Data plan questions

[Coriolis3ffect]

I just bought a Captivate today and it's under the 2GB dataplan since they decided to kill off the unlimited for whatever reason. I'm a bit concerned about how I should keep an eye on my downloading, and what is it that actually goes towards that limit- Is it just anything running on the phone or mainly things like downloading apps, browsing the web, streaming videos, facebook notifications, weather widgets, etc.?

If that's the case... would browsing the internet and everything else while connected to wi-fi(providing I'm near a hot spot) add to that limit or no?

These are pretty stupid questions, but I want to make sure I can use it without worrying about things like that.

 

[moistdef#AC]

You can log into your account on att.com and look at your data usage.

I don't have an Android phone yet but I have a BlackBerry with unlimited data. I was worried about this issue too but so far this month I've only used about 50MB.

I stream music through Pandora every so often, I check my Twitter several times a day, go online, etc.

 

[djsmvp]

There are numerous ways to check your data usage. You can check online. You can check on your phone (there is a "code" i believe). Also I was told by someone in an At&t corporate store that they [can] send you a text message at 60%, 95%, and 100% data usage to automatically notify you.

 

[Joeybear23]

I just bought a Captivate today and it's under the 2GB dataplan since they decided to kill off the unlimited for whatever reason. I'm a bit concerned about how I should keep an eye on my downloading, and what is it that actually goes towards that limit- Is it just anything running on the phone or mainly things like downloading apps, browsing the web, streaming videos, facebook notifications, weather widgets, etc.?

Anything that pulls data over AT&T's wireless network.

If that's the case... would browsing the internet and everything else while connected to wi-fi(providing I'm near a hot spot) add to that limit or no?

That's the beauty of wifi, it is not on AT&T's wireless network, so it is free.

These are pretty stupid questions, but I want to make sure I can use it without worrying about things like that.

They're not stupid questions.

Plus, as moistdef said, don't worry too much unless you plan to do HEAVY downloading. AT&T began keeping a history of data usage that customers can see back in January. My unlimited data plan peaked at 150 MB, and my wife's around 160. I would be fine with just the 2GB plan, but I figure keeping unlimited would be worth the $5. If we went to the $15 200MB plan, that would be too restrictive, IMHO, even though we haven't reached that in recent history.

 

[NeilQ]

AT&T reloads several 'Contacts' in the list - one is: 'AT&T View Data Usage'. It's a link to an AT&T service number (*3282#) - you place a call to that contact and AT&T texts back your current billing cycle's data usage total, and the date of the end of the present cycle.
As the other poster said - keep it set to WiFi whenever you can and you will save a ton of download usage.