Controlling Your Mobile Bill: Data Allowance

There is a new announcement that many tariff subscribers should be wary about: the old unlimited internet access is no longer available, networks are now categorizing data usage rates into samples of 200MB, 500MB and more. It is a very big move from having 1GB to just 200MB, and while it is reported that the average mobile phone user consumes less than 200MB each month, every user should be aware.

Of course, if you are already on a plan and are planning to simply renew, then the network operator is obliged to keep you at the original rate you have. On the other hand, data plans for new subscribers have to be watched and monitored in order to ensure that monthly usage does not surpass the given allowance.

According to O2, the new plan will also keep users informed and up to date with text messages summarizing data usage. But users will still need to be aware that certain things will drain their allowance. First off, refreshing advertisements –just because a person has loaded a page on the internet does not mean that there is not data being transferred. More often than not, ads tend to change; cycle and refresh, which means that it would be wise to disconnect of stop all page processes if you intend to read a long news article or post.

Videos are also an obvious thing to look out for. Despite the relatively small size of YouTube uploaded videos and more, these will add up, and some videos that are only two minutes long could be over 10MB depending on the quality. The best thing that people can do is to minimize the media access on their mobiles. Connect to the web only if needed and for all other purposes, use a netbook or computer instead.

Tags: bandwidth, Data-allowance, Internet, O2, YouTube