a typical day of usage on T-mobile would leave me with ~50% battery life at the end of the day. Now, with Straight Talk and that same usage, I'm down to 10-20%.
2. With Straight Talk, I consistently have 4-5 bars of LTE, but oftentimes when I try and load a web page, there can be about a 5 second delay before the page starts loading. Even when running the Speed Test app, when it's testing the download speed, it will sometimes completely stop mid-download for a few seconds.
Have you found any solution to the battery issue you cited in your post?
I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/
ParadingLunatic said:
I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/
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again, it still fits right in, its the data/phone signal quality that decides the battery life, as i wrote earlier. lowered quality = lowered battery life, period.
I have an Infuse that I got a little over two years ago. It started out with Froyo and I installed the official Gingerbread update after using the phone for a while. Long story short, I will need to keep it for a while yet so I can't just upgrade through my carrier (AT&T).
Here's my problem. A few months ago, I very abruptly had a battery problem. One day I had a normal recharge/discharge cycle in terms of how long the battery lasted (usually around 60% remaining when I plugged it in at night), and the next day the entire battery was drained in less than 14 hours. I typically leave it plugged in at work now, whereas before I could go for almost two days without needing to charge. Nothing changed in how much I used it. I had not installed any new programs.
I want to try to fix this phone before forking over money for a new one. Does anyone have an idea of what is going on here? Looking at my battery usage stats, "cell standby" seems to be in 1st or 2nd place for battery drain, depending on how much the screen has been on (with typical use for me, "display" is usually #1, but if I've not checked my messages or email much, that drops down to 2nd-4th place with cell standby at the top). I'm not sure if that info is of any help.
Someone told me recently that he had a similar problem with a (different) older phone, and someone had told him that some of the older technology in the towers was being phased out and the phone was draining its battery looking for a signal that wasn't as strong anymore due to there being fewer towers it could get a signal from. Is that true?
Thanks to whoever can give me any assistance. If you need more info please ask.
QuantaFille said:
I have an Infuse that I got a little over two years ago. It started out with Froyo and I installed the official Gingerbread update after using the phone for a while. Long story short, I will need to keep it for a while yet so I can't just upgrade through my carrier (AT&T).
Here's my problem. A few months ago, I very abruptly had a battery problem. One day I had a normal recharge/discharge cycle in terms of how long the battery lasted (usually around 60% remaining when I plugged it in at night), and the next day the entire battery was drained in less than 14 hours. I typically leave it plugged in at work now, whereas before I could go for almost two days without needing to charge. Nothing changed in how much I used it. I had not installed any new programs.
I want to try to fix this phone before forking over money for a new one. Does anyone have an idea of what is going on here? Looking at my battery usage stats, "cell standby" seems to be in 1st or 2nd place for battery drain, depending on how much the screen has been on (with typical use for me, "display" is usually #1, but if I've not checked my messages or email much, that drops down to 2nd-4th place with cell standby at the top). I'm not sure if that info is of any help.
Someone told me recently that he had a similar problem with a (different) older phone, and someone had told him that some of the older technology in the towers was being phased out and the phone was draining its battery looking for a signal that wasn't as strong anymore due to there being fewer towers it could get a signal from. Is that true?
Thanks to whoever can give me any assistance. If you need more info please ask.
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Lets rule out any obvious culprit by installing Wakelock Detector, and letting it run until the battery becomes low (then post the stats). There may be an app that stands out.
I have a similar issue with my current phone. It is sporadic, and I think it is a process within Android Services that came with Fly-On Mod (once a week I have bad battery but a reboot fixes it, only discovered it after installing Fly-On). Haven't bothered removing it yet because a latest ROM update seems imminent and I would rather wait for that if I'm wiping everything.