Data usage

[GarethP_1946684]

I have just transferred over from Three. I realise Smarty is owned by Hutchinson who own Three but as a Three customer my data usage was around 1.5gb per day on mobile data. I have not changed my habits, still the same but the mobile data usage on Smarty has increased to 3-4 gb per day. Why is this as at the moment I'm not impressed? 

[MSF]

It's a little difficult for us to say why this has happened because we are Forum Members like you and have no access to your account information.

Have you tried looking at your account for usage history?:  https://smarty.co.uk/dashboard/usage-history/2023-03-26/data/0

This shows daily usage reports. If you need further help on the issue, you will need to contact Support team via web chat so that they can take a look for you in detail maybe.

[sezmersh]

I am having the exact same issue. Before choosing a new SIM plan I checked my average data usage with 3 and chose a plan with Smarty that would cover that, but now I’m running out about 3/4 of the way through the month

[MSF]

@sezmersh Have you looked at the data log on your phone/device to see where it was used?

Any update is likely to use a fair amount of data. Not sure what you use, but an iPhone will tell you how much each app used.

[amsi]

I’m having the same issue.

[MSF]

@amsi  Have you followed the advice above?

[amsi]

Yes and I have made changes in terms of which apps I will allow to use data, however, the point is that even whilst these were enabled, I did not have this issue with my former mobile provider. 

[MSF]

@amsi  In that case, can you see how much data each app has used?

I really do not think that Smarty can notch up data used if your device has not actually used it. Is it possible that your device has completed a large update on mobile data whereas it did not do that at any time while on your previous network? I'm sure that there must be a logical reason but it may take some research to find it.

[MSF]

@sezmersh @amsi @GarethP_1946684  By way of an experiment, I have just completed a speed check using Speedtest.net app on 5G. I found that it used 600Mb on just a couple of checks - easy to see how you can use a lot of data easily on 5G. At least I found that the speeds were good here.

[amsi]

Wow

[PhilJon_2113590]

So I’ve only just joined and wow, absolutely caning the data allowance when I’m not doing anything different from my last network. Is this right? Was on giffgaff before and didn’t use half as much as I do on here and not done anything different. 

[MSF]

@PhilJon_2113590  I have just replied to you on post you have started.

[HannahT_2133817]

I'm struggling with this too, I checked my previous data usage (usually around 5 gb) and set up a sim for 8gb per month.

I'm halfway through the month and I've run out of data, I'm stunned, I'm doing nothing different - I've checked my usage on the app and on my phone, I've done no updates, etc. I can't make sense of it!!

[MSF]

@HannahT_2133817  Your phone settings should be able to show how much data each app has used. Depends upon your phone as to where this is.

[Mickael_2930151]

Late to the chat but from what I can read, every Smarty forum regular seem to be advocating for checking our phone settings again and again when everyone says nothing has changed from their previous provider.

I've just purchased a £15gb data only sim for my campervan, pretty much only used it for google maps between 2 and 4 hours a day and a couple of youtube videos, and I've ran out in 4 days! I repeat, 4 DAYS. 15gb! For comparaison, I reset my stats on my iphone to check my vodafone usage, in one day of almost 6 hours on my phone, 3h47 on maps, 35mins on youtube, having Polarsteps set to always allow tracking my location, hotspotting to my laptop for another hour of youtube, plus all the other background stuff etc.. it used 1.9gb

Personally, I think it makes no sense. I don't see why it would somehow use that much more just because it's casting it to my phone over wifi rather than being directly in it. I'm probably just going to get a refund and pay a bit more money but for something that actually works, especially since the chat support wasn't very helpful..

[MSF]

@Mickael_2930151  One thing that might be worth checking on the YouTube videos - what definition are you using as the amount of data is higher for the better qualities.

[Mickael_2930151]

Once again, nothing has changed from my previous usage on vodafone to smarty.. The issue is not how much data we're using, it's the discrepancy between providers while using our devices the same exact way.

[MSF]

@Mickael_2930151  Although you say nothing has changed, are you sure that there have not been any updates on the phone?

I say that because my phone is currently downloading an operating system update that takes over 30 mins - and that is on fast broadband. Now that could certainly eat a load of data (I thought I saw a figure of 8Gb just before it started)