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My Cellphone My Terms

How much data do I need on my cell phone plan?

Posted on September 27th, 2009Kye Husbands
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Need data for your smart phone?  Know where you stand.

In order to get the full value from your smart phone you will need to purchase a separate data plan, which varies by carrier.  A data plan will allow you to browse the internet and check email, however, the plans can vary quite substantially and estimating your data needs is important in keeping your monthly costs manageable.

So let’s answer the question, “How much data do you need on your smart phone?”

In order to keep things simple we put together the following table to outline what’s included in the various data plans in terms of usage. So, here is what can you do with a 500MB, 1GB, 2GB or 5GB plan on a monthly basis.

Usage / Data Plans 500 MB 1GB 2GB 5GB
Monthly Usage includes ALL of the following items
Number of Emails 10,000 20,000 40,000 100,000
Number of Web Pages 1,500 3,000 6,000 15,000
Number of Pictures 200 400 800 2,000
Streaming Video (in hours) 2 4 8 10

So as you can see from the table above with a 500MB plan you can send or receive 10,000 emails, surf 1,500 websites, view 200 pictures and watch two (2) hours of YouTube video.  I consider myself a fairly aggressive smart phone user, checking email repeatedly, surfing occasionally, but rarely do I watch video on my phone.  After a call to my carrier to inquire about my usage I discovered that I use 25MB per month on average. That’s right 25MB, so all in all if you have a laptop and really only use your smart phone to check email and surf the occasional web page, don’t pay for more than you really need and continue to monitor your usage. Also because of the way that BlackBerry devices compress data, it is almost impossible to use a 500MB data plan on a BlackBerry, assuming no video watching of course.  If however, I was using the iPhone, as I do from time to time, my usage would be in the 125MB range. So five times greater, with the same usage pattern, just due to using an iPhone versus a BlackBerry.

Also note, text messages are not part of your data plan and a separate text messaging plan must be purchased or one has to pay on a per text message basis. This can be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 cents per message sent and received.

If you are in market for a new cell phone, create  your ideal cell phone plan with myCELLmyTERMS and get the best cell phone deal on your terms.

Help your friends avoid overage charges by not understanding their data plan.

22 comments Industry News, The Cell Phone Blog , , , ,
  • http://www.smojoe.com Rob Campbell

    Very insightful post. Thanks. I get so much spam on my Blackberry that I have to keep my unlimited data plan or id be ruined.

  • Stella

    THANK YOU! I just got a two gig data plan and was going nuts trying to figure out how much that is.

  • Nancy

    Thanks so much you were very helpfull. Now if I only knew how to check how much i’ve used so far on my phone it would be great.

  • Mark

    I have to question either these numbers, or the data usage measurement from my carrier. I get about 30-40 emails on my main email account, and another 100 or so (headers only) for my business account. I probably average 5-10 web pages browsed per day, and I don’t do any streaming of any kind. I’m averaging between 600M and 1 Gb per month of what I would consider to be relatively light usage.

    I’m guessing for your 25 Mb you are using a Blackberry device (which greatly compresses all emails, reducing data use).

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  • Kye

    Mark,
    I am also wondering what type of device you are using? Seems high to me. To answer your question, at the time of writing I was using a HTC S720 as my main device with Windows Mobile. The overall experience of surfing on that device was painful all the way around so whatever i did , I kept it short.

    Kye

  • Rak

    I just got my blackberry curve yesterday and I realized that I checked about 70 emails on it today, and Pinged a bunch of people. I know that my plan has 1 GB of data, I’m hoping this is enough. Also can I chech how much data I’m using or have used? thanks

  • admin

    Hey Rakesh,

    Thanks for your comment.

    All the major carriers have facilities to check your data usage, typically through their online billing systems.

    This can be done online but not on your blackberry, because the data is dependent on the network not the device.

    Pinging a customer is Free and does NOT count towards your daily count – this goes through blackberry servers.

    Stay in touch.

    Yale

  • WF

    500mb on a RIM device is usually plenty for 90% of users. I’m rocking a 9530 on Bell Mobility and I rarely get over 100mb a month. Non-BB smartphones are pigs on data..and its not unusual to hit 1GB on a Palm Pre for example. Another reason to buy RIM…cheap data packs.

  • admin

    Thanks for the comment new_skool57, you are totally right about BB devices in comparison to some of the other smartphones in market.

  • don

    I’m new to smart phones / tell me can I trade stock options and do my banking with a BB & iphone?

  • admin

    Hi Don,

    Thank you for your comment.
    I don’t know of any specific BB or iPhone applications from the apps store, however most of the major banks have recently launched iPhone and BB applications. Quick search on the web for any of the banks iPhone or BB apps and you will find some options.

    Kye

  • Shannon

    THANKS FOR THE INFO!!
    :)

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    Thanks for the articles, we are just in process of upgrading to a smartphone for both business and home use. The data plans have been a sore point in getting some accurate information from the vendors. We have been with Telus since 93 and they are offering some great perks as a past customer, most are with the data plans.
    You have certainly helped in clearing up some of the fog.
    Thanks again.

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