Mobile services help

How do I manage/minimise my mobile data usage?

The Smartphone is a device which runs an operating system similar to a PC and allows similar functionality. It is capable of running many different applications and may mean that these applications are capable of still running in the background using data even if not being used.

• There are free applications which are available to download which will track mobile data usage.  
• These applications allow you to track usage on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
• You can enter in your monthly allowance depending on what bundle you have. 
• The applications show data that is sent and received. This is important as both the sent and received data counts towards your total data used.
• There are other apps that may help like apps to manage tasks on the phones. 
• Some apps can normally remain open in the background and continuously connect for updates etc…so this will allow you to ensure all apps are closed and won't continue to use your data bundle allowance.

These applications can currently be found free of charge on the app market place.

What does this meant to me?

This means that the phone can be using data from your allowance/bundle even when the phone is in your pocket with the screen off.

What applications can be responsible on running in the background?

• E-mail 
• social networking 
• news & weather feeds

The above can all be responsible for background data consumption.  

Some smartphone operating systems (eg Android, Symbian, Windows mobile) include social networking feeds/widgets as standard.

You can enter your social networking details (eg Facebook, Twitter etc) and the phone will continue to download updates in the background using your data allowance.  

This will give you the most up to date information when you want it, but also means that you are using data in the background which also applies to e-mail, any news feeds or weather updates.  

Its not as simple as knowing that an application is using data however, it also depends on how each application has been set up.  

For example, it is possible to setup a feed to update every

• 5 mins 
• 15 mins
• 30 mins
• 1 hour 
• 2 hours 
• 4 hours etc

The more often the device updates, the more data will be used. 

It also applies to e-mail, where it is possible to setup e-mail to poll more often (if not using push e-mail) and it’s also possible to choose how much is downloaded – e.g. the first few kilobytes of an e-mail or the entire mail including attachments.  

Choosing to download the entire mail and attachments will see you using your data allowance much more quickly.

Data usage can vary greatly depending on how each application is set up and how many e-mails/feeds you receive.

To find out more please see, What does Data being Push to the device mean?

How do I minimise data usage?

Key points in minimising your data usage:

• E-mail set up can vary greatly, with regards to polling intervals and what a user chooses to download. 
• Application & feeds set up define how often and how much “unseen” data is used. 
• Wi-fi should be used where appropriate.