These days, the majority of people are toting around smartphones. In fact, as of 2012, 53 percent of U.S. cell phone users are using smartphones . With the rising popularity of advanced Internet-enabled smartphone like the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S III, smartphone users need data plans that allow them to consume hefty amounts of data browsing the web, streaming audio and video, messaging, and downloading emails and apps. These data plans, while not cheap, can still be extremely affordable if you know how much data per month you are going to use so you can choose the appropriate plan for you. The easiest way to end up spending too much on your phone bill is by exceeding your allotted monthly data limit.
If you have a smartphone on one of the “Big 4” cell phone carriers in the U.S. (AT&T;, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless,) then you will also be required to pay for a data plan. These carriers all used to offer unlimited data plans with their service offerings up until about a year ago, when AT&T; and Verizon began instituting data caps on their monthly plans. AT&T; now offers a tiered data plan structure in which they offer a $20/month plan that offers 300 MB of data, a $30/month plan that offers 3 GB of data, and a $50/month plan that offers 5 GB of data. Verizon, on the other hand, offers a new “Share Everything” plan that allows up to 10 devices to share data from the same plan. The Verizon “Share Everything” plan structure allows for a range data bundles that offer between 1 GB for $50 per month up to 10 GB for $100 per month. Only T-Mobile and Sprint still offer unlimited data plan options.
If you are using a smartphone, it’s not hard to accidentally tear through your entire monthly data allotment without knowing it. There are ways you can avoid this, however. A great way to save your data is to switch to a Wi-Fi connection whenever possible. Switching to Wi-Fi will allow you to use a high-speed wireless connection instead of your carrier’s data network, which will preserve your data for when you do not have Wi-Fi accessible nearby. This definitely comes in handy when you are streaming a lot of data-intensive content like audio and video. In addition, you can contact your carrier and request that they send you text or email alerts whenever you are nearing your monthly data limits. Lastly, turning off data roaming can greatly reduce the amount of charges you may incur without realizing it.
As long as you are proactive and do the necessary research to understand exactly how much data you will need each month, and then tailor your plan to accommodate that data usage, you can be sure that you will not be paying more than you should be for cellular data. If you are not super tech savvy, there are several resources on the web that can help you understand your cell phone data usage behavior. You can use a data plan calculator that allows you to enter in your data habits (i.e. how many emails you send per month, how many videos you watch per month) and then will recommend the best data plan for you. Additionally, you can contact your wireless carrier and they can explain how exactly your data is being consumed by each specific online activity you engage in from your smartphone.
