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  • Data usage

    My best friend is getting away from watching regular TV and using her "smart" TV to watch a lot of Netflix and such. The problem is that she keeps running out of "data" before she runs out of month. And this is despite the fact that she's away from home two-and-a-half days per week, and outside a lot of the time she is at home, and despite the fact that she has the highest data cap available.


    Is this because she runs her smart TV using her phone as a "hot spot"?


    Would she benefit by purchasing a modem and running her smart TV via that?

    Geislerminian Antinomian Kenotic Charispneumaticostal Gender Mutualist-Egalitarian.

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    Justice for Ashli Babbitt!

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    Arrest Ray Epps and his Fed bosses!

  • #2
    Whatever her internet source is needs to be unlimited data. That's REALLY common these days. It had been popular, then everybody seemed to throttle it down, now they seem to be competing with "unlimited" plans.

    Have her call her provider and ask about her plan, suggesting she's thinking about switching. It's amazing how quickly they an come up with a better plan when somebody is about to jump ship.

    She could get a hotspot, but that would probably involve another data plan, or paying for another device.

    Does she have home internet besides her phone? Netflix and streaming services are rather data intensive, so there really needs to be an unlimited data plan involved somehow.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
      Whatever her internet source is needs to be unlimited data. That's REALLY common these days. It had been popular, then everybody seemed to throttle it down, now they seem to be competing with "unlimited" plans.

      Have her call her provider and ask about her plan, suggesting she's thinking about switching. It's amazing how quickly they an come up with a better plan when somebody is about to jump ship.

      She could get a hotspot, but that would probably involve another data plan, or paying for another device.

      Does she have home internet besides her phone? Netflix and streaming services are rather data intensive, so there really needs to be an unlimited data plan involved somehow.
      No, her phone is her Internet.

      We're such opposites. I have "dumb" TV via cable, a laptop, a desktop, and DSL for Internet. But for phone, I have only landline.

      She has smart TV, smart phone, but no computers or Internet apart from the phone.

      Neither of us fully understands these things. I'm especially out of the loop on "mobile devices." It seems that if she watches Netflix on the tiny screen on her phone, it doesn't eat up all her data, but if she watches it on TV using the phone as her hotspot, it does.
      Geislerminian Antinomian Kenotic Charispneumaticostal Gender Mutualist-Egalitarian.

      Beige Federalist.

      Nationalist Christian.

      "Everybody is somebody's heretic."

      Social Justice is usually the opposite of actual justice.

      Proud member of the this space left blank community.

      Would-be Grand Vizier of the Padishah Maxi-Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-MAGA King Trumpius Rex.

      Justice for Ashli Babbitt!

      Justice for Matthew Perna!

      Arrest Ray Epps and his Fed bosses!

      Comment


      • #4
        Gernerally I have found that mobile internet is not really good as a hotspot. Maybe that will change as true 5G becomes common, but right now I have Verizon 5G and it is actually slower here than LTE (4G), and when I try to use it as a hotspot, it seems to work in "spurts" - I will see it load or download something really fast for a minute, then slow down or pause for a bit, then continue on. She would be better off with a cable modem or some other hard wired internet modem and router.

        But like Cow Poke said, most carriers have unlimited data plans. some will offer perks like free disney+ or hulu.

        Things to watch out for: Make sure the plan is truly unlimited and it included using it as a hotspot. Some plans will allow unlimited data but not when you use it as a hotspot. Also some will limit speed after you use so much data. Like you might have 5G super speed for up to 10GB and then it slows down to 4G speeds.



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        • #5
          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
          Gernerally I have found that mobile internet is not really good as a hotspot. Maybe that will change as true 5G becomes common, but right now I have Verizon 5G and it is actually slower here than LTE (4G), and when I try to use it as a hotspot, it seems to work in "spurts" - I will see it load or download something really fast for a minute, then slow down or pause for a bit, then continue on. She would be better off with a cable modem or some other hard wired internet modem and router.

          But like Cow Poke said, most carriers have unlimited data plans. some will offer perks like free disney+ or hulu.

          Things to watch out for: Make sure the plan is truly unlimited and it included using it as a hotspot. Some plans will allow unlimited data but not when you use it as a hotspot. Also some will limit speed after you use so much data. Like you might have 5G super speed for up to 10GB and then it slows down to 4G speeds.
          And I want to get into that....

          (Actually, Sparko hit my additional points)

          What's interesting is that when my AT&T plan - which was already unlimited - did not allow me to use my phone as a hot-spot. Sometime in the fall, I got a notice that those restrictions were lifted, so I canceled the $10/mo charge for my iPad (which had the kind of plan Sparko mentioned - "unlimited", but throttled way down after you used so much data) and turned on my hotspot on my iPhone. I can even use it for my Truck, which connects to WiFi, my tablet -- even a laptop computer if I have one away from the office.

          I have actually found my laptop faster in a hotel room running off my iPhone's hotspot than on the hotels WiFi.

          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

            And I want to get into that....

            (Actually, Sparko hit my additional points)

            What's interesting is that when my AT&T plan - which was already unlimited - did not allow me to use my phone as a hot-spot. Sometime in the fall, I got a notice that those restrictions were lifted, so I canceled the $10/mo charge for my iPad (which had the kind of plan Sparko mentioned - "unlimited", but throttled way down after you used so much data) and turned on my hotspot on my iPhone. I can even use it for my Truck, which connects to WiFi, my tablet -- even a laptop computer if I have one away from the office.

            I have actually found my laptop faster in a hotel room running off my iPhone's hotspot than on the hotels WiFi.
            Hotel wifi can be hit or miss, of course
            "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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            • #7
              Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post

              Hotel wifi can be hit or miss, of course
              And it always gets me that a cheap hotel has FREE wifi, but expensive hotels charge extra. Whatever happened to Wireless Free Internet?
              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                And it always gets me that a cheap hotel has FREE wifi, but expensive hotels charge extra. Whatever happened to Wireless Free Internet?
                Cheap hotels always have free breakfast, too. Expensive ones charge you something like $12.99 for a mini-snack that they can manage to call a "meal" with a straight face.
                Curiosity never hurt anyone. It was stupidity that killed the cat.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by NorrinRadd View Post
                  My best friend is getting away from watching regular TV and using her "smart" TV to watch a lot of Netflix and such. The problem is that she keeps running out of "data" before she runs out of month. And this is despite the fact that she's away from home two-and-a-half days per week, and outside a lot of the time she is at home, and despite the fact that she has the highest data cap available.


                  Is this because she runs her smart TV using her phone as a "hot spot"?


                  Would she benefit by purchasing a modem and running her smart TV via that?
                  The rate of data transfer is usually determined by the size and capability of the viewing hardware. So a smart TV uses a bunch more bandwidth than a phone.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    So, I was right. My verizon 5G IS SLOWER than the 4G LTE!

                    I was wondering why my 5G speeds were so slow after reading how fast 5G was supposed to be.

                    On "5G" I get 17mbps down and 1.66mbps up.
                    on LTE I get 25mbps down and 1.22 up.


                    I found this article on it:

                    Here's Why Verizon iPhone Users Must Turn Off 5G Right Now


                    Verizon's DSS 5G can be slower than 4G. We explain why, and how to turn off or disable 5G on your iPhone.

                    Verizon's "nationwide 5G" may be seriously slowing down your new iPhone, a problem that also affects other new 5G phones such as the Google Pixel 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The fix? Turning off 5G if you can.
                    When 5G Is Slower Than 4G


                    Verizon has America's fastest mobile network based on two systems: a 4G LTE network that gets faster every year, and a blazing-fast, high-capacity millimeter-wave "ultra wideband" (UWB) 5G network. Verizon's 4G LTE is often faster than T-Mobile's and AT&T's low-band 5G. But Verizon's UWB 5G network has extremely limited coverage, potentially giving Verizon phones a 4G icon in cities where its competitors have 5G—and when you're choosing a carrier, you're more likely to want that little 5G icon than to dig into the nuances of network speeds.

                    In October, Verizon introduced "nationwide 5G" based on dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), which reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G. Phones will automatically prefer a 5G network over a 4G one, so Verizon customers will see that coveted 5G icon pop up. But it's all for show. Our most recent tests, using an iPhone 12 Pro in New York City, show that DSS 5G is frequently slower than 4G, and rarely faster. These results are similar to what we saw in October in Chicago with a Pixel 5.

                    "For most customers, performance on our 5G nationwide network will be similar to 4G. [DSS] is new technology and we're continuing to modify it as we go. We expect performance improvement through 2021 and beyond," a Verizon spokesperson said.

                    DSS: A Desperately Slow System


                    The gold standard of 5G is to use broad, dedicated channels for 5G traffic. That's what Verizon's UWB and T-Mobile's mid-band 5G do, setting up wider channels than 4G and letting 5G speed along.

                    Verizon's fast UWB 5G system has been expanding monthly—it's now available in more than 60 cities—but because it uses very high frequencies, it has short range and doesn't cover much area in each city.

                    If you don't have any dedicated channels, DSS lets you use the odds and ends of your unused 4G channels for 5G. The 4G and 5G phones compete for the same 4G channel. The only difference is that the 5G ones are running the 5G encoding system on that channel. There are non-speed advantages to DSS—or there will be in the future, once carriers go to standalone 5G systems—but right now, you're just getting slower performance.
                    https://www.pcmag.com/news/heres-why...f-5g-right-now

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