Controlling data usage on your Smartphone

The advent of the Smartphone has been a real boost to data consumption by the average user. The amount of data consumed by the average Smartphone user has increased exponentially. The average monthly usage is projected to hit half a gigabyte by the end of 2014. Mobile data has, therefore, become a significant money minting operation for the network carriers. Technology is geared towards the production of even faster devices than current models every year that can consume even more data in shorter periods. Therefore, the average user has been forced to look for methods of controlling their data plan usage. This is because the network carriers impose higher charges for increased data use.

Fortunately, there are companies that have developed data usage apps that monitor and control the data consumption on your mobile device. These apps can easily be found on the internet and downloaded to your device. Once downloaded and installed, they monitor the data consumption on your device. They can advise you on which applications are consuming what amounts of data. Some have added functionality that enables you to disable applications that are using too much data unnecessarily. They provide notifications on when the data bundle you have is running or has run out.

Some of you are wondering why you need special data usage apps when most phones now come with an inbuilt data meter. The inbuilt data meters have been shown as not measuring data usage in the same way the carrier does. This usually leaves the owner darned and frustrated when the carrier claims his data plan usage is higher than what the meter shows. The reason these meters are inaccurate is that they fail to monitor background data streams. Background data streams are streams of data that are used by applications to transfer information for enabling background services. The information transferred is used to monitor such things as location awareness, to keep maps updated, and other functions.

While such consumption usually factors into the data plan usage, most meters ignore it. Part of the reason for this is that most meters only track active data usage by the user. Passive background data transfers are largely ignored leading to inaccurate measurement. Inbuilt meters tend to ignore data use by bundled applications. Bundled applications come with the Smartphone operating system and cannot be deleted or disabled. Data usage apps enable you to monitor data consumption by such devices effectively and in a reliable manner.