Gaining control of your mobile data usage is key to avoid running up big bills or having your service limited. As an added bonus you’re likely to gain a bit of extra battery life too by cutting back on the amount of data your smartphone or tablet uses.

Streaming

Streaming video is obviously dangerous when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi. Just 2.5 hours of HD streaming video can eat up a 750MB mobile data plan. Streaming audio is also no good if you’re watching your data use. Minimize use of streaming services. Apps like Pandora, Netflix, and Spotify will quickly eat up your data allowance. Even a low-bandwidth app like Pandora will kill as much as 30MB per hour–that’s a lot of data, especially when you’re on an 500MB plan. Save most streaming for when you’re on Wi-Fi.

If you must stream while on the move, compromise with standard quality video (do you really need HD on a smartphone?) and choose lower bit rate audio streams to reduce the damage.

Download Strategically

Cut out the big

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downloads while you’re connected to a mobile network. If you want to download new apps or music and upload photos, only do so with a Wi-Fi connection.

Hot Spots

Free Wi-Fi means you don’t pay. Know where the free Wi-Fi spots are and head for one when it’s time for a data intensive session.

Just make sure you understand the security implications of free Wi-Fi before going to town. Web browsing is fine, but entering any personal or financial data in a non-secured website is asking for trouble, as is using e-mail through an account that doesn’t offer secure login.

Shut Down Background Data Hogs

Most smartphones constantly have processes running in the background that silently consume data. Push notifications, automatic syncing of calendars and contacts, location sharing, automatic app updating and other features can be background data hogs.

If you aren’t sure which apps are secretly connecting and sending or receiving data, consider installing an app that tracks this information. We recommend, DataMan for iPhone users. This app tracks your data usage in real time, and while it doesn’t offer details about which apps are using the data, it does let you set thresholds and receive alerts when you’re close to hitting your data allowance.

Alternatively you can use the usage tracker built into iPhones. Reset the iPhone Usage Tracker to zero by going to Settings>General>Usage>Mobile Usage>Mobile Network Data, this shows sent & received data with the option to Reset Statistics. This tracker makes it very easy to periodically check data usage, set a reminder to reset statistics in the tracker on your bill date to monitor usage effectively.

If you use iCloud a simple toggle of a switch will limit iCloud to syncing only when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

A variety of apps, for all handsets are available to tell you which of your existing apps are using data although they can slow down your phone and your data usage will be tracked by the 3rd party.

Use a Data Compression Service

Our Mobile Data Gateway service can provide you with immediate data savings of approx. 30% through real time data and video compression and can cut roaming costs by 60%. Included in this service is a comprehensive visibility into data usage across your entire mobile fleet. Visit our Mobile Data Gateway page for more details.

Smart E-Mail Use

Most smartphones have a setting to toggle between push e-mail and manual retrieval. By switching to manual, you won’t receive e-mail until you trigger the update. Through use of Wi-Fi hotspots, you can make the most of manual e-mail downloading to grab everything while you have a no-charge connection.

To cut down on e-mail data while on a mobile network, most e-mail clients have an option that allows you to receive your messages without images or attachments. Using this setting will keep the data use down and you can pick up the files when you have access to Wi-Fi.

Email Compression

Products like Mailsuite focus on reducing the data impact of messages generated by Twitter, Facebook, IM and e-mail. As a first step, messages are run through anti-phishing and spam filters. Filter settings allow you to block specific types of messages from being downloaded to your mobile device within different timeframes (for example, receiving work e-mail on the weekend is something you can avoid). The remaining content is compressed, reducing data downloads.

Speak to your Spectrum Account Manager to find out about the best data packages to avoid big bills on 0844 856 3301.

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