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200 mb enough?

Snow_Fox

Snow_Fox

Android Expert
if I live at home with wifi

and go to school with wifi..

and I only occassionally use GPS(maybe once a year)..

The only thing being updates would be widgets every 15-30 minutes..

Would 200mb be sufficient?
 
You can always downgrade your plan with no penalties. 200mb is pretty paltry for a smartphone. What I would do is use the phone how you normally would with the 2gb plan and then see how much data you use, on your bill. I bet it'll be more than you think even using wifi. I'm on wifi most of the time as well and somehow I gobbled up like 300mb no idea how, didn't really make sense.
 
Depends on what you use it for. I use WiFi at home, only. During the school day, even though there is WiFi, I tend to just not go on the internet that much. I have my laptop, so I'm good in that regard. However, whenever I unlock my phone, my weather widget updates the temperature, I occasionally check my Twitter/Facebook/Email, but that's it. Any major downloads wait until I'm on WiFi, as that is a lot faster anyways.

I've yet to go over 50 MB. Like I said, I use it lightly when I'm not on WiFi, but even if I didn't, I still don't use the phone that much during the day anyways, as I like to maintain battery.

My plan: Unlimited. Why? I switched over from a messaging phone that had the bundled unlimited data+text for $30/month. ATT has yet to catch that I'm using a smartphone (again, I'm being wary) so I'm just riding it out as long as I can.
 
im on the 200mb with wifi at home and school also, i havent come close to overusing but i turn data completely off unless i want to update widgets or something. its alittle easier to stay under 200mb when im on edge also
 
Use 3G Watchdog on your Captivate as it'll monitor your total data used and then at like 95% turn off your 3G so you don't get screwed in the additional fees.

I use wifi 90% of the time on my old Nokia E71, but now with the Captivate seeing as I have no choice I'll take the 200mb plan and get to use it for traffic and light googling etc.
 
You betcha it's enough. I'm in the same situation with wifi at home, work, and school. I'm a week away from the end of my billing cycle and I haven't reached 50mb yet. I turn off my data connection when I don't need it (a small price to pay, for me at least) with SMODA widget (a simple, 1x1 widget that works flawlessly on my Captivate, available on the marketplace).

I'm not a light user either. Granted, I don't usually watch videos on my phone, but I do take advantage of its capabilities.
 
hm. I may try for this then.

200 mb seems more reasonable than ever. May try to push the issue with mah parents again.
 
I agree 200mb should be good enough. Unless you do a ton of youtubeing, pandoraing, or other video/audio streaming, data intense games and or apps while on 3g you'll be fine. According to something I read from AT&T a while back when they got rid of the unlimited deal, they said something like 70% of their users use 200mb or less while 98% use less than 2gb.

Just try to limit yourself while on 3g, save youtube, pandora and stuff for when you are on wifi. As it's been said before, try it for the first month and just keep an eye on your usage, then adjust if you need to.
 
Depends on the coverage of wifi in your school. If the coverage isn't good enough, your phone might accidentally switch over to 3G without you knowing. But there are apps on the market that allows you to disable 3G.
 
snapper.fishes said:
Depends on the coverage of wifi in your school. If the coverage isn't good enough, your phone might accidentally switch over to 3G without you knowing. But there are apps on the market that allows you to disable 3G.
Click to expand...

Yup, I experienced this before I discovered SMODA widget. Definitely find a way to just turn off the data connection.
 
200mb can be enough, but probably wont' be. But the problem isn't whether you can generally keep under 200mb, it's this:

200mb for $15
go over and automatically billed another $15 for another 200mb
= $30 for 400mb = 7.5 cents per mb

2048mb for $25
go over and automatically billed another $10 for another 1024mb
= $35 for 3072mb = 1.14 cents per mb

As you can see, it's an extremely unfair system. I'm wifi at home and work, and hardly ever use data outside those two environments. Maybe check my mail or the news while in a long line at the grocery store, maybe got a bad connection to my parents wifi when im in the garage so i switch to 3g. I think most of my usage this month came this last friday when I showed a few youtube videos to my dad in his garage where I guess I was on 3g instead of wireless. I've got 6 days left and if I was on the 200mb plan id only have 30mb left.

I'd suggest paying the additional ten bucks for the 2gb.

If you go 200mb forget about videos and streaming music, and i'd probably try to avoid non-mobile versions of websites.
 
I have the 200mb and I am constantly using my phone and have never came close to going over. I am at home most the time but when I go out for errands or work. I do a lot of web surfing and facebooking while at work also. I have the widget that keeps track of the data you use its pretty accurate (accurate enough for me anyway). Seeing how your on wifi most the time I think it should be enough unless your streaming audio/video.
 
Jofaba said:
I think most of my usage this month came this last friday when I showed a few youtube videos to my dad in his garage where I guess I was on 3g instead of wireless.
Click to expand...

This is the difference between your usage habits on 2GB vs. 200MB. You simply have to be aware of it. Rest assured that 200MB is well more than enough if you're willing to flip an on/off switch as needed.
 
ntdb said:
This is the difference between your usage habits on 2GB vs. 200MB. You simply have to be aware of it. Rest assured that 200MB is well more than enough if you're willing to flip an on/off switch as needed.
Click to expand...

Yeah and if you're willing to pay five bucks more for about 2.5gb less of data per month (in comparison, if you happen to go over in both plans)
 
Jofaba said:
Yeah and if you're willing to pay five bucks more for about 2.5gb less of data per month (in comparison, if you happen to go over in both plans)
Click to expand...

The question "Is 200MB enough?" assumes that the answer is "no" if overage fees are incurred. Thus, your point doesn't belong on the table for this particular discussion. It's not about the best value (money vs. data), it's about a particular situation: low costs are important and wifi is in abundance. For this case, 200MB is easily manageable.
 
ntdb said:
The question "Is 200MB enough?" assumes that the answer is "no" if overage fees are incurred. Thus, your point doesn't belong on the table for this particular discussion. It's not about the best value (money vs. data), it's about a particular situation: low costs are important and wifi is in abundance. For this case, 200MB is easily manageable.
Click to expand...

thus alas indubitably perchance leather gloves tinted windows 400 year old bottles of wine : I gave my answer and it's not for you to dissect, it's for the op to take and apply to his question as he sees fit.
 
Jofaba said:
thus alas indubitably perchance leather gloves tinted windows 400 year old bottles of wine : I gave my answer and it's not for you to dissect, it's for the op to take and apply to his question as he sees fit.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, overage situations are something to be aware of.
 
Snow_Fox said:
if I live at home with wifi
and go to school with wifi..
and I only occassionally use GPS(maybe once a year)..
The only thing being updates would be widgets every 15-30 minutes..
Would 200mb be sufficient?
Click to expand...

I've been on the 200mb plan for three months. The first month I used 181 mb due to playing & showing off the phone, 2nd month 118.7 and this past month 69.9 mb. With the availabilty of wifi similiar to your situation (wifi at home) the 200 mb plan is perfect for me. :D
 
Well in all fairness if I get a job soon..

I'm going to pay full price for the captivate.. hand my step dad 360 dollars and I'm not going to ask for permission..

I will be flat out telling him "this is the cost of two years data at 15$, my sim card is going in the phone and I would highly suggest since I don't have access to the account, you call and make sure that the proper plan is added."

To be honest, these phone's are a luxury. I completely accept that it is not something I need. However, if my mom can have a 25$ a month data plan she absolutely does not use, my step dad can get a blackberry.. decide he likes my moms iphone 4 more and pay full price for it... all so they can make facebook updates from the back yard..

I think, me actually using to to check email/keeping track of schedule/producitivity purposes is more than fair enough if I'm paying full price for the phone + two years worth of data.

I can already afford the phone.. hopefully, I will get a job on campus soon and I can just hand it all to him up front.

I will also hand him it all at once so there is no bullshit. No "oh you forgot to pay me last month". "no you were just drunk when I paid you".

out of 2 gb. My mom has used roughyl 400mb in the course of one month.

The only reason her usage is *THAT* high is because she is technologically ******ed and does EVERYTHING over 3g network. -.-

So, please guys.. I completely understand that for 10$ more you get 10x more data.

I would have no problem using data over 3g and wasting it. If I *EVER* got an unlimited data plan god help at&t.

however, the truth is.. as much as I have the ability to burn more bandwidth than my parents.. I also have the ability to be more responsible, and keep my data use over 3g as low as possible.

My main concern (I had forgotten about apps to allow micromanagement of use) was that if I set widgets ect to update every 30 minutes, while its not a lot of bandwidth used.. between that and web browsing, never can tell what you may burn without a wifi connection.
 
so I have not used my phone for hardly anything the last week and half ... billing cycle ends tomorrow and i'm at 1.88GB

Don't think I could survive on the 200mb... the bill would be ungodly!
 
I ranged from 300-800 in the past 3 months. I download mostly on Wifi at home. At work though I use 3g, but I don't surf much at work. I use my 3G when I'm in my car listening to pandora. Having the 2gb limit is nice so that I don't have to think about going over.
 
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