If I am on wifi 100% of the time, shouldn't my data usage be zero?

[orangeman]

I just started Project Fi last week and over the last 3 days I never left the house. During that time my recorded data usage with Google has continually inched up by 250mb. Over a month, that would be 2.5GB which seems insane to me. I'm on wifi all day long and never stepped out of the house.

I called Project Fi tech support and they told me this is normal and that I should cap my data on the phone. I don't believe them and think I must have gotten a misinformed person. I would be paying $25 a month just in data charges, but I would be sitting home using my wifi. It's absurd.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else had this experience?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Raydee]

That doesn't sound right to me at all.

 

[W4LNY]

Go to your settings > Data Usage and see what apps are using data, some apps can use a specific data source ie: cellular v WiFi, i will guess you may have an unfriendly app somewhere using data you are not aware of.

 

[AlexMadarasz]

I just started Project Fi last week and over the last 3 days I never left the house. During that time my recorded data usage with Google has continually inched up by 250mb. Over a month, that would be 2.5GB which seems insane to me. I'm on wifi all day long and never stepped out of the house.

I called Project Fi tech support and they told me this is normal and that I should cap my data on the phone. I don't believe them and think I must have gotten a misinformed person. I would be paying $25 a month just in data charges, but I would be sitting home using my wifi. It's absurd.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else had this experience?

Haven't had this particular experience (250MB/day is pretty high if you're at home on your home WiFi) ... However, I don't expect Fi to keep my cell data usage at zero either unless I'm in Airplane mode with WiFi turned back on (which, unfortunately, I currently have to do for other issues) - Fi (unfortunately) still prefers cell over WiFi for calls, and since you're relatively new to Fi it may still be in its initial "learning" phase, figuring out your cell/WiFi environment to tune its decision-making.

IAC, you'll get better answers (and more users and moderators that may confirm your experience and offer suggestions) if you go accept your invitation to the official, invite-only Project Fi Community on Google+.

--
Alex

 

[Raydee]

Can you join the community if you haven't been invited to project fi yet?

 

[orangeman]

Haven't had this particular experience (250MB/day is pretty high if you're at home on your home WiFi) ... However, I don't expect Fi to keep my cell data usage at zero either unless I'm in Airplane mode with WiFi turned back on (which, unfortunately, I currently have to do for other issues) - Fi (unfortunately) still prefers cell over WiFi for calls, and since you're relatively new to Fi it may still be in its initial "learning" phase, figuring out your cell/WiFi environment to tune its decision-making.

IAC, you'll get better answers (and more users and moderators that may confirm your experience and offer suggestions) if you go accept your invitation to the official, invite-only Project Fi Community on Google+.

--
Alex

Thanks for your feedback. Interesting thought about it being in the learning phase. That is probably correct. It was actually 250mb in 3 days so that would be 2.5GB in a month and I don't want to pay $25 while it is getting adjusted.

I did join the Project Fi Community in Google and many people wondered if I have the phone set to connect on wifi when it is asleep which I did, so that wasn't the cause. To this point I haven't gotten any suggestions that would help me to eliminate this problem. I think your theory about fine tuning its decision making is very plausible.

 

[AlexMadarasz]

Thanks for your feedback. Interesting thought about it being in the learning phase. That is probably correct. It was actually 250mb in 3 days so that would be 2.5GB in a month and I don't want to pay $25 while it is getting adjusted.

I did join the Project Fi Community in Google and many people wondered if I have the phone set to connect on wifi when it is asleep which I did, so that wasn't the cause. To this point I haven't gotten any suggestions that would help me to eliminate this problem. I think your theory about fine tuning its decision making is very plausible.

I'm still surprised it was 250MB ... I had no issue with this, but I didn't watch my data usage closely - all I know is that at the end of my first month of Fi I got a credit for $9.72 of my $10.00 1GB data charge - only used 28MB of cell data according to Fi (work at home and I'm on home WiFi the vast majority of the time). Is your 250MB showing up on your Fi account?

--
Alex

 

[orangeman]

I'm still surprised it was 250MB ... I had no issue with this, but I didn't watch my data usage closely - all I know is that at the end of my first month of Fi I got a credit for $9.72 of my $10.00 1GB data charge - only used 28MB of cell data according to Fi (work at home and I'm on home WiFi the vast majority of the time). Is your 250MB showing up on your Fi account?

--
Alex

Yes, the 250mb did show up in my Fi account. That's why I'm so concerned, because it's costing me money, it's not just a question of curiosity.

 

[orangeman]

As the OP, I did a little experiment and wanted to share my results.

3 consecutive days in the house with wifi on all all times. Phone was set to be on wifi even when awake.
Cellular data used (as shown both on the phone and in the Project Fi app): 250mb.

I removed the sim and put in an AT&T sim, no changes to the phone. Everything was kept identical except for the sim.

3 days on AT&T under identical usage, cellular data used: 23mb.

My house is in an area where I am on the border between Sprint and T-Mobile having the stronger signal. Throughout the day my connection switches frequently. My guess is that during these changeovers, the phone draws a little cellular data before reverting back to wifi. I could be totally wrong, but I wanted to post this for people that might wonder if it is their phone or rogue apps, or something they are doing wrong. That is not the case, you aren't crazy, something is definitely happening. Most people don't experience this and I'm guessing it could be that most people have one signal or the other when they are on wifi.

My guess as to the cause might be incorrect, but it is definitely a byproduct of this system. It appears to need some more tweaking.

 

[Raydee]

Can you disable mobile data when you are at home on wifi? This may be a deal breaker for me, I am not going to pay for data that I am not using and especially 250mb in 3 days. There are months when I don't use that much all month because I am mostly on wifi.

 

[AlexMadarasz]

Can you disable mobile data when you are at home on wifi? This may be a deal breaker for me, I am not going to pay for data that I am not using and especially 250mb in 3 days. There are months when I don't use that much all month because I am mostly on wifi.

Sure you can disable mobile while home on WiFi - go into Airplane mode then turn WiFi back on (and BT too if you want/need it). It's a PITA, and even more so if you leave the house and forget to turn Airplane mode back off, but it's currently the "workaround" for some Project Fi issue(s).

As far as Fi data charges, it's certainly the case that if you spend most of your time on WiFi you don't get charged for the data - I'm one of the poster children for that. I have another thread here where I've been posting my monthly charges and have gotten $9.29 and $9.72 credit back against my $10 data charge because I'm only using very small fractions of my 1GB cell data each month while working at home on my home WiFi.

So far, I haven't seen anybody else who's said they've used 250MB of cell data in 3 days when they've been sitting on WiFi - it certainly didn't happen to me.

--
Alex

 

[orangeman]

My case might be rare. But if it happened to me it will happen to others and I wanted to tell my story and the results of my experiment so others can read it in the future and have a sense of what is happening, and that it isn't their phone or settings.

 

[Schoat333]

I noticed a lot of cell data usage while on wifi in my first week on fi. It eventually corrected itself as the month went on, and now I see exactly what I expect.

 

[orangeman]

Interesting, maybe that will happen to me. Although I'm afraid to turn the data back on because it kept marching up every day.

 

[Raydee]

Well I really hope this is a somewhat isolated incident. I was really looking forward to trying out Fi and saving some money.

 

[orangeman]

Well I really hope this is a somewhat isolated incident. I was really looking forward to trying out Fi and saving some money.

I suggest definitely trying it, don't let this discourage you. Just be aware and keep an eye out to see how the data changes. It sounds like my case is very odd.