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Posted on November 4th, 2009 by David Bayon
Will you hit the Orange iPhone “unlimited” cap?
Orange’s big unveiling of its iPhone tariffs has caused a bit of a kerfuffle, not least because its prices are almost identical to those of O2. A lot of people are up in arms about the promise of “unlimited browsing”, which in fact comes with a fair-use limit of 750MB.
But, ignoring the terrible decision to put an “unlimited” label on a very clearly capped tariff, is that amount of monthly data actually “fair-use”?
As discussed in this week’s podcast, there’s a very easy way for existing iPhone owners to find out if that data cap would prove troublesome. Just go to Settings -> General -> Usage, and take a look at your Cellular Network Data. I did just that, believing this cap would be encroaching at least a little on my roaming lifestyle, but I was in for a surprise.
Having never reset it manually, that’s my total cellular data usage since I bought my iPhone 13 months ago. Yes, 789MB in 13 months – or around 60MB a month. The internal counter may not be entirely accurate – as many will be quick to point out – but a quick check on the last six months of my itemised O2 bills backs it up. I simply don’t use anything like the data I imagined.
True, it doesn’t include data downloaded via Wi-Fi – which discounts much of my usage at home and at work – but that’s surely not unusual. When I’m out and about on the 3G network I download apps, I browse the internet on my commute, I check the football scores in the pub, I read and send emails and spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter. I’d guess a typical day with my iPhone isn’t at all dissimilar from the vast majority of consumers.
Even if I used my iPhone for business, it’s hard to envisage a realistic scenario in which I’d download more than 12 times the amount of data I already do – with the speed of 3G I doubt I’d even have the patience. The only thing I can think of that may contribute heavily is streaming media, but there are very few apps of that kind that don’t specify Wi-Fi as a must.
Sure, there’ll always be the odd power user who blitzes any cap, which the networks will point out is the entire reason for the majority of us being covered by the fair use policy. But in this case the fair-use cap size does at least appear to be pretty fair.
If only Orange hadn’t tried to hide it behind that word…
UPDATE: To put my casual-user figures in perspective, here is the data usage (in KB per month) for an iPhone power-user working for our sister title MacUser. As you can see, even someone pushing the iPhone 3G, and then 3GS, to the limits – with apps and media featuring prominently – has only once come within 100MB of hitting that 750MB cap, although his monthly average is rising.
Tags: internet, iphone, mobile, O2
Posted in: Hardware, Newsdesk, Random, Rant
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23 Responses to “ Will you hit the Orange iPhone “unlimited” cap? ”
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November 4th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Wow that’s pretty conclusive Mr Bayon (can I call you Bayon like they do on the podcast, presumably coz there’s so many Davids? probably not)
BUT I think iphone use is going to change hugely once people start downloading and watching movies and TV shows via iPlayer, iTunes etc and you are not a spotify user. For every Bayon-like user there is a viedo-downloading user, and if there isn’t now, once 3G speeds improve the number of these are going to increase hugely. Orange = no.
As for THAT WORD Everyone should do their duty and complain to the ASA like I did.
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/
November 4th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
@GW: I can’t argue with that. The media side of things will only grow from here, so that cap could look laughably low before long. And I’ll freely admit I’m not the most intensive 3G user – I connect to Wi-Fi whenever I can. I’d be interested to hear how much data other iPhone owners use though.
As for Spotify, having tested it when it was released I don’t think I’d be able to put up with 3G for long when the offline mode is an option. It just isn’t reliable enough.
And yes, you may call me Bayon. I’m touched.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Stop touching Bayon,GW.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
@GW. Just for info Spotify uses a local cache, so if you create lists while on WiFi you can play music to your hearts content while on the celluar network with no more data usage than whatever Spotify does to manage access rights.
However I do agree that mobile video may change the numbers considerably.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I’ve recently got myself a new HTC and I didn’t choose orange because there ‘unlimited’ was 500Mb which I argued in the shop wasn’t unlimited and each time I said ’so their is a limit of 500Mb which makes it not unlimtited’, their response was it is unlimited but has a fair use policy. They also said that if I wished to have a larger unlimited package I could pay an extra topup that would give me an extra 5Gb. So thats not exaclty unlimited either then!
In terms of power users I use it as a portable broadband for my laptop (why should you have to get an extra doggle when your phone can do it). As a side note the 3 orange shops I visited each told me I could NOT connect the HTC to a laptop even though I told them I knew you could and its just a case of plug it in and press the share network button.
Go with T-Mobile, it comes with 5Gb fair use without having to pay for extras and they advised correctly that I could use it with my laptop (which I do and I find it as fast as many broadband connections I’ve used)
November 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Sent: 71.6 MB, Received: 1.3 GB, over 7 months.
I would class myself as a reasonably heavy 3G user with push email enabled which probably accounts for a lot of the total. The rest is reading the news, surfing the web, etc.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I have had my 3gs since it launched in July. I dont use it for gaming or music. At home and at work it is connected to WiFi. My Celluar data which will be mainly for email is sent 419mb received 3.8gb. I think that well exceeds the Orange monthly unlimited limit!
November 4th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
@Peter 3.8GB in four months and you only use it for email?!
Did you upgrade from the 3G? If so, I’d guess the figure is the total for all the iPhones that SIM has been in, which could explain that huge data figure! Unless anyone knows any better?
November 4th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I’d be fine as the 3G signal here is so rubbish i’d never get near 10MB a month, never mind 750MB
November 5th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I’ve had my 3GS since Agust with 2 push e-mail accounts (MobileMe and work’s Exchange push service), with a bit of browsing, a lot of Tweetdeck usage and some Facebook, I’ve used a total of 17.8MB sent and 64.3MB received.
I’m on an unlimited contract – above 5GB, my data rate gets capped at 56Kbps regardless of whether I have 3G reception or not.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
In the podcast you mention that it costs £800 to buy a 32Gb 3GS. I’ve just bought one for £490 in an Apple Retailer in Hongkong. Completely unlocked and it took my UK Vodafone SIM with no problem.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
@tony the podcast certainly doesn’t say that. listen again. What it says is:
retail = £440
cheapest talktime contract which provides it free = total cost £800+
Looks like you lose by £50. soz.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I am currently on windows mobile, and use active sync for my contacts and calender, and check emails every hour or so on my phone. I get about 15 – 20 mails a day, and only download about 1 mail a day (beyond the 5kb it does by default). I send about 1 mail a day from my phone. Apart from that I use google maps about once a week, and read the news (off FT/bloomberg/BBC) about twice a week.dont use ANY streaming and still use about 400 MB per month!750 is nothing on the iphone!
November 5th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I use a Windows Mobile device and have both sugarSynch and MyPhone enabled. So all my data gets backed up each morning to myPhone as well as being replicated in (near) real time to SugarSynch. SugarSynch also allows me to access all the music, photos and videos I have (near 30GB) over the air and pull them down to my phone as and when I want. Surely that’s the point of always-on media-centric devices, to which the iPhone aspires?
My telco offers a 1GB/month “low use” plan for £5 and an unlimited for £10 – and I’ve not been able to locate a defined cap for the “unlimited” part. To be fair, even I don’t go over the 1GB that often but it’s nice to know the headroom is there if I need it.
Mind you, since I got an unlimited data plan, I can’t remember the last time I switched the WiFi on. In fact, since I updated my ROM in May, I’m not sure I’ve even set up the WiFi.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
In 14 months mine is sent: 264mb received 3.9gb. That works out to almost 280mb a month and I reckon I use it moderately. Granted I wouldn’t coming near to reaching the “unlimited” limit but I would still they much rather say an allowance of 750mb than unlimited. Its just clearer.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Vodafone calls 512MB “unlimited” so I guess Orange is being generous. It’s amazing it’s not a breack of advertising rules.
Personnally I use almost 500MB of data per month on my HTC Magic! and I don’t stream music or download podcasts over 3G but I have a RSS reader that updates regularly and I browse the net occasionally and use push Gmail.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Using the E71 on Tmobile, i use about 4GB pm. 750mb would be useless to me.
I dont dl much stuff, audio podcasts, browsing, email. Thats about it really, i never use youtube or anything and im not a social website type, so no facebook or whatever either.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Mine is on 915Mb, that’s since July. I downloaded a lot of podcasts and listen to the radio quite a bit. Still, no way near Orange’s limit.
November 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I phoned Orange and they said that you can pay an extra £5 for 1GB of usage which is more than enough I think. I bought an iPhone 3GS on O2 and unlocked it. Although, I have 500MB on my tariff and I use about 450MB a month. They said I could probably go over and they would let me know if they were going to start charging. The 450MB I used was with a lot of data usage, including Google Maps for a fair period of time. I don’t think an average iPhone user would reach that 750Mb/month limit, so there’s no fussing over a figure.
November 7th, 2009 at 12:51 am
But what about the pay as you go customers? From what I’ve been told and managed to find on their website:
1) 250MB rather than 750MB.
2) Not throttled when they go over 250MB they just start paying exhorbitant rates on the excess.
3) At the end of the free 12 month period it appears that they will have to pay £5 per week for data. That’s over twice what O2 charge.
O2 has taken a bit of a bashing in the past but at least they have managed not to treat their pay as you go customers like second rate citizens.
I’d love to go with the better 3G coverage of Orange but not on these terms.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Well this can only be good news for consumers, that Orange as well as Vodafone will be now allowed to sell Apple iPhone. Currently O2 is selling the iphone on contract and also on pay as you go mobile phone subscription buy with very expensive price tag.
I hope both Orange and Vodafone will sell the iPhone cheap on both pay as you go mobile phones and on contract, at the same time be very comparative to drive down the prices.
source:
http://www.payasyougomobilephones.mobi
November 9th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Interesting. I guess mileage will vary. I rarely use my iPhone off a Wi-Fi network- when I’m out I tend to stick to emails (which arrive regardless, though I get many more than the limits here), data for maps, a little browsing but not much.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
So why is that a couple of colleagues have smashed 500mb within a month of using a HTC Hero on Orange? I was shocked when I checked my usage too (before I read the article) but the reality is that it is NOT unlimited and whilst the 750 may seem like a lot, its no where near unlimited – T-Mobile offer 3gb – which I think is a fair usage policy. With services like catchupTV on the iphone, youtube etc.. – even oranges’s maths showed that 5 hours of Youtube.. its not quite unlimited with C4 move, the Sky application (sport) etc… I think that in a world of video on demand in a mobile world, unlimited should be able to cope with more than the average user.