The Mobile Internet: Disrupting Data Allowances

The mobile internet has never been better, but unfortunately mobile data doesn’t grow on trees. Here are some tips to stop it from running out.

Good news: the mobile internet has never been so good! The newest smartphones load the web faster than ever on 4G, and websites look great now that anyone worth their salt has a mobile-optimised site. The technology is there for us to fully enjoy the mobile web like we’ve never done before, and we’re certainly taking advantage of this fact: the UK, US and Japan are among countries where mobile Google searches have surpassed desktop searches. In the UK, more than half of all YouTube views are on mobile phones too, signalling a significant shift has taken place.

Then the bad news: you’ve never been so at risk of using up your mobile internet allowance. Getting unlimited data on a mobile contract is possible, but it’s expensive, so lots of people end up with a cap at one or two gigabytes. The former used to be plenty, but with high quality data content all over the internet we’re easily breaking these parameters and being met with sky-high bills. Unless you have unlimited allowance, you may want to take some steps to ensure you don’t burn through your mobile data any faster than necessary. Here are some tips:

Turn off video autoplay

Several apps, including Facebook, will automatically start playing videos with no sound once you open the page. Companies should be kind to their visitors by not doing this, but you can see why it’s tempting: it boosts their video view figures. Those with low data allowances will find it handy to go into the settings within the app and turn off video autoplay, or at least set it to autoplay only when in a WiFi zone.

Check which apps are data hogs

In your phone’s settings there should be a tab which lets you see how much data each app has been using (on an iPhone this is under ‘Mobile’ within the ‘Settings’). If an app is particularly wasteful you can turn it off for mobile data altogether. Looking at my phone, I can see that Feedly uses a fair amount of data, and so does Instagram and Twitter, but WhatsApp is very data efficient, as is Citymapper. Things like push notifications use data too, so if you’re up against your limit, it’s worth having a look to see what you can do without.

FaceTime vs. regular calls

Video calling apps like FaceTime are free to use on WiFi and via mobile data. If you’re calling someone in another country it may be worthwhile using mobile data for this, but if it’s a local connection it may be better to just make a regular phone call. Topping up mobile data if you’ve run out may well end up costing more than the call.

Download WiFi apps

If you have a home broadband provider, check if they also have a WiFi app that lets you connect to their network when you’re away from the house. BT has a WiFi app which connects you to the public network when you’re in range, hooking you up automatically once you’ve logged in with your subscription details. A free WiFi app with lots of hotspots around town, including in most branches of Pret a Manger, is The Cloud Fast Connect.

Be careful with mobile hotspots

Using your mobile phone as a WiFi hotspot for your laptop can be very useful, enabling you to do things like send emails with attachments from a WiFi-free café or a train. But while your phone may be set to “download updates on WiFi” only, your laptop won’t be able to differentiate between your at-home WiFi connection and your mobile hotspot. Make sure there are no auto-updates running in the background, gobbling up your mobile data: it’s more than possible to accidentally burn through several gigabytes of mobile data in mere minutes doing this!

For those data-heavy days in the office, be sure to follow a few of these tips to be sure you’ve got enough to go around!