Cellular Data Usage

March 2015 ended with my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 registering a bit over 76 gig in cellular data usage for the month. The previous month's usage was 56 gig.

90%+ of the usage was Plex streaming (in the car). This is the equivalent of streaming the data from 1 1/2 Blu-Ray movies to a phone, though most all of this was audio, and a bit less than 3 gig in tethering. I do have a 4G LTE phone, with a large screen. I use Wi-Fi where I can (Wi-Fi usage for the same time period was 46 gig.), but obviously when I'm truly mobile, well...

Curiously, my cell phone provider shows somewhat less usage (59 gig), so I'm going to investigate some apps that report data usage. I'll see if they are more consistent with my provider's reporting than the phone's usage reporting.

While it's not my intent to see just much data I can shove through an unlimited plan, it does illustrate how much some users do use and how quickly data usage is growing.  According to this study, the average user consumed 3.3 gig./month. I'll guarantee that if I didn't have an unlimited plan, I wouldn't be consuming a couple of gigs/day (vs. 3 gig. per month). Verizon's data for 2013 shows users consuming significantly less (less than 1 gig/month). TheFool.com, examining data usage from a completely different perspective (that of cell phone provider profit margins), indicates the average usage was about 1.8 gig/month-maybe more like what I'd expect.