EE 4GEE Wifi excessive data usage

jpwattam

I have a 50gb per month plan which is my main internet access. This gets me through most months - sometimes I watch a bit more online video and have to buy a little more data, and other times I have unused data at the end of the month (which doesn't roll over), so I think the plan is right for my usual activities.

Suddenly (last Sunday, 29 March 2020) I used about 10gb in one day according to EE - I had the 80% warning on Saturday evening (which I didn't see) and early Monday morning my data was all gone. Since then I've used a further 20gb in a week despite minimising my usage as much as possible (no video at all, no web pages left open).

I have my devices under control - my Windows 10 PC is not allowed to do updates unless I manually trigger them (plus I've now disconnected it from the internet anyway), and my Android phone is using its own mobile data (since the wifi connection has been terrible). My main device is a Chromebook with some Android apps (rarely used). I can't stop it doing ChromeOS updates but it did one just the other day and as I was monitoring my data balance I know it only took max 400mb.

I've had terrible connectivity on the 4GEE device, with the internet dropping out altogether for brief periods (1 minute) and being slow to deliver web pages on my Chromebook. I'm wondering if this links to the data usage. EE says the connectivity is down to the coronavirus lockdown but I maintain that problems were occurring before that. But if the data usage links to connectivity and connectivity links to coronavirus then EE is profiting from a pandemic.

I found an article from 2014. It says that EE admitted that they were measuring data usage incorrectly, resulting in some users being put on higher tariffs. On the EE community forum, I found three reports since January 2020 of excessive data usage on their network. EE are again leading customers towards higher tariffs.

I've insisted to EE that I've done nothing to justify the excessive usage being shown, but I'm obviously a liar/stupid. As a concession, they've offered to refund some of my additional usage charges but as there's no end in sight I can see that I will pile up more charges going forward. Short of not using the internet at all (their suggestion?!) I don't know how to make them accept that my usage has not changed.

tonygold

tbh if you are using 4G as your only / main internet use and you watch tv / video streams on it then 50gb is going to get eaten up quite quickly. you should be able to negotiate a more generous data allowance from them though. i don't know what you pay a month but i pay £20pm from EE for a sim only deal with 100gb data and unlimited everything else (which is far more than i need as i have decent wifi at home), but i know that for the same £20pm Smarty have an unlimited data plan available.

it sounds like you need an unlimited data allowance so that you have the peace of mind to use it whenever and not have to constantly monitor your usage or turn off auto updates etc. what plan are you on (sim only or contract with a handset) and what do you pay per month?

Exemplar

To add to this we had a customer use 80GB tethering yesterday in one session. They bought an XBOX and purchased 2 x games. It can get eaten up very quickly.

jpwattam

Thanks for comments. 50gb is plenty most months - I don't stream much video at all or do anything that uses it up fast so don't need a unlimited plan really. 10gb in a single day is unprecedented and I did nothing that day more than my usual browsing. I'm pretty much in control of my data usage, as EE can see from my history of only occasionally needing to buy more data.

My plan is too expensive - just over £25pm, which was a 'deal' last August that I'm stuck in for 2 years!!! I'm mortified to see only £20pm being paid for twice as much data! I originally asked EE to up my data on my phone but they insisted on this 4GEE box, which I suppose is technically better. EE said they would (somehow) stop me using phone data to give a wifi hotspot to other devices but I've been doing that and it works fine.