shanvan Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 We have never had a cell phone of our own before. Always used Dh's very basic flip phone from work. Finally we have phones and a plan. Today someone at work told Dh that b/c he was not connected to wifi (he had not put in the password for work wifi yet) and I called him that means he was using up some of our data plan. Is that true? We've looked online to find the answer but haven't quite found it. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would the provider sell you 'unlimited' calls and texts? Does that mean they are only unlimited if you are using your wifi connection? Why have a cell phone then? That would mean every time I'm in a car or at a location without wifi I would be using up data? Talk to me real slow so I can understand. I'm concerned we'll end up going over on our data plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Who is your cell phone carrier? There are a ton of different plans out there, but generally speaking, here's how they break down: - your calling plan or voice plan covers your phone calls - your data plan covers your internet usage (e.g. accessing the web from your phone, sending emails, etc.) - your texting plan covers your text messages From your post, it sounds like you have unlimited calls and texts? That would cover your cell phone calls and texts, but not your data usage. So if your DH is accessing the internet on his phone from work, and has not put in the password to access his office's WIFI, then yes - that counts against your data plan. If you access the internet on your phone in an area that does not have WIFI, it counts against your data plan. But your data plan has nothing to do with calling plan or texting plan - and since you have unlimited of both, you don't need to worry about those and can freely call and text regardless of the WIFI connection. If your DH's coworker insinuated that you calling your DH at work before he was using the office WIFI somehow counted against your data plan, he is incorrect. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurel Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 The guy that works w your husband is wrong. Data is used when you're on the Internet, checking email, etc. call time and text messages are separate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 If your DH's coworker insinuated that you calling your DH at work before he was using the office WIFI somehow counted against your data plan, he is incorrect. Yup, that's what he was saying. HTH! The guy that works w your husband is wrong. Data is used when you're on the Internet, checking email, etc. call time and text messages are separate. I thought he must be wrong, but thought I'd double check. It didn't make sense. Thank you both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 We have never had a cell phone of our own before. Always used Dh's very basic flip phone from work. Finally we have phones and a plan. Today someone at work told Dh that b/c he was not connected to wifi (he had not put in the password for work wifi yet) and I called him that means he was using up some of our data plan. Is that true? We've looked online to find the answer but haven't quite found it. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would the provider sell you 'unlimited' calls and texts? Does that mean they are only unlimited if you are using your wifi connection? Why have a cell phone then? That would mean every time I'm in a car or at a location without wifi I would be using up data? Talk to me real slow so I can understand. I'm concerned we'll end up going over on our data plan. Data refers to moving data other than text messages: emails, videos, web browsing... uploading and downloading. Think internet. Voice and text messages are often packaged together. Unlimited voice might mean just that, or might mean unlimited during certain hours. Unlimited texts means just that, though sometimes there are additional stipulations for MMS messages (multimedia) vs regular SMS messages. There are ways to make calls over wifi (or any internet connection), but your regular voice calls through your provider will not do that (at this time) and will not count against your data plan. It's likely that eventually all services will be data based, but this is not currently the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 I'm concerned we'll end up going over on our data plan. Afterthought: some carriers (maybe all?) offer an option where you can sign up to have your carrier send you a text message alert when you hit a certain point in your data plan usage. We're with AT&T and DH and I have both our phones set up so we get a text message when we reach 60% data plan usage, 80%, and 90% IIRC. That helps us stay within the plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Afterthought: some carriers (maybe all?) offer an option where you can sign up to have your carrier send you a text message alert when you hit a certain point in your data plan usage. We're with AT&T and DH and I have both our phones set up so we get a text message when we reach 60% data plan usage, 80%, and 90% IIRC. That helps us stay within the plan. Thanks. We have AT&T too. We'll definitely be doing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 I'm concerned we'll end up going over on our data plan. There are many free apps that you can download which will monitor your data usage. I use 3G Watchdog. While my data plan is "unlimited," that really means about 2GB per month. I use the internet occasionally, most often at the grocery store to look up recipes, or while I'm waiting for my kids. I use GPS occasionally, and leave it on for the trip. I have never gone over 10% of my total data for the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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