Reducing Your Data Usage

Zevvle Chat 🔥
#1

So…

My O2 contract is up for death soon as I don’t plan on renewing it and I’ve been looking and looking and it would just be cheaper for me to buy local SIMs out of Europe when I do go out of Europe, even if I were to drop just to drop a fiver to a tenner a month to something like Voxi :slight_smile:

So I’m going to give Zevvle a try as my main network after my contract runs out

But obviously if I’m going to be going to spending as I use - I want to reduce my data usage as much as possible :slight_smile:

So my question is: how have you guys reduced your data usage and do you have any tips for me in this area?

My average usage is 5.7GB/month with peak of 7.6GB (O2 statistics)

I typically use my data for streaming music and iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Discord.

I think quite a bit of my data is spent updating apps too - which I’m sure I can disable somehow.

YouTube I will just have to live without and I don’t really stream on 4G too often anyways.

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#2

I turned this off when I left the house to see what wouldn’t work without data:

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Then turned it back on this month when I realised my data usage wasn’t that great.

Looks like you already know what’s using your data though.

#3

I’m just going from what my phone tells me, tbh

I notice quite a bit of my apps are using data in the BG and that’s quite annoying tbh

initially i was looking for bundles that incl roaming but i realized any non-EU travel is like - rare enough that i can just get a local SIM

#4

Who do you use? Most have an option for saving Playlists, etc offline. That’s what I do on my Plex Server. I’ve got a 256GB iPhone, might as well use some of that space! Most of my data was going on Plex and PocketCasts and I’ve really reduced my usage by just setting PocketCasts to download any new Podcasts whilst I’m on Wi-Fi.

For music, I tend to listen to similar stuff over and over so I guess your mileage will vary if you don’t.

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#5

Apple Music

I have most of my stuff downloaded :slight_smile:

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#6

That’s a good start then.

From
The fact you’re using Apple Music, I’m guessing iPhone?

iPhone has a separate set of options for Background Data under Settings -> Background App Refresh. There you can stop apps refreshing in the background. Annoyingly, this applies to both Mobile Data and Wi-Fi, which is pretty annoying.

#7

Hey @nick

Don’t suppose if you’d be able to tell me if getting my PAC and just switching it over to Zevvle would still come under the 14 day cooling period? :wink:

Also yeah @Chalky I’m an iPhone guy, and an Apple Watch guy :slight_smile: sadly I want the refresh, so I’ve just disabled cellular for non-crucial apps

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#8

No harm getting your PAC and seeing what they say. Nothing happens unless you actually use it. With EE they tell you what any cancellation charge will be in the same text that the PAC is in.

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#9

O2 won’t process my PAC over text because they’re mad, tbh

It’s ridiculous. I have an Apple Watch out with them for another year and probably a half, if not a bit longer.

But they consider it as 2 so they won’t send a PAC despite one not needing a PAC AFAIK

P.S. they’re sly and link your device plan for watches to your SIMO so you can’t cancel your SIMO

Guess I have to wait another year for #FullZevvle then :slightly_frowning_face: I’ll be hoping to see lots of improvements by then :wink:

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#10

Yeah EE do the same thing when you have an Apple Watch on your account:

Hi from EE. (NUMBER) is part of a multiple subscription account so are not able to complete this request by text. The account holder will need to log into ee.co.uk/myee or call 150 to request your switching information, PAC or STAC. You can find out more at ee.co.uk/leavingus Thanks.

You then have to go online and fanny about trying to find it on there and then they’ll send you a text:

Hi from EE, your total charge for ending your contract early for (NUMBER) is £231.75. This will show on your final EE bill, find out more here ee.co.uk/leavingus Thanks

Why the make you do it, I don’t know.

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#11

Use a decent VPN and then connect to public WiFi when you can… I do at work and it saves a good amount of data.

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#12

I’ve got an Ubiquiti AMPLIFI HD Mesh Router at home and they’ve just brought out a Teleport app for Android and iOS so I can quickly fire that up and connect to my AMPLIFI back at home which is great.

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#13

Is Messenger Lite available on iOS? If so that might be a good way to reduce your FB Messenger usage.

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#14

So to save a few pennies I managed to get a retention deal from O2 for the next year incl a loyalty discount so it will work out cheaper than I’m paying now (roughly saving £27-9 cba to do the actual math)

When this expires I’ll see how much is left to pay on the Apple Watch and if I can afford it, bye bye O2 hello Zevvle :slight_smile:

In the meantime though I guess I’ve retained my USA roaming so I can’t complain too too much

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#15

So it looks like I can knock myself down to a solid 2GB a month on average… (1.1GB used in 19 days) so I could potentially have a bill of £5 a month on Zevvle :heart_eyes:

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