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How Much iPhone 3G Data Are You Using Now?

By , Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 6:36 am
56

Last August, a month after the iPhone 3G's release, we asked you how much iPhone 3G data you were using. Now, some 10 months post-release, with cries that iPhone users consumer "too much" of their "unlimited data" and should be charged more, and perhaps on the eve of the next generation iPhone announcement, we're asking again:

How much iPhone 3G data are you using now?

Because here's the thing: the iPhone is the first real, successful consumer smartphone. Lots of people have them. And even though Wi-Fi is an option (one not available to many Verizon smartphone users) and serious video-streaming apps are still missing in action, get a convention full of iPhone users together and AT&T's network still goes down.

So is it that iPhone users use too much data, or simply that too many people have become iPhone (and thus, data) users for AT&T's current infrastructure to handle?

After all, single lane highways are fine -- until everyone starts buying cars.

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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  1. Christopher says:

    I'm a brand new iphone 3g user here in Sweden via Telia.

    The first month I somehow used 1gb of data within 3 days of buying the phone. For the rest of the month I used about 550 mb.

    So far this month (the 2nd) I've used about 350 mb of data.

    Both months are higher than what we might normally use as we just moved across the country before buying the phone and don't have regular Internet access here. So the phone is representing 99% of our total Internet usage.

  2. sting7k says:

    Buttloads of data.

  3. Danny Lee says:

    My usage is showing 42 minutes and Standby 6 hours, 13 minutes.

    Sent: 39.1 MB Received: 765MB

  4. Guinness0514 says:

    mine shows I have sent 1.2GB and received 53.6GB. I stream music with Simplify Music all day every day...

  5. EAbramson says:

    As I said before, no one purchased an iPhone to make calls. ATT should be aware and is aware of that when THEY signed the contract. The iPhone is so great as a smartphone that any carrier, even Ray-Ray in a trenchcoat with cellular service could sell a million of them. If they intend to raise rate then the Touchbwas probably a better product. Apple's future ventures should be online with the quality and functionality of their products. The question of rate hikes, fare hikes, toll hikes, mortgage hikes SUCKS!

  6. This thing is actually a crap... I use about 550MB of data every month according to my carrier. But iPhone always reports my usage to be way higher. My iPhone reports it to be around 1.2GB of download every month.

    I've raised a report to Apple. But still it has not been fixed. I think Apple has purposely made this to report an insanely high value so that AT&T users will stop using their 3G network fearing high usage rates.

  7. Jeffdc5 says:

    I use a lot of data Sent 76.8 Mb received 1.8 GB

  8. k0m0d0 says:

    Total usage (since Sept 2008)

    Sent: 130 MB Received: 2.7 GB

  9. Michael says:

    Since July 2008 - sent 150 MB, received 1.7 GB - which really doesn't seem like that much (most of my heavy usage is over wifi).

  10. OmariJames says:

    According to my AT&T bill ( so far ) 314.28Mb

    According to my iPhone usage. 249Mb ( sent ) 3.5Gb ( receive ) 0_o

    Kinda of confusing but I think that's from my 'last charge' , which was this morning.

  11. Gridfire says:

    I always seem to be in places with WiFi, so mine stands at 9.8MB sent and 144MB received on cell data.

  12. noob says:

    314 mb sent ; 14.1 GB received

  13. lagmefragme says:

    I have a similarly horrid descrepency between what the iPhone says and what the AT&T website says. At first I thought it was because of wifi usage... but I left wifi off for awhile an the results are the same. The iPhone always has much much higher received data... you think it is counting voice phone calls as received "cellular network data"?

  14. Rukasu says:

    Sent: 220MB, Received: 4.9GB since August '08

  15. Clairyoyance says:

    I'm shocked.

    Sent : 0 bytes Recieved : 0 bytes Why?

  16. Steve says:

    Always less than 200MB. Theres WiFi everywhere... and I don't use my iPhone when I'm sitting at a computer. :roll:

  17. Michael says:

    I have sent 284 MB and received 5.9 GB

  18. Jenn says:

    My phone says since 9/1/08: sent 156kb, received 3 GB

  19. Demon_1up says:

    I have sent 142 MB and received 3.4 GB . Also there is not a discrepancy when your bill and phone dont match , the iPhone tracks all data , including Wifi . Your AT&T bill doesnot track when your on a WIFI network .

  20. Travist120 says:

    monthly I use around 3GB. Downloading apps, music, streamic music, streaming tv, using Twitter, downloading pics, surfing the web for countless hours, watching YouTube, and downloading books. And recently it's died down just a bit because I've been turning off 3G just to save on battery

  21. Latestarter05 says:

    Since January 09 sent 25.9mb recv'd 275mb.

  22. Jay Holler says:

    I'm at 4.2 GB down and 350MB up. Not sure on the time period, but I use my phone for browsing twitter facebook and remotely accessing servers all day long.

  23. Chris says:

    Since April 24:

    16.4MB Up 361MB Down

  24. Kevin Starks says:

    Sent 130 MB. Received 3.6 GB

  25. Dyvim says:

    Since 12/31/08 (so basically all of 2009) Sent: 34.9 MB Received: 800 MB I'm sure AT&T loves me since that's spread out over 4.5 months. Mostly I use my iPhone around the house via WiFi. But the 3G sure is nice when I'm away from home.

  26. Derek says:

    Call Time: 7 Days 22 Hours Lifetime Data: Sent 417 MB Received 9.5 GB

  27. Apple Lover says:

    mine has never been reset so since like novemeber

    call time = 4 days 13 hours sent 40mb received 385mb

  28. About 400mb a month according to my bill. And I have a 6gb plan! Because it kills the battery so much I pretty much never use wifi.

  29. Adina says:

    Sent: 135 MB Received: 4.0 GB

  30. Christin says:

    My stats say sent 408mb recieved 8.8gb. Not sure what time period that's for, it says usage time 7 days ,

    I use pandora when I'm at my desk at work and stream tv shows off of NBC and you tube.

  31. Dyvim says:

    Guys (e.g. @6,10,13,22,30), the Cellular Network Data usage isn't per billing period nor is it since your last full charge. It's since you last pressed Reset Statistics, or since you purchased your phone if you've never pressed that button. It will tell you when your last Reset was below the Reset Statistics button (scroll down).

  32. Muero says:

    I can't believe how clueless the readers of this blog are. They're confused why there's a difference between the data usage counter on te iPhone (all-time cumulative, unless manually reset) versus what AT&T reports (monthly)? They think data use stats get reset every time you charge the phone? They think it's counting WiFi data, when it's clearly listed under Cellular Network Data?

    Please, everyone, watch the movie Idiocracy. If you understand its message, you will do the honorable thing and commit suicide for the sake of the non-stupid people.

  33. dondada says:

    Sent: 179MB Received: 4.3GB

    Never hit the reset button, bought 3g phone on the day it came out...

  34. Muero says:

    It just so happens that today is the last day of my AT&T billing cycle, and the AT&T iPhone app reports I've used 562 megabytes this month.

  35. RanMan says:

    Lifetime 4 days 5 hours Sent 109 MB Received 1.9 GB

    Mainly email for me.

  36. Gabriel says:

    My cycle goes from 18th to 18th, 554.71MB. And I HATE ATT!!!

  37. Al says:

    I've used a little over 4GB total which is about 400 MB each month

  38. Zeeshan says:

    Hi Rene, i have a question regarding your Screenshot above, how come your iPhone usage says its 7 Hours & 3 Mins and still you have more than 50% battery life left?

    Is there something i am missing as i seldome get more than 5 Hours of usage on one charge!

    I am really intrested to know this as if thats the case then i might have to get my iPhone 3G checked at the apple store!

  39. Dionte says:

    over At&t less than 500 megs

  40. fassy says:

    Typically between 200MB-600MB a month, depending on time spent in wifi hotspots. While I browse in Safari a lot, the bulk of the bandwidth usage is probably OTA podcast downloads and internet radio.

  41. Danny Rodri says:

    @Zeeshan I was shocked when I saw the screenshot as well and was about to ask, How come you get such long battery life?

  42. Ivoryplum says:

    I've had my iPhone since September '08. I use it the most at home, or at work, or when I visit my mom. All 3 places have wifi. I bet AT&T is ecstatic that theres wifi in these things. haha.

    Lifetime: Sent - 25.6mb Received - 657mb

  43. Ivoryplum says:

    @Zeeshan - I use my iPhone all throughout the day on a single charge. Couldn't tell you the last time I had to plug it in during the day. And generally I have 20-40% battery life left. Are you heavily using your phone...?

  44. iamse7en says:

    Sent: 376 MB Received: 4.3 GB (mainly from a few torrents I've downloaded the last couple of weeks) Torrentula!

  45. Bjern says:

    166 MB sent 2 GB received

  46. Bjern says:

    Mine is on the EDGE network though.

  47. sean says:

    Sent: 196 MB

    Received: 1.6 GB

    Hahahahahahah Im only 13... :)

    Btw. Does that mean how much I've used in the time since my last charge? Or in my phones total lifetime?

  48. sean says:

    Oh nvm. I jest read the the thing under reset statistics in the usage bar. It's since 1/12/08 at 5:36 PM

  49. James says:

    I haven't reseted my data usage...I've got about 2.1 GB received, and like 200 MB sent.

  50. frog says:

    I've never used more than about 500mb a month, typical usage is around 300mb

  51. iSkythe says:

    Sent: 62.3mb

    Received: 1 GB

  52. Kael says:

    last reset... never got phone in december... lifetime calling 9 hours and 12 min cell network data: sent... 91 mb received... 825 not that that includes all data use from what i understand the usage page doesn`t show your email usage or something like that.

  53. Mdwdirect says:

    Lifetime reads 8 days, 10 hours Sent 80.8 mb Rec'd 1.4 GB Mostly email while on 3G. YouTube and streaming video while on wifi. I expected more actually. To those constant whiners-instead of complaining, do something productive...Leave AT&T or start your own cell phone service.

  54. Marc Tew says:

    Had my iPhone replaced 2 months ago, now sent 13.5mb received 61mb. Im on O2, also work for O2 and our fair usage is apparantly 200mb per billing month. I KNOW I've gone over that a lot with my old iPhone and never had a single complaint from O2. Sound like AT&T suck tbh.

  55. Roo says:

    Usage is 1h23m Standby is 1hr 49m

    Sent is 431mb Receieved is 12.6gb

    I restore every month or so and backup my call history folder via ssh, among other things, in order to preserve this data. This 12.6gb is over 5 months, so in reality I don't use that much data. A lot of it is radio streaming.

  56. Armando says:

    Hello will $60 unlimited Voice, Text with 150 MEGS will work for you? How about $39.95 CDMA Unlimited Voice and text and GSM $40 unlimited Voice and Text. You can keep what you already have just pay less, keep your number, keep your phone, no credit checks and no contacts, taxes included.

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