Internet useage - dumb blonde question

melanieconway

Hi

I'm currently looking to change my bb provider but obviously don't want to be locked in to a v low use tariff.

I have a dumb question. In bb terms, what constitutes an upload/download? My main use (can't vouch for my son but there are things I can do about his access lol) is simply web surfing, looking at info, paying bills.

What sort of things constitute towards my monthly usage? Before anyone suggests the usage monitor in a previous post then this won't help as I'd like to shop around now, plus it won't tell me which items are contributing to the total use, plus BT will tell me my monthly use over the phone.

And also please don't tell me to use recent use as a guide as I've recently had a lodger leave and I think he hammered the Internet a bit.

Thanks in advance! Mel

brewerdave

The major contribution to most people's usage is watching video ,whether it be live on Skyplayer or BBC iPlayer,or recorded on catch up TV sites or Youtube.
For example,I watched some cricket on Skyplayer recently and in a few hours I had racked up 3GBs of usage,which is 20% of my monthly usage allowance.
The other way of racking up high usages is downloading music or films (illegally) from P2P sites!!!

penrhyn

Not forgetting your offsprings on line gaming.

melanieconway

Perfect. Thanks my son is always watching rubbish on iplayer when we have the vision box! Answers my question thanks.

macman

All internet activity involves data usage, whether upload or download, Sending an email, viewing a web page, it all counts. What is measured is total data usage in both directions, not just uploading/downloading/streaming.
However as mentioned above, it is apps like iPlayer that eat most data, whether downloaded or streamed.