Your pocket’s not safe, even when you try |to put limits on your data usage, warns Georgina Crouth.
Service issues relating to cellular providers are among readers’ biggest bugbears – mostly about lack of service, dropped calls, poor signal and outrageously high bills. (By way of examples, see the letters).
Competition is tight in the market ever since consumers were allowed to change providers and keep their numbers, which means you are no longer “hooked” in with a provider. But what about the high bills? Surely, if you’ve put limits in place – “capping” your contract – you should be safe?
I’ve read horror stories about supposed caps placed on contracts, only for the bills to arrive with a few digits attached to them.
I asked the country’s three biggest cellular networks what “capped” means.
I was told the capping only means that the bandwidth is “throttled” once you reach your limit, so your internet speed is slowed down but you are paying out-of-bundle rates for the usage.”
These out-of-bundle rates are daylight robbery. Take, for instance, the fact you can buy a Telkom prepaid 2-gig package for R139 – when you’re paying other cellular providers in the region of R2 per MB in some cases for out-of-bundle rates.
Vodacom was quick on the draw, responding: “We don’t offer capped data bundles like most ADSL companies where, after you finish your bundle, you get throttled.
“We do not reduce speeds after bundle consumption, but you do pay out-of-bundle rates that differ depending on your payment type (contract, top-up or prepaid) and price plan – and this rate can be as high as R2 per MB. If you don’t want the bill to keep on running up, you can set a spend limit lock on account level but it will stop both voice and data.
“We do alert contract customers at 70 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent, and 100 percent, of their bundle consumption via SMS and on the registered alternate number for data devices, when their data is almost finished. Prepaid customers get notified per bundle when they have 5MB and at 0MB remaining.
“In the majority of cases, data is being consumed by a mobile device without the user knowing about it.” (See Vodacom’s tips to reduce data usage in Wise Up.)
Cell C was next: “Cell C does apply limits (or caps) to its packages, both for data and voice packages. These limits can be adjusted by contacting the call centre. As an example, a customer might choose to have a R100 limit on top of his or her contract.
“Once the inclusive minutes and/or data (that are part of the contract) are depleted, the customer will be charged an out-of-bundle voice or data rate. In this example, once the customer has depleted the data or voice value included in the contract and in addition incurred out-of-bundle charges of R100, the limit will kick in and the line will be temporarily deactivated.
“However, customers will still be able to receive calls and use any other inclusive bundles that are not depleted.
“When a customer roams, the foreign service provider will supply Cell C with call data records (CDRs) for billing purposes. CDRs are not provided to Cell C in real-time and a limit cannot be applied as charges might have already been incurred by the time Cell C receives the delayed CDRs.”
MTN responded: “The only uncapped service is available in MTN Sky Priceplan. The capped offers come with an out-of-bundle (rate) of 99c, and this value accumulates as part of the customer’s monthly bill.
“Capped data gives you a set amount of gigs/MBs a month, determined by the data bundle or price plan you choose. Should you deplete all the gigs within the bundle validity period (month or more), you can easily top up with more data bundles at a cost. You can also continue using data at an out-of-bundle rate.”
So depending on your provider, you may have set limits on data or cellular usage. When that cap has exceeded, you pay punitive out-of-bundle rates.
Wise up. Here's how!
Keep a lid on it
Buy a data bundle if you’re planning to do big downloads or updates. It will work out much cheaper.
Beware the automatic updates
Control your data usage by not allowing automatic updates – manually update apps, download software and Cloud syncing. You can also change your settings to only do updates when you manually activate it or when your device is connected to a wi-fi network. This way you’ll know when you’re using a lot of data.
For Android devices
Go to the Google Play store and tap “Menu”, “Settings” and select “auto-update apps over wi-fi only”. To adjust sync options, head to “Settings”, “Accounts” and “Google”. Untick the box next to items that don’t need to be synced.
Apple iOS tip
Go to “Settings”, “iTunes and App Store”. Toggle the switch for “Use Mobile Data” into the “off-position only”.
Configure in-app data settings
Many apps allow you to change how they consume data. You can turn off notifications for specific apps and only activate certain app features when you need them.
For example, Google Maps requires access to your location and uses data to know where you are, so disable the location/GPS setting if you don’t need it. Your e-mail app will allow you to choose to download headers or the whole e-mail, and to automatically download attachments or not.
Watch the multimedia
Many Android and Apple phones back up your photos and videos as they’re captured. Again, visit “App settings” and disable options you don’t need.
Stop Facebook videos from autoplaying
Facebook’s autoplaying video feature sees videos on your timeline automatically start playing when scrolled over. Disable this feature to prevent it from quickly eating up your mobile data.
Restrict background data
Even apps that don’t allow you to fine-tune data settings could still be loading background data. “Background” reflects the data used when the app is running processes in the background. If an app is using too much background data, you can “Restrict background data” on your device.
Compress browser data
If you’re running low on data, you can use a browser which compresses data. This means you can load lighter versions of web pages and lower quality videos and audio.
For more tips on data usage, visit www.vodacom.co.za/datainfo.
*Georgina Crouth is a consumer watchdog with serious bite. Write to her at [email protected] or follow on Twitter @askgeorgie.
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