Is 2gb data on 4g LTE enough for me?

[sdsubball23]

I've heard about 4g LTE causing 2gb data to rack up quickly, though I don't understand how that would happen. I've never owned a smartphone before so I'm new to this. I've been with Verizon for over 4 years with an old LG flip phone. I want to get a smartphone and be safe with the 2gb data plan if that's what I end up getting.

Will 2gb data on 4g LTE be enough for me? I would mostly use the web (facebook, email, forums), watch youtube, listen to music. And youtube/music I don't know how often I'd do it, maybe medium usage. I'd rarely download big files and I don't think I will be using netflix (never have anyway). What do you all think?

 

[One Radical Dude]

4G LTE doesn't burn any more data than 3G or even 1x. Just remember, though, that you will use data quicker. I can't tell you if 2GB will be enough for you or not, because not all usage habits are alike. If you're going to be doing a lot of browsing on YouTube, uploading large files, or streaming content, you definitely want to monitor your data usage. If you ever decide to wait and get the Galaxy Nexus or any other device with Android 4.0, there's going to be software that can set data limits to prevent people with tiered data from going over their limits. Otherwise, if you just do Facebook, email, some web browsing, you should be fine. There's always Wi-Fi, if you are near a broadband connection.

 

[sdsubball23]

How does streaming take up GBs? What kind of streaming files take up data more? I figure I'd be streaming youtube videos and music, but probably with medium usage. Does youtube and radio, or mp3 streaming take up a lot of data?

 

[anon62607]

I've heard about 4g LTE causing 2gb data to rack up quickly, though I don't understand how that would happen. I've never owned a smartphone before so I'm new to this. I've been with Verizon for over 4 years with an old LG flip phone. I want to get a smartphone and be safe with the 2gb data plan if that's what I end up getting.

Will 2gb data on 4g LTE be enough for me? I would mostly use the web (facebook, email, forums), watch youtube, listen to music. And youtube/music I don't know how often I'd do it, maybe medium usage. I'd rarely download big files and I don't think I will be using netflix (never have anyway). What do you all think?

For your kind of usage (because you mentioned YouTube) 2gb sounds like it might be a bit low, but can't you just try it for a month and if you go over up your plan?

 

[anon62607]

How does streaming take up GBs? What kind of streaming files take up data more? I figure I'd be streaming youtube videos and music, but probably with medium usage. Does youtube and radio, or mp3 streaming take up a lot of data?

Streaming a 128 Kbps mp3 stream takes up (quick math here) 128 k bits per second.

16 kbytes per second or about 60 megabytes per hour with overhead. So your 2 gbyte plan would give you about 30 hours of mp3 streaming.

High definition YouTube could eat up hundreds of megabytes for a half hour video. The resolution you will probably watch on your phone is about 1 megabit per second, or 1 megabyte every 8 seconds, so your 2 gbyte plan would give you about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming.

 

[Adrynalyne]

2GB means you have to monitor usage on 3G.

2GB on LTE means you need to micromanage it. Not because 4G uses more data, but because it uses it faster and you lose a sense for how large things are when downloading, etc.

 

[sdsubball23]

Streaming a 128 Kbps mp3 stream takes up (quick math here) 128 k bits per second.

16 kbytes per second or about 60 megabytes per hour with overhead. So your 2 gbyte plan would give you about 30 hours of mp3 streaming.

High definition YouTube could eat up hundreds of megabytes for a half hour video. The resolution you will probably watch on your phone is about 1 megabit per second, or 1 megabyte every 8 seconds, so your 2 gbyte plan would give you about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming.

wow, thanks for the analysis. Looks as if my data could be eaten up quickly.

Do you all have 2gb?

 

[Ahowe125]

It sounds like you use the phone kinda like I do, and I can tell you that I personally only use around 1-1.5gb of usage on my 3g Droid X. I think I'm a pretty light user, and only rarely stream Pandora and watch YouTube videos on HD. I mainly use my phone for txt, email, web browsing and social networking, oh and even phone calls from time to time, lol.

But I agree with Adrynalyne, If I had a 4g phone I'm sure I would use more then that. And like he said, not because it uses more, just the fact that its way faster and you lose yourself in it.

Will a 2g plan be enough, it could be.. but you may find yourself going over or having to keep a eye on your usage. Just make sure your using WiFi when ever possible to lower consumption.

Oh, and by the way.. I'm currently on the older unlimited plan, so I in no way watch or limit my usage. I'm actually not using WiFi at all this month so I can try and figure out how much I may use on a 4g phone. But looking back at past months its almost never over 1.5gb.

 

[anon62607]

wow, thanks for the analysis. Looks as if my data could be eaten up quickly.

Do you all have 2gb?

My thunderbolt is grandfathered in to unlimited but I haven't used it since may. When I get back to the US I'll change for a galaxy nexus and probably get a 12 GB with tethering plan. I had been using 5 to 8 GB a month and would consider myself a medium heavy user (mostly for perpetual audio streaming and YouTube).

I travel a lot and get frustrated easily with crappy hotel wifi so end up using 3G or 4G more than I strictly have to. If I were being very careful with data I probably could fit in 2 GB a month but wouldn't like it.

I had been using a rover puck (month to month clear WiMAX hotspot basically) and loved it. No hard cap and I generally had WiMAX coverage in many of the places I would go (except western Virginia in which everything was edge or worse, no WiMAX, and only Verizon had 3G/EVDO - 40 miles outside of Kiev, Ukraine for comparison I had much better data coverage than a couple hours drive from DC in Virginia. In the boonies in Afghanistan the edge coverage has been better).

But wimax in general has been much, much better than hotel wifi and I'd see at least 4 Mbps, and didn't have to really think about data caps.

 

[nerdydesi]

I will keep my unlimited, grandfathered data plan for as long as I can. I would not be able to survive on 2gb of data a month.

Many say that you will not use as much data on 3G as 4G as you will only get your data faster. However, you will have more free time then to see more content and use more data. Or, you will try to do things that were not possible or very difficult with 3G, such as streaming high-definition video instead of standard definition video, which devours data.

I think 2gb of LTE data is a joke and the carriers should be ashamed. Heck, they want you to go over to charge you overage fees. They hope to get people so hopelessly addicted to smartphones that they won't mind paying overages and even move to higher tiered plans such as $80/10gb plans. One of the Verizon executives even said this in an interview; they want people to upgrade from the $30/2gb plan to higher tiers. I certainly would find it very hard to go back to a feature-phone now but I will if prices get out of hand.

 

[Neon01]

Unless you're thinking about bumping it up to the 10gb option for $80 a month, there's no compelling reason to go with the 5gb plan under the current pricing structure. If you sign up for the 2gb plan and go over, it's $10 per gb over, so you'd have to be WAY over (>3gb) your 2gb limit by the time it becomes fiscally worthwhile to go for the 5gb plan. I look at it this way - I can either sign up for a $50 plan that will take care of me no matter what, or sign up for a $30 plan that may, in very rare circumstances, cost me $40-50 in a month if I go over the 2gb limit. Pretty much a no-brainer unless there's a really good chance that you'll go over 4gb of usage in a month.