How much Internet MB/GB do I really need?

Moonflowers

I'm looking at getting a Sony Neo phone but cant decide whether to stay with O2 or move to T-mobile.

One of the main differences in their pricing is the internet usage. T-mobile would cost me more money but I would get unlimited internet usage, whereas with O2 you pay for 100MB, 500MB or 1GB.

I've no issues with O2 and would be happy to stay with them but I'm wondering whether or not the extra internet is worth the money?

What would you say is the amount of internet that I will need for general usage: email, facebook, news websites, blog, twitter etc?

I'd be grateful for any advice on this.
Thanks

bengalknights

Using FB and gmail i barely touch 50mb its more taken by android apps such as navigation etc that takes me close to the 500mb mark.

So if your only using it for social networks and a bit of email id say 500mb is more than sufficient.

Moonflowers

I am planning to get apps as well. Do they tend to use a lot more internet than normal browsing?

bengalknights

The apps tend to run sometimes in background which keeps the connection constantly running things like gmaps and navigation software are generally intensive on the bandwidth but bog standard apps usually around 100mb.

alexdrans

I don't think you're going to need literally unlimited data. If it's still cheapest to get the 1GB bolt on for O2, I would start off on the 500MB and then move on to the 1GB if you need to. Anything over 1GB is just stupid. You could only go over that if you're streaming music/videos, or downloading heavy amounts of data for applications (such as game data, these can be 50-250mb).

The average usage is around 350MB per month, so you probably won't go over that.

alexdrans

bengalknights wrote: »

The apps tend to run sometimes in background which keeps the connection constantly running things like gmaps and navigation software are generally intensive on the bandwidth but bog standard apps usually around 100mb.

Watch your terminology, you don't want to mislead people.

What do you mean by "bog standard apps usually around 100mb"? If the OP is just using Facebook and the internet browser they probably won't go over 300MB, even if they're using it quite a lot. The real data usage comes in when you're streaming (music/videos) like I said in my previous post. Any major downloading like that done by applications that need a one-time download can be done over a WiFi network.

In regards to maps, if you use a map application that has offline storage then it will use very, very little data. The data usage with maps comes in when you're downloading them as you go along, which can be quite heavy on data usage over a long journey. I think there's a few applications for navigation that have offline storage too.

Moonflowers

Thanks everyone. So it sounds like if I use apps like I do on the iPad (apps for websites, news sites, trip advisor etc) then these arent going to use up tons of data. The things to be careful about are films, iPlayer, music dls etc.

In that case, I think O2 will be enough and will allow me to "save" £4ish at least every month.

Thanks for all the feedback

alexdrans

Moonflowers wrote: »

Thanks everyone. So it sounds like if I use apps like I do on the iPad (apps for websites, news sites, trip advisor etc) then these arent going to use up tons of data. The things to be careful about are films, iPlayer, music dls etc.

In that case, I think O2 will be enough and will allow me to "save" £4ish at least every month.

Thanks for all the feedback

Download Opera Mini and use it as your internet browser. The app uses server-side page compression so that the pages are smaller in terms of file size when they reach you. It also means that the pages will load faster and use less data.

Tigersilly

What about if I want email alerts to come through as they are sent to my inbox... would that mean a constant connection to the internet? How much data would that use?

Moonflowers

alexdrans wrote: »

Download Opera Mini and use it as your internet browser. The app uses server-side page compression so that the pages are smaller in terms of file size when they reach you. It also means that the pages will load faster and use less data.

Thanks, sounds perfect.
Does that work on the iPad too?

essexman77

Have you looked at the three network deals also only thing i find with 02 is the internet coverage is not so good and the thing with not getting ulimted internet your always thinking am i going to go over and maybe i shouldnt look at you tube and wait until you get home to download everything or use even though its meant to be a mobile.

Im with giffgaff which uses 02 and is unlimted data so dont know if 02 will start being truly unlimted again as Tmobile only just started doing Three I think was the first.