iPhone 4 Data Question

[TheMoreItSnows]

Thinking of gettng an iPhone 4 - looking at the O2 tariffs here. Bit of a dullard when it comes to stuff like this - 500MB data/month included - what does that actually mean to me - 1hr/day surfing, or 5 hrs/day - can anyone put it into real language? (I understand that if connected to wi-fi it is not counted in that data download...) Thanks!

Depends what you do while surfing. When I went to some website (I think it was MacUser.co.uk the other day, my little old {Windows Mobile} phone showed it downloaded around 890 kb (that's not far short of 1 MB) just to grab the 'home page' - probably a load of photos in that count.

OK, one doesn't download the same page dozens of times, but if you use YouTube and so on, you could 'clock up' quite a bit of data. Download some MP3 music track and it may be 4 to 5 MB and if you went onto some government website and found a report that you wanted to read, before you knew it you might have downloaded 12 MB of a PDF (not every site shows how large the downloads are) - and don't always tell you that the link gets a PDF rather than just another web (HTML) page for you.

I've seen some comment that in the course of a month they download around 100 MB in total, but everyone is individual and chooses different web sites to visit, for different amounts of time and may download dramatically different amounts.

I suppose the thing to ask before signing a contract is 'how easy is it to check how much has been downloaded' and secondly, 'if I want to download more, is there some bolt-on that I can pay for'.

Someone said in a different thread that you can add 500 MB for 5 pounds with a bolt-on from O2. That's cheaper than paying some high fee per MB 'extra' you use, but still not cheap .

For comparison purposes, I am using a dongle with Three on this laptop, at 1000 MB for 50p, so I get 15 GB for only 7.50 a month. OK, it isn't an iPhone, and the data transfer speed might be slower, but it compares quite adequately with landline ISP prices, and makes the charges for data for iPhones look too steep for me to be tempted {even if I had the cash for an iPhone}.

If I wanted to have some music from say Jazz FM then I would use up the 500 MB in a few days listening say 5 hours a day. That's perhaps an unusual 'use' but imagine some people listening to the football or cricket via an iPhone if their company blocked audio through the company network (not a bad idea for the company)... FiveLive can use 25 MB an hour (and that's a speech channel in mono, not stereo music).

I read somewhere that it is the equivalent of streaming video for 3 minutes everyday for a month, which doesn't seem like a lot to me!

Have you got an iPhone already? My iPhone says I have sent 104MB and received 488MB of data since I got it in February and I am online with it everyday several times over, but I don't go on youtube or stream radio that much.

Are you pre-ordering one? I was going to but I want a white one, which isn't available to pre order

Because data usage varies so much according to what your actually surfing it might help if people with mobile gadgets posted up some samples of what they get up to and how much data it uses.

For example someone might say they have an iPhone, use the Facebook app several times a day and browse non-video web sites for an hour or so on the train every day and they use X mb of data.

If you're on an iPhone you can see the data usage by going to Settings and then General followed by Usage and scrolling to the bottom.

Am I right in thinking that the 500mb a month limit is for 3G usage. So you have unlimited wifi download limit, so hopefully most of the time you would be able to find a wifi spot. Then if there is no wifi available the phone switches to 3g which is where the 500mb limit comes in?

Oooooh goodness, erm I am assuming that in a wifi hotspot you connect and that counts as 'free' under the wifi useage, so I guess we're only looking at what one might be doing when on the train, in transit, not near a wifi spot etc etc.

Network Guy - fab answer thanks, I think that O2 aren't offering that £5 bolt on for extra data until Oct. Does both sent and received data count - or just received?

BadgersPaws - now that would be helpful, samples please folks of what you use your iPhones for and what data useage you consume...

I know it you can't expect it be cheap as it is just out, but just trying to get my head round it, otherwise I'll return to my b plan of a HTC Desire (although the whole unorganised apps thing puts me off a bit) anyone successfully using iTunes with he HTC Desire? (Seen instructions on how to do it on the web)

I've been wavering between an iphone and Desire for a while now. Like you its the apps shop for android apps that is putting me off.

Your home WIFI is certainly unlimited, so use as much of it as you like.

When you're out and about it depends on what hotspots you find. Personally I never seem to find a free WIFI access point as often as you think you might, even in London where you'd think these things would be relatively common.

Something important to look at with the iPhone contracts is what WIFI access you get with it. For example O2 offer access to The Cloud and OpenZone WIFI access points for free when you would normally have to pay for them.

So with those two extra things you might be able to get onto a WIFI point and get free net access more often than you think you might.

If you can't get onto a WIFI point then you fall back to your 3G connection and have your data limit.

Most ISPs count the total data (sent and received) so I assume that is the same for the mobile networks. Otherwise someone could set up some 'streaming' radio studio or webcam and never hit any limit on data (while sending as fast as their mobile connection allowed). It would not be as reliable as a landline, perhaps, but imagine the 'snoop' value for someone working for News of the World some newspaper wanting gossip and candid shots of someone at their swimming pool...

That deal with The Cloud and OpenZone sounds pretty good. However, I can just imagine my BiL wanting to listen to cricket for 3 full days using my sister's iPhone when on some campsite miles from anywhere. Their dogs may be happy out in the fresh air and running about, and sister too, enjoying some good book(s), until she found how much data had been used!

Thanks for the info regarding the bolt-on. I had not checked the small print, but it was the fact that it's only on contracts started after the 24/06 (when new iPhone can be obtained) that the O2 contracts start with a 500 MB limit instead of 'unlimited' {which I have now seen described as either 1 GB or 2.5 GB a month, from different web site users).

I just wonder if Three have any plans to get the iPhone on their network... if they do the same sort of deals (use Skype without counting the data traffic, etc) and offering 5 GB or more for data limit each month, they could be worth me looking at.

I am on my iPhone all the time for surfing, downloading apps and youtube and my monthly data use is around the 200MB mark. However, when I'm away from home and use it to listen to the radio, then my usage flies up to more than 1.5GB.

In short, for the average user you're not going to touch the 500MB limit.

when are the actual phone prices available?

I'd read that iPhone 4 was being carried by all networks.

Apple's web site briefly had a pre-order page for a non-contract tied unlocked iPhone 4g, £499 for a 16gb model and £599 for a 32gb one.

You'd be able to use that on any network, though some of the functionality, such as the visual voice mail, may not work.

The page has gone down now but there's an "updating soon" message which is what usually happens just before an announcement.

Yup there you go, Apple have announced their prices for an unlocked non-contract tied iPhone.

store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

Rockbird - just lucky you will be able to keep to the same (more generous) limits so long as you keep that contract going...

Only time I have reached my limit was on holiday for two weeks with regular checking things for holiday/fv/ mn

I know, but having seen the PAYG prices this morning eeek! Which is daft as I've bought enough of these damn phones over the years to know what price to expect.

I have reserved one but not particularly happy about changing that contract...hmmm...

I don't ever remember being in a queue for a sale, and have never been waiting for shops to open at midnight to buy something as one of the 'early adopters' (!)

I just bought lots of different ones of the things I like (several short wave radios, several amateur radio sets, then scanner radios), and following on from having an Atari 2600 had {in no particular order} ZX81, Dragon 32, Spectrum, Sinclair QL, Dragon 64, BBC Micro, Tangerine, Amstrad PCW8256 and then IBM PC, IBM AT, and then a dozen or more different PCs (mostly passed on to me from offices). Oh, and umpteen (low tech) mobile phones, but nearly all with FM radio in them.

Yes, wrong thread for someone with a 'hoarding' problem, but ditched 80% in last (forced) house move...

the data limit thing might be a deal breaker for me. unlimited data was one of the huge attractions.
Does anyone know if apps that use gps (like some of the cycle apps) go through the 3g entwork (and hence count towards data usuage?)

It's very much going to depend on the app.

Pure GPS doesn't, or shouldn't, involve using the 3G network. However an individual app might still use the 3G network and thus still count towards your data usage.

cool - thanks Badger