The need for mobile data has risen significantly, compared to the past two decades, mostly as a result of an increase in the use of smartphones and consumption of video content. It doesn’t look like the traction will be dropping anytime soon.
In fact, GSMA predicts that the mobile data traffic per mobile connection in North America will continue to grow at a 16 percent CAGR until 2030. For low- and medium-income countries that are now getting more access to smartphones and affordable data plans, growth is expected to reach 22 percent CAGR.
Although mobile data plans are now relatively cheaper, people are unsurprisingly spending more as their mobile data needs rise.
Do a quick check of your monthly/annual mobile data spend, and you might find yourself in for an unpleasant surprise. And you’d probably want to do something about it!
Today, we’ll take a look at some practical ways you can optimize your mobile data use to save costs.
Understand Your Data Usage
High mobile data usage equals high mobile data costs.
Therefore, finding what’s consuming your mobile data is the first step to managing costs.
Generally, there are two major ways you can check your mobile data consumption:
- Device settings: Search for “Data usage” on your Android device or mobile or cellular data on your iOS device to find your device’s built-in mobile data monitor, with details of all your apps and how much data they consume.
- Carrier apps or third-party tools: Carrier apps like My ATT, T-Mobile, and My Verizon have features for data usage monitoring. Third-party tools like GlassWire and My Data Manager are also helpful in this regard.
Fundamentally, these tools showcase data consumption on a per-app basis. You get to see the data-hungry apps and plot next steps on how to limit their mobile data consumption, such as limiting background use, reducing time spent on those apps, or, in the case of video-heavy apps, reducing streaming quality.
But what if you can’t compromise on the data-hungry apps?
Choose the Right Mobile Plan
Suppose you’ve checked your mobile data consumption and found that the heavy data consumers on your device are necessary, as they are for your work or social lifestyle.
Then, your next step should be to focus on getting the right mobile plan that fits your data needs.
To do this, you should:
- Evaluate your needs: Analyze monthly usage history to determine the amount of mobile data that will sufficiently meet your needs and decide if a prepaid or postpaid plan will more likely fit your budget.
- Compare carriers and offers: Use comparison websites like PrepaidCompare and WhistleOut to compare offers from top carriers at a glance. Also, check out the carriers individually for promotional offers and new family/shared plans that are not often covered by comparison sites.
- Consider data rollover or unlimited plans: Heavy consumers are generally better off with unlimited plans. However, if you think that an unlimited plan is too expensive or unnecessary, then you should definitely go for plans with rollover options. Nothing goes to waste!
At this point, you understand your data needs and have identified the mobile data plan for you. The next step should be knowing how to make the most of your recharge.
Be Strategic with Mobile Top-Ups
For starters, you should understand how mobile top-ups work.
For instance, you can choose to recharge with direct deposit to your mobile account and then proceed to purchase mobile data from the balance.
You can also recharge using reliable top-up platforms like BOSS Revolution, which usually have some ongoing partnerships with network carriers, allowing the third-party mobile recharge apps to offer discounts and other promos throughout the year.
To maximize your top-ups, it’s important that you monitor expiry dates and usage, and also time your top-ups to capture as many promos as are offered by your provider.
Use Wi-Fi When Secure
Suppose you are not going for unlimited plans. You may benefit from complementing your mobile data with Wi-Fi.
In this case, you should:
- Turn off automatic updates when on mobile data
- Set Wi-Fi as the default for large downloads
- Stream on Wi-Fi only or download videos over Wi-Fi to watch later.
As a rule of thumb, you should protect your data when using public Wi-Fi. Preferably, go for secure Wi-Fi with WPA2 key. Also, consider using a VPN to provide an additional layer of protection for your data.
Optimize App Settings
Given that video content is one of the key culprits behind high mobile data consumption, simply adjusting streaming quality on commonly used apps like YouTube and Netflix could save you a significant amount of money.
Also consider turning off auto-sync and disabling background data usage for individual apps via data usage settings (for Androids) or App Background Refresh settings (for iOS).
Lastly, whenever you can, download video/audio content over Wi-Fi and use offline features in apps like Google Maps, Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix.
Use Data Management Tools
iPhones come with a Low Data Mode feature that you can toggle on to automatically reduce mobile data usage by restricting background use and automatic updates. Some Android devices also come with a similar feature.
Browsers like Chrome, Opera, and UC Browser also have lite versions or in-built data-saving features that you can turn on to save data. You can also go for similar features/versions in other apps like TikTok and Instagram.
Additionally, third-party apps can go a long way in helping you save data.
Monitor and Set Data Limits
After all or some of the above have been set in place according to your needs, you should maintain a data-saving habit by continuously monitoring your data usage.
Many smartphones now have features that allow you to set limits on your mobile data and hotspot sharing on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis, as well as data amounts.
Some Android smartphones have a “Billing Cycle and Data Warning” feature that allows you to limit your data usage for a given period and receive alerts when you are nearing your limit. This feature makes you conscious of when you are using more data than usual and also helps time your data consumption to match your mobile data budget for given periods.
Conclusion
Modern problems require modern solutions. As the modern internet user faces high data costs due to the proliferation of data-hungry apps and habits, it is also important that one makes an intentional effort to minimize the cost, ensuring they are only paying for what’s necessary.
These efforts could come in many shapes and forms, such as choosing the right mobile plan, being strategic with your mobile top-ups, using Wi-Fi when secure, optimizing app settings, using data management tools, and monitoring and setting data limits.
But before you get started, it is important that you first understand your data usage so that your cost-saving strategies are well-targeted to meet your needs.
Shafana Fazal
