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Newbie Data Usage Qustion

Wyvern2
Fledgling

I have a 1GB Lite SIMO 24M Contract for my Pixel 4a phone which has 4G. My current Broadband Contract is with Virgin Media which provides a fast FTTC/coax 150 Mbps connection with bundled services.

To date, my phone data usage has been minimal as I always use my home WiFi network connection.

Although excellent, the Virgin Contract is rather expensive, so I thought that I would explore using a 4G mobile solution to see if that would be a suitable alternative.

I decided to carry out some 4G speed tests using the Ookla Speedtest and Meteor Apps. These were carried out a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, the results were not very encouraging, particularly between 9-10 am, when I assume the local Three tower was throttling the service.

However, I received a big surprise when Three sent me a data-warning text. It seems that I had used virtually all my 1GB allowance in one day! Only five events were logged with approximate data usages (in MB) : 383, 328, 98,164, 4. The last three results were roughly five minutes apart. Do short speed-tests consume vast amounts of data?

I noticed that all the usage reports were via a GPRS connection. Isn't this the older slow fall-back method? Why wasn't 4G used?

I have decided to replace my Virgin Hub 3 Router with a more modern TP-Link 4G LTE Router. I will configure the Virgin router as a cable-modem.

As part of the update, I would like to carry out some further 4G speed-tests with the TP-Link unit. I have purchased a Three 12GB 12M Mobile Broadband SIM. Is this the correct device to use? I don't want my allowance to run-out as quickly as before...

Any suggestions/explanations that you can offer a Newbie would be much appreciated!

1 REPLY 1
Spud
Involved

I've been with Three almost two years on unlimited data with a 4G router contract and looking at my bills, use 200-300GB per month. Yes, speed tests can use vast amounts of data. Last month I bought a 5G router and did a load of speed tests finding the best location with various band-locking combos, and used around 100GB of data extra getting 500-750Mbps speeds!!

My daughter has been on a 4G router for some months. She has a Three 12 month unlimited calls/sms/data contract which works out at £11.59 after automatic cashback (via moneysavingexpert). 12GB of data wouldn't get either of us very far.

Lastly, you can get a secondhand ex-Three Sercomm 4G router for £35 on eBay. I have one, great speeds.