I rarely use over 2GB of data per month. Usually most of my data traffic happens over wifi. Curious.
If you want to know why I’m asking:
My phone provider just decided to upgrade my subscription plan some ridiculous amount. I was on a cheap prepaid 18GB every 28 days plan, with data rollover. (I got nearly 900 GB of rollover data just sitting there, accumulated over the years).
Now they increased both their price and data cap about +60%. For me this is absolutely unnecessary. I was already paying for more than what I used.
Then I tried to switch providers, and realized this is the new baseline in the country, at least for monthly prepaid. Eventually I found a few providers that offer something more affordable, but it’s only long expiry plans with a lot less data. Works for me though, not complaining.
I’m just surprised with the sheer amounts in most monthly plans, am I some kind of low usage freak?
About 120 GB a month. Luckily, data is unlimited.
I love how you get a warning at 2GB
I WFH so between 3 - 4gb per month on mobile network. If I’m on holiday or have to head to the office more for some reason it’ll go up.
Most of it is audio, either music or podcasts, so with a bit of planning I could pre-download stuff on WiFi if I needed to cut down.
I’m in the UK and totally agree the packages are just ridiculous in price and data limits, I get by on £5 a month rolling - Lebara, Lyca - seem to offer the best small deals.
For comparison I use 30-40gb on WiFi.
Interesting you mentioned Lyca as a provider of small deals. I’m in Australia and we also have Lyca here, it’s not super popular but they have one of the most affordable plans. I didn’t pick it because they don’t offer keeping your previous phone number.
It’s a legal requirement in the UK. Mobile number is used in so many places it’s effectively acting as an ID.
This fosters consumer choice and supports effective competition by removing barriers to switching – being able to keep your number may impact your decision to change provider.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/number-portability-info
I snatched a no-monthly-payment plan sometime around 2010, and am holding to it for dear life — even though it hasn’t been offered to new clients for a long time. Thankfully, where I am, the provider can’t change the defining conditions of my plan.
I rarely call anyone, and don’t use the internet on the phone outside of WiFi networks (I listen to downloaded podcasts and read downloaded articles instead, and use OsmAnd for maps). Which means that the fifteen bucks that I paid over three years ago still haven’t been used.
How do you download articles in advance? I used to use pocket but it’s been discontinued.
I still have some unread in Pocket, and also use self-hosted Wallabag. The downside of the latter is that you can’t limit the number or size of the synced articles, it pulls all that’s on the server (at least with the self-hosted approach). It’s also a bit poorer in features comparatively and isn’t developed much, if at all.
TBH I practically stopped reading outside, because I’m mostly in motion there — and on the bus it’s increasingly uncomfortable to have the page shake in front of me, with my myopia. So I just put on podcasts or audiobooks from the time I’m getting dressed and all the way to the destination.
Thanks for the reply, I will checkout Wallabag.
