Controlling mobile data use on your device

With the average Smartphone user consuming an average of three hundred and forty two megabytes per month, mobile data has become a significant concern for everyone. The average user today consumes most of their data through mobile devices in the use of internet browsers, video and audio streaming, social media tickers, map positioning software and a multitude of other applications whose functionality is reliant on data. Data plans are provided by the carrier networks and are structured in terms of fixed data amounts with a validity period of 30 days. These fixed data amounts have limitations placed on consumption in the form of bandwidth caps. Exceeding these data usage caps results in lower internet speeds on your device and overage charges that are exorbitant.

This necessitates the mobile data user to find a way to regulate their data consumption. There are mobile data management apps that you can install on smart devices of the leading operating systems available in the market. A data management app monitors your device activity and records data consumption. A good mobile data manager will provide the following functionality:

    - In-depth monitoring of all data transmission between the device and the network. This includes both sent data packets and received data packets.

     - Recording data usage in logs providing easily understandable information on data use. This recorded information should be easy to understand and recorded in a manner that allows for analysis.

      - It should provide a complete analysis of data usage by periods and different applications. In simpler terms which application consumed how much data and when. Depending on the type of mobile data manager used and its sophistication, some have the ability to show you a record of individual app usage and functionality.

        - Some maintain a record of the data plan you are on and how much data is left for use. Better data management apps link to the network to monitor this usage and provide prompt notifications when you are about to exceed your allocated bandwidth caps.

For these applications to run efficiently, they will need to embed themselves into the operating system to have complete access. Go for verified apps sold in the OS vendor stores as these have been tested to ensure that they do not interfere with phone functionality, data security and confidentiality. Such apps will be capable of seamless integration and will run silently in the background.