isnot.tv

Hard to believe I've had my iPhone for over 30 days now, and although it's still incredibly buggy and slow in some areas, it's quickly become my single must-have-on-me-at-all-times-or-else-i'll-die device.

One thing I planned to do from the day I got the phone was to record my data consumption. I ended up going with a Vodafone which many peeps gave me a hard time about given their pathetically small data allocation, but I'd been with them for years and lets just say they made me a good enough offer to stay :D

So anyway, I wanted to get a good idea on how much data one could actually consume using the iPhone, so I disabled WiFi, and relied only on 3G for the entire month, through this month I used the handset as a normal user would, I downloaded apps (although I didn't go app crazy), used mail (7 email accounts, two push, the rest IMAP), surfed the web on the train/bus/taxis etc, used maps quite a lot, etc, etc. Overall, I attempted not to alter my usage to download more or less than I would in a normal month. And here's the results:

So at the end of my billing cycle I struggled to use the 500mb data allocated to my plan, not to bad considering my phone was constantly checking for emails, app updates, map data, etc. It goes to show that those claiming to require a plan with several gigabytes of data really don't require it.

The two spikes of inbound data you see are days when I went a little app crazy, downloading and trialing a few apps. The outbound data is quite interesting too, I didn't use nearly as much as i'd have expected, since I frequently uploaded images through Twinkle or email.

If the iTunes music store permitted 3G download of music, I dare say this graph would have been different, but only by ~50-75mb's.

On the 16th I enabled WiFi and welcomed the speed increase that came along with it, and I've noticed two things: 1) the amount of data I consume through 3G has dropped by ~90%!, and 2) my battery lasts longer!, two welcomed enhancements no doubt.

I've got WiFi at home and in the office, so I only require 3G when I'm in transit, and considering I only live 10-20 mins away from work, there isn't much being consumed.

Overall, I'm quite happy with my plan and all that comes along with it, although Vodafone f**ked up massively by not changing my plan details, so I received a bill for $4,750! but they've since credited my account with the excessive data costs... It's hard to believe that before the iPhone, that's how much Vodafone would have charged you for ~350mb of data!

Question: How much data have you consumed this month via mobile? (if you didn't know you can see your usage in Settings>General>Usage)