tablet data usage

[Woodfiend]

Due to the recent posts about people having their sim cards disabled for use in the ideos7 tablet by T-mobile it got me thinking. And it prompted a discussion between a friend and myself. He was thinking that tablets use more data then phones and so cell phone companies want to be able to charge for that. I disagreed saying that you are limited in bandwidth by your connection (eg. 3g service) and so a tablet isn't going to be able to download any more data than a phone in that regards. I think you should be able to switch a sim card (I don't have one since I am with Sprint) from device to device since you are paying for a data plan with a phone company regardless of which phone you choose or device you load it into. Now if the device controlled the bandwidth that would be a different story.....and so I think his estiimation is wrong.

Now to my question have any of you measured or quantified the data you downloaded and compared it in regards to a cell phone? Am I correct in my thinking that a tablet cannot download any more data than a phone? Is the "packet a phone downloads to play a movie any different in size than the "packet" a tablet would download? Or is the info the same just scaled to match the screen size by whatever device is using it?


Sorry for the long post! And hopefully it makes sense.

 

[pvella]

I used about 400Mb in the first month. I think the screen resolution is a bit higher, so web sites will use a little more data, but the traffic should not be all that much greater.

 

[SnakeManJayd]

I think the screen resolution is a bit higher, so web sites will use a little more data

Yep, that is a fair point.
The wap/mobile versions of site one usually gets by default on a phone would be smaller than ones you might get on a tablet, even if the tablet also gets the wap versions, for the reason you mentioned. Also I would think a lot of tablets show full sites which would be a lot more data.

 

[pa49]

I think that a more appropriate question would be does a tablet like the S7 use more data than another smartphone. If you were to take something like an HTC HD7 with roughly the same hardware specs and similar resolution then no it doesn't and that's what makes T-mob US stance on this seem complete nonesense.
There could be an argument that tablet users can more easily download more data (easier to read books and the web etc), however, that's what they are for and T-mob US seems frightened of the advances in the technology that allows this.
But, if you think about it they are only a high tech Telecomms Co so what do they know?

 

[lemmyslender]

I think that T-Mo has taken a very strange stance on this. Clearly the S7 is a phone: no hacks are required to get the phone portion working, the software is included. This is unlike the Galaxy Tab which required a hack to get voice calls working.

Take into account my Nokia N900. This is not and never was offered by T-Mo despite working on their 3G frequencies. I'm on the Even More + plan, with $10 dumbphone web added. The N900 was never advertised by Nokia as a phone, but as an internet tablet. It has the same 800x480 resolution as the S7. I use around 300-500MB per month (on wifi mostly at work and home). If I went exclusively with 3G data, it would be significantly more. I don't think a tablet would use any more data than someone who keeps their "smartphone" on cellular data and doesn't use wifi (which is probably most of the less tech savy users).

I did pop the sim out of my N900 and into the S7 last night. Data worked just fine, about 200kbps down speed, not very fast, but usable in a pinch. I haven't tried the N900 on payg with the webdaypass. Perhaps I'll steal my daughters sim and try that this weekend.

edit - Oddly enough to use data on my N900, I have to use internet2.voicestream.com otherwise I get prompted to upgrade. The S7 worked just fine on epc.tmobile.com???

 

[pa49]

I've been saying that all along about voicestream, but, others said it didn't work so that's very interesting and something I will check out when I next get over there, hopefully for Mardi Gras.
However, another interesting point that you highlight its the fact that, for data purposes, T-mob US make no distinction between the N900 and any smartphone and never have.
That makes their stance discriminatory against S7 users.
Do you have the equivalent of our UK Oftel telecoms watchdog?
T-mob UK came out with some change recently and it was seen as breach of contract and rather than have to cancel huge numbers of contracts whithout penalty they backed down.

 

[lemmyslender]

I don't know if the voicestream APN works on PAYG. I have no idea why the N900 is prompted to upgrade on the epc.tmobile.com APN and the S7 doesn't. The epc.tmobile.com APN never has worked on my N900 (though I hear it does if you are on the pricier data plans).

I should note also that I'm part of the IPv6 beta test, so I don't know what changes have been made to my account for that. It does use a different APN than the normal connections.

 

[Andipad]

I have not yet gone to cell mode on the S7, so this is just wi-fi usage.

There's not doubt that I use more bandwidth with the S7. Let me leave aside the more convenient browsing vs the phone, due to screen size, which leads to more time on line.

I always try to defeat a website's "mobile" mode with the S7. By going to the normal page version, there's a majot jump in data transfer; more underlying HTML code plus the graphics. That's a huge jump!

Am I the only one who does this?

 

[SnakeManJayd]

I always try to defeat a website's "mobile" mode with the S7

I already do this on my windows mobile phone, so I will definitely do it once my tablet arrives.
Ya, That's what I was saying about data usage, the full sites use a lot more. One image can be bigger than a whole page on a wap version.

 

[pa49]

I don't know if the voicestream APN works on PAYG. I have no idea why the N900 is prompted to upgrade on the epc.tmobile.com APN and the S7 doesn't. The epc.tmobile.com APN never has worked on my N900 (though I hear it does if you are on the pricier data plans).

I should note also that I'm part of the IPv6 beta test, so I don't know what changes have been made to my account for that. It does use a different APN than the normal connections.

I used it on monthly prepay last time I was there.

 

[Woodfiend]

Maybe I am thinking about this incorrectly but it seems to me that what you pay for is your overall ability to access data at a given speed (eg. data speed at 3g level or pay more for 4g) Not amount of data consumed. If T mobile was concerned about tablets using more data than a smart phone they could still just put a cap on it like 5gb a month etc.....as some companies do. I think they just want to find a way to capitalize on having more individual plans separate from cell phones. I could potentially download much more info with my smart phone during the week and only use my tablet for an hour on the weekends and barely use any data....................
Which brings me back to some of my earlier musings...... When my tablet downloads a website is the info being sent to it different from what is being sent to my cell phone? Or is the info the same and it is just scaled inside the device itself to fit its own screen??

 

[pa49]

Its to do with how the browser handles the data, what portal you use and how restrictive the telcom makes it and then how the phone handles it.
The bugbear for the service providers seems to be that the modern smartphone can far out run the networks capabilities, or that's what they would have you believe.
I don't believe them one bit.
They are looking for ways to make money!

Sent from my sdk using Android Tablet Forum App