February 6, 2012

Back last summer, AT&T cancelled their unlimited data service. This was as a way of protecting themselves due to an onslaught of new iPhone users due to the release of the iPhone 4S and the free 3Gs. However, as a way of looking out for the users already with unlimited data, the carrier allowed those users to grandfather the plan to their current and subsequent plans, until they opt out for the cheaper options. However, this plan has now backfired for the carrier.

With new users with tiered plans pressuring data systems, along with unlimited data users already stretching their data privileges, AT&T is going on a campaign to counter the “Top 5%”. These are the individuals who use large amounts of data a month. However, some users with the tiered system are even receiving some of these notifications, even though they barely use their allowance. Whether you’re affected (when you must lower your usage) or not, it is still nice to other AT&T users like myself to not go ridiculous with usage. It not only makes for a larger bill for yourself, but can affect Internet speeds for users. Below, we have offered some good solutions to lowering your usage without having to count every single KB.

Use WIFI

Yes, this should be a simple enough tip, but it actually isn’t. Half of you reading this most likely don’t have your WIFI turned on. This will greatly save you on Data. WIFI is almost always free these days, since the emphasis on WIFI is so great, the days of charging for WIFI in public places are far gone. WIFI can be turned on in your settings sections.

Quit Applications When Finished

Another thing that many new iPhone users don’t know about is how to quit applications. Especially those new to the iPhone concept, “quitting applications” seems relatively foreign. However, when you use an application and click the home button, that doesn’t magically make it go away. Thanks to multitasking, for some a blessing and a curse, the application still runs. This is perfect for those typing a document or Facebook status and are interrupted by the boss or a Words with Friends notification, but it’s bad for those who want to save on data. To quit an application, double tap your home button, press and hold the application until it “wiggles” and then press the red delete button to quit.

Tackle the Email Problem

Email is a sneaky data stealer, and it’s one of my biggest data killers. For one, if you have your mail “push”ed into your inbox, this means  your inbox is repeatedly checked for a new message, then the data is almost always in use. In addition, if you have an email hooked up that already receives a ton of mail, you can forget about data control being a possibility. To counter these two problems, you must first make sure that you don’t add a busy email. For example, my work email receives a ton of mail a day, this has caused me to make use of the mobile site in Safari or wait until I get home to check my email. However, I hooked up my less traffic prone personal email. In addition, in the mail settings, I changed from push email. Now, the only time Mail checks for a new email is when I go into the application. Big time and data saver!

Your Weekly Check-up

No, your doctor will not give you a report of your data along with your check up. However, we mean that you should make use of the “View Data Usage” technique if you’re on a tiered data plan. This means calling “*3282#” to receive a text message of how much data you’ve used out of your allowance. This allows you to get an assessment of how much you have used. This is great for data portion control, and you may be surprised with how little you’ve used based on the techniques above.

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