10 ways to make your monthly “Unlimited” data pack survive a month

My non-stop mobile video streaming was suddenly curtailed this week when my telecom operator said enough is enough! With 4G speed, it’s difficult to keep a check on your data limit when you are streaming non-stop on the now new and improved internet connectivity in the country and you have absolutely no clue when you exhaust your data pack. So here are a few simple ways for both prepaid and post paid consumers that will help you save yourself from operators throttling connection speed when you reach the limit of your “unlimited” packs.

Say No to Auto updates for Apps
By now we have all learned to clutter our mobile screens with scores of apps, you have everything games, maps, shopping, health apps at the touch on your screen but as useful as they are they are huge data hogs as well. All kinds of apps keep updating with better features and fixes every now and then for better functioning of the apps. So keep only the ones that you really need and make sure you keep your auto update off till you are in a Wi-Fi area.

Turn off Inbuilt services like Siri
Give Siri some rest guys. While these in built services can be extremely useful at certain times, but they can also be invisible data eaters, since they're always accessing where you are and what you're doing to serve up all the relevant info that are both nosy and helpful. Keeping these services "off" when you don’t absolutely need it will save you a great deal of data.

Keep looking for Wi-Fi zone
Now this is something you should follow all the time. When in Wi-Fi zone, use only Wi-Fi. When you're at home or within the proximity of a usable open hotspot, switch your phone immediately off of cellular data and rely on a safe Wi-Fi connection for browsing, texting, and emailing.

Uploading photos can wait
There are many feature in your phone that do stuff on their on while some can be helpful some can be harmful as well. Automatically uploading photos can be a fast way to exhaust your data plan in a jiffy. Turn off auto uploads of photos to various sites like Google, Facebook, Instagram.

Push out Push Notifications
Push content any data that’s automatically “pushed” to your phone without user interaction. This is something that eats into your data throughout the month. Now push notification may be important to get your work mails but other than that it is only a big data hog. Keep it on only for your work communication apps and turn everything "off" if you want to save a huge chunk of your data.

Mobile Websites Better for Your Mobile Data
As much as possible use mobile version of websites because it loads faster and use far less data compared to full desktop websites. Not only will these save your data but they will certainly give you a better experience on your smartphone. Try to keep your favourite mobile sites bookmarked so that you are always on data saving mode.

Keep a Check on Data Usage
Always keep your data usage alerts on, better safe than sorry. You can check in the settings of your phone on your data consumption or you can also download apps to keep a check and alert you on your data usage. Data usage apps are available for both android and iOS.

Stream but With Caution
India is big on video streaming, almost everyone with a smartphone is obsessed with video streaming. Streaming of HD video can cause a huge dent on your consumption of mobile data pack. Just one hour of streaming HD can eat through 2GB of data. That’s more than many basic data plans offer for an entire month of usage. So if you want to compromise a bit on the quality of the video you can opt for Standard definition and it should keep you under data limit.

Skip 4G for 3G
India is a growing 4G market, and we are all getting used to the high speed internet. Even though telecom operators are offering 4G at 3G prices, faster speeds mean quicker use of your data plan. You can shift to 3G network by changing your phone settings. However going back to 3G network will curtail your overall smooth internet experience and streaming on 3G will involve a bit of buffering but it should get you through the end of the month.

Use Offline Data
If you are obsessed with viewing videos online then you should get pro at downloading videos. Youtube’s offline feature can help you do that. Make sure you are on Wi-Fi when you download videos and then you can enjoy the videos offline with no data losing threat later on.

Image Credit: Indiatimes