Install Opera Mini if you can, there's an extreme data saving mode which is useful.
Or atleast disable images loading in whatever browser your phone has.

By sheer curiosity, how much are you paying for your mobile plan?

Thanks, Opera Mini it is, good plan to use a different browser fine tuned for data.

Current plan is $200 CAN yearly, unlimited talk/text US/CAN roaming, plus the spoonful of data and the new trickle. I was on a $100 a year pay-as-you-go plan with only free incoming, eves and weekends free outgoing and 200 anytime mins, but they kept ratcheting up the text rates, started at 5c which wasn't terrible, then 25c and I stuck with it because I didn't want a $25/month plan that was barely any better, then 70 freaking cents at beginning of last year, and changed a load of other stuff, so I was like "Oh I hear you, F*** you too!" and shopped for another. So think I'm doing good, better than a lot of $25 plans, ~$17 a month, no way to jack the bill up because it's one time payment.

You'd wonder why I don't ask the friends and fam about this stuff... wellllll .. I really think they are clueless.. they'll be like, "Oh I've got a great plan, only $60 a month, and 2GB data" wat? ... then be complaining about $150 bills with the overages. So yah, nobody on a limited data plan they actually stick to, pay a reasonable amount for or actually know what the hell they are doing at all 🤣

edit: Heh, looks like carrier (Freedom) dumped my plan for new signups, not bad news though, they got $20 cheaper and it's a 12GB for the year data pool. So I'll probably be on that at renewal in July. Unless I wanna save $50 and downgrade to no data.

editII: BTW be real careful at the low end if you're looking at minimal plans in Ontario, some of them are effectively data only plans, with a VoIP phone number, meaning that it is an internet phone and your data is the internet it's using while out, so you've only got "unlimited" calling on wifi, when you're on data you're only good until your VoIP stream sucks the 250MB data dry (50kbps or something around there I think) something like 600 minutes, @ third of a megabyte a minute, if you only use it for voice, quite a bit, but might bite you in the butt if you're not expecting to NEED the data to call, or some app vampired it away unexpectedly.

I use my phone for daily internet browsing and email. Looking at my usage it's between 6 to 8 GB per month. The biggest culprit in the last few months (about 50% of data usage) is actually the Google Play store. I suppose that is used by app updates.

Chrome comes in second each month with ~2 GB of usage.

I suppose if you're careful you could limit usage to under 500MB a month, but it will require some careful monitoring, and potentially disabling of more data hungry apps.

Also I should note that most of my data usage is via Wifi. If you're connected to wifi most of the time, you probably don't need to worry. But if you are not then mobile data usage can rapidly ramp up.

Cheap phones is junky. I repair phones for a living. Try to get iphone X or later. If you are forced to use cheap ones, my general advice: do not pocket it in your pants. This is how this breaks this way by tearing off motherboard soldered connectors by ribbon cable being pulled via phone bending. Does not take much bending to do this. Due to cheap nature of the phone is not as strong as good phones are due to too much plastic and little metal. Good phones anroid are Samsung S series. Try to get one used S8 or S9 and put in a inexpensive case and film protector and put used phone of your choice on the byod type plans.

Repairing by microsoldering is expensive.

Cheers,

How about prepaid plans? If you end up using too much, you just lose the service instead of being billed for extra usage. It may more expensive but may be worth the peace of mind.

Also I should note that most of my data usage is via Wifi. If you're connected to wifi most of the time, you probably don't need to worry. But if you are not then mobile data usage can rapidly ramp up.

Be careful, though, because sometimes the phone automatically switches to 3g/4g if it detects the wifi connection is not good. I strongly believe this is done on purpose.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-05-11, 18:03:

Thanks, Opera Mini it is, good plan to use a different browser fine tuned for data.

Current plan is $200 CAN yearly, unlimited talk/text US/CAN roaming, plus the spoonful of data and the new trickle. I was on a $100 a year pay-as-you-go plan with only free incoming, eves and weekends free outgoing and 200 anytime mins, but they kept ratcheting up the text rates, started at 5c which wasn't terrible, then 25c and I stuck with it because I didn't want a $25/month plan that was barely any better, then 70 freaking cents at beginning of last year, and changed a load of other stuff, so I was like "Oh I hear you, F*** you too!" and shopped for another. So think I'm doing good, better than a lot of $25 plans, ~$17 a month, no way to jack the bill up because it's one time payment.

Text rates? What year is this, 1998?
You're getting seriously ripped off over there...

That why there are good plans that you can afford even Telus and others. Starts off at 15 a month for basic with no add ons is 180 cdn a year.

Cheers,

Do you have Google Fi available in your area?

Get 4 people on the plan and it is $20 US per month per phone for unlimited everything.

Guy is in Ontario, Canada, and is not cheap either.

Cheers,

gaffa2002 wrote on 2023-05-18, 16:24:

Be careful, though, because sometimes the phone automatically switches to 3g/4g if it detects the wifi connection is not good. I strongly believe this is done on purpose.

I've never noticed this to happen in practice, at least not to the extent that it has been an issue.

Keep in mind, 3G is deprecated either in progress or already around the world including Canada and USA.

The minimum requirement is VoLTE on your phone.

Cheers,

lolo799 wrote on 2023-05-20, 08:10:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-05-11, 18:03:

Thanks, Opera Mini it is, good plan to use a different browser fine tuned for data.

Current plan is $200 CAN yearly, unlimited talk/text US/CAN roaming, plus the spoonful of data and the new trickle. I was on a $100 a year pay-as-you-go plan with only free incoming, eves and weekends free outgoing and 200 anytime mins, but they kept ratcheting up the text rates, started at 5c which wasn't terrible, then 25c and I stuck with it because I didn't want a $25/month plan that was barely any better, then 70 freaking cents at beginning of last year, and changed a load of other stuff, so I was like "Oh I hear you, F*** you too!" and shopped for another. So think I'm doing good, better than a lot of $25 plans, ~$17 a month, no way to jack the bill up because it's one time payment.

Text rates? What year is this, 1998?
You're getting seriously ripped off over there...

It was a service that started in late 90s, they had per text rates for $10 and under plans, which was fine when they were 5c and a large chunk of the monthly or annual went to a service credit, forgot was it was exactly, but basically you had a prefunded chunk to chip at. So 8 years ago when I went on the $100 a year plan, there was a $15 service credit, 5c text and 15c/min out of evening and weekend hours outgoing, with 200min anytime pool and free incoming. So for light use, I was usually inside the 2oo mins anytime voice and had effectively, 300 outgoing texts for free, coming out of the $15 credit. But, for that plan, they started jacking up text rates until they were super high as mentioned. But until that happened, the entirety of my usage could be got into the $100 a year single payment. ~$ 8.34 CDN monthly, which at the time might have been $5 USD since exchange rate visited 40% sometimes. So anyway, if "getting ripped off" = paying half the monthly rate just to have some cellphone access then yes. Obviously that is not a yak and text all day plan. Some people might still be happy with that for an emergency phone at very low monthly/annual.

I think we've just had a market shakeup though, between 2012 and 2022 $15 a month was getting you next to nothing, seemed like you had to go to $25 to get bare necessities. No contract, no bill. I will not go on a monthly billed plan, I am sure they regard "billing mistakes" as a profit center. (Also why I will no longer use large cable and telco TV and Internet, I am not spending hours on the phone monthly to get my bill corrected.)

There are still difficulties in the market here, I was straight up told at one store last year "We are not letting you have a SIM unless you sign up to a high rate plan here and now." despite carrier advertising the low plans and buy a SIM from any of our locations for $10. So you walk into cell stores and they claim "The only option for you is this $50 plan." yeahnah, get bent.