Q: Unknown data usage early morning

I saw it on the google news yesterday as well.

it seems as if AT&T is trying their best to make their customers unhappy and angry.

the last paragraph of the article sums all up:

- Tallman sees few prospects for a lawsuit against AT&T. The company is still providing unlimited data usage to throttled customers, even if the speeds are so low as to make the phone useless for anything but phone calls and text messages. The company made no promises that "unlimited" data would always be coupled with high speeds, he notes.

"They just guaranteed the highway. They didn't guarantee the speed limit," he said.

I forwarded this to a group of friends/co-workers using AT&T as their iphone carrier and they're infuriated as well.

there will be a class action lawsuit for sure and I'll be more than happy to participate.

I'm getting so sick and tired of their ******** business decisions and customer service.

as soon as my contract w/ AT&T ends, that'll be the end of anything AT&T for me.

Everything you ask is answered in the thread somewhere, usually multiple times.

It says "sent" arbitrarily, because "received" would make no more sense. It's a summary of all interactions for a time period from an MTSO (mobile central office). It should probably just say "data", but it was an adaptation of the system in use when the iPhone first came out where every transfer appeared on the bill, meaning that some people got 300 page bills. The way it works is any time you leave the coverage area for an MTSO (which includes multiple towers) and enter another one the MTSO you are leaving closes out the record and sends a total to the billing system. Sometime during the night (around midnight Pacific time in the US) the MTSO currently serving your phone closes the out its record and sends a single number to the billing system. That is where the subject of this thread comes from.

The 109 MB is a completely separate question. Assuming it is correct (and you can check it by noting the usage counter on your phone or installing a data monitoring app such as Dataman) You have one or more apps that use data, probably in background. Common apps that use a lot of data when the phone is asleep include music streaming apps, news apps, Facebook (probably the biggest offender), Exchange email accounts, iCloud email, contacts and calendar, Siri, iTunes, App store, Ping, Twitter and similar apps. As WiFi is always off when the phone is asleep and not connected to power most background data will go over the cellular network.

You can certainly give up AT&T, but Verizon and Sprint have the same problems, and if you switch you can't get unlimited and unthrottled data. There's no where to go, execpt to give up using a smartphone (Android phones have the same issues, apparently worse according to my associates that have them).

thanks for the detailed explanation, Lawrence.

however, if the billing statement lists the data usage records in a way that's not practical and usable to anyone (i.e. the phone call history is practical and usable), they should come up with a better way to help their customers understand.

but then we're talking about AT&T....I have very little hope they'll ever do anything well for their customers.

by the way, I don't use icloud email, streaming music apps, news apps, exchange email, siri (mine is iphone 4), twitter and etc.

facebook and itunes/app store are the suspects then....maybe I should delete facebook and see if that makes any difference.

but at least Verizon doesn't screw their customers for the whole billing cycle.

here's what the article says:

- Verizon doesn't slow down the "5 percent" unless the cell tower their phone is connected to is congested at that moment, and it slows them down by the minimum amount necessary

I can't remember anything good, in phone/data service and customer service, from AT&T since I switched from Verizon in 2007 to use iphone.

only reason I haven't switched to other carriers is the ability to use the internet while on the phone.

well, that's the only thing good with AT&T I suppose.

You keep stating wifi is off when phone is asleep.  so the fact that i can ping my phone at any time during its "sleep" and get a strong return, mean that the wifi is on or off?  Only when the phone is off will a ping not respond...soooooo...

The huge data packets imo are a rouse to spike data plans and chum more money...the last one here was 237MB! with no progs in background...please, I dont have 237 MB on the entire phone!!!

Start pining the phone continuously (ping -t in Windows, just ping on a mac). Press the Sleep button. Within one minute the pings will time out, unless the phone is plugged in.

Have you put a data monitor app on the phone. and checked the usage in Settings? Does it show approximately the same usage that shows up on your bill? If it does, your phone is really using that much data. If they don't match then you have a claim against AT&T.

And don't be ridiculous; you can have 100 times 237 MB on your phone if you have a 32 GB phone.

BTW, an associate just dumped his iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy. In the first 2 weeks it used 1.7 GB of data. It's not just an iPhone issue.

It's likely that you really are using that much data, especially if you have a busy Exchange email account or have the Facebook app. Or are using iStream for your photos (each photo is 2-4 MB).

What is strange to me is that if I run an overnight test using Dataman & Onavo, with the phone plugged in and on a WiFi network, with the cellular data network on, there is almost always a large amount of data transmitted via the cellular network and the WiFi connection simultaneously.

If I do the same overnight test, with cellular data off,  there is never a large amount of data transmitted over the WiFi network.

I have tried this overnight multiple times with the same results.

The problem, therefore, at least in my case, is multifold:

1) The phone should not even be using the cellular network at all because it is connected to power and on WiFi.

2) There shouldn't be any data to be transferred in the first place. The only apps in the dock are Dataman and Onavo, no push, no fetch, no open Safari pages, Store set to not use cellular data, etc., etc., etc.

I have only been turning cellular data on for the overnight tests and, rarely, only briefly as needed during the day. There is no legitimate data to be transferred.

3) There is no large unexplained data transfer of any kind unless cellular data is on - it never happens when the phone is on WiFi only – never. Sometimes I go for several days without activating cellular data.

Please: Has anyone else done similar tests, and, if so what are your results?

Interesting results. Have you tried leaving wifi off and cellular data on? Perhaps some sort of feedback is occurring between the two data paths.

My own experience with data billing raises a different question. I have four iPhones: 1 power user, 2 frequent users, 1 light user. A few months ago, upon realizing that the light user had never consumed more than 150mb/mo in over three years, in spite of being on an unlimited plan, i switched her to the 200mb/mo option. I didn't tell her about the change, the apps and usage of her phone remained the same, and yet within the first week (out of four) I received a data overage msg and  ultimately was charged for over 800mb in that first month on the restricted plan. Last month i switched up to a 2gig plan and was tagged for 1.5gb. This month I am only 6 days in and have been charged for 2.4gb so far. The other 3 phones are much more heavily used, yet burn up no where near this amount of data.  Clearly the problem i am experiencing is unrelated to the way the phone has been used. I will be calling for a refund, experimenting with periodically  turning off cellular data, and keeping an eye out for posts from users on competing carriers. I hope Apple is taking this seriously.

phone stays plugged in at night. I left my phone plugged in last weekend and a 152 mb packet mysteriously appeared! The data collection is a concious effort by att with 3g instead of wireless otherwise it would go wireless.

i reset the data usage on the phone and yes...it went...

dont be ridiculous? im not,  maybe the phone came loaded with 237 mb of progs, however I have not loaded any extra...actually i got rid of some...8 pics, no vids or music. btw according to app manifesto, the overall average app memory size is just under 9 megabytes...

I never said it was an iphone problem...simply i can only speak about mine as iphone is what i have...however that further illustrates the problem as being att.

i dont use facebook on the phone, exchange, or i stream...no conscious cloud usages...never approved for install.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!   for years our data was NEVER over ~50 mb...the same proved true when we switched to att for 3 mos.  then all of a sudden we all are going over the 200 mb plan...the only response from att is ...you guessed it "buy more data or pay the overages.."  NO ONE at att can tell you a.) if the data is coming or going, b.) what it is. c.) how to stop the transfers with out turning off cellular data...

there is no doubt that this is a concious effort on atts part to chum more money...1mm people going over @ $15 a pop = $15mm...nice bonus for the execs and share holders....

"Have you tried leaving wifi off and cellular data on? Perhaps some sort of feedback is occurring between the two data paths." 

I haven't, but I definitely will as soon as convenient. Thanks for the excellent idea.

I'll let you know the results, whatever they may be.

Interesting this.  I am in the UK using O2 and have only just started experiencing the same thing.  Up to 4 days ago my average daily usage for the past 6 months has been less than 10mB per day with a maximum during Christmas of 27mB.  Then in the last 4 days my usage has soared to 97, 83, 96, 82mB each day.  That has pushed me over my limit of 500mB per month.  I have not changed my browsign habits which as you can guess are pretty limited.  I have followed gudance here and turned off everything that could speak to the outside world but the outgo keeps happening.  So, like you, I would like a solution please Apple.

I just got my bill.  The data usage there does not match what was uploaded.....  Granted, I tracked with my data monitor programs almost every day for the last few weeks and it uploaded 1-2GB per DAY.  I should have seen a 60GB data on my bill.   It was nowhere near that.   I'm guessing that it must be some sort of tracking by Apple or some other nefarious thing where AT&T gave away the keys to the kingdom.   Freedom and privacy are ideas that corporations apparently consider flexible to their goals.

D

HAs anyone else noticed that dataman shows much higher usage than onavo - onavo shows a split of data activity and it is broadly what I would have expected for me with some facebook, some MS exchange etc.  Whereas dataman shows about 20 times the usage (but doesnt give a split).  So if Onavo is doing the right thing then the extra data is not going through any app that I have open.  Is there any way of getting dataman to show a split so we can see where the data is being used? (incidentally, dataman agrees with the iphone's own usage recorder and also the service provider)