New to the S3 (Wifi vs 4G LTE?)

[JoesBows]

When I'm home and have WiFi coverage my Galaxy S3 (AT&T) notification bar shows that am connected to WiFi AND 4G LTE. With AT&T's data plans I don't want to go over, so I want to only be on WiFi when I'm home. Is 4G LTE being used when both icons are visible, or does WiFi supersede the 4G LTE? If WiFi is not superseding, is there a way to make it work this way so that I don't have to manually turn off Mobile Data?

Thanks!

Joe

 

[Coorsleftfield]

It should prefer wifi. If you go into settings and look at data usage, you can hit menu and enable of viewing wifi usage. Transfer some data and see if the wifi usage is increasing.

 

[beavo451]

WiFi supersedes mobile data. If you look at your icons, the "4G" icon disappears when WiFi is connected. If you use something that requires mobile data, the icon will come back for however long it is actively using mobile data.

 

[JoesBows]

WiFi supersedes mobile data. If you look at your icons, the "4G" icon disappears when WiFi is connected. If you use something that requires mobile data, the icon will come back for however long it is actively using mobile data.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm puzzled as to what kinds of actions/applications would require 4G LTE when I'm fully connected to WiFi? As I stated earlier, I'm new to all of this and I don't even have many apps installed on my device (I have apps like iHeartRadio, Gmail, AT&T Messages).

Thanks again.

Joe

 

[beavo451]

It uses mobile data when an app uses location services. The phone uses a combination of the GPS chip, WiFi, and cellular data.

 

[jeffreii]

You stay connected to AT&T so your phone can know when you get a text message or a phone call. It will prefer wifi but you can't receive AT&T calls/texts through wifi.

When it comes to mobile data there's not really any reason to worry about using it as long as you are connected to wifi.

 

[nelonez]

WiFi supersedes mobile data. If you look at your icons, the "4G" icon disappears when WiFi is connected. If you use something that requires mobile data, the icon will come back for however long it is actively using mobile data.

That's what mine does....

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(161369)]

the Bars you see are the phone pinging home, like was stated above they disappear when the phone hits a dormant state, and reappear when a established connection is needed, a cool video and article I went through over at Xda helps explain the radio functions of this specific phone and my shed some light on your question, that vague answers like mine don't I'll drop the link at the bottom for anyone that hasn't picked it up yet

Fast Dormancy

 

[mrkalel]

Also, MMS is sent over Mobile Data...regardless of Wifi...but doesn't count against plan #'s