I wasn't the OP but I did jump in at the top of the thread . It's been interesting to see the different aspects of this subject ! I'll be turning data usage off on this new phone as soon as I figure out how .
We have a couple thousand minutes too . We seldom use the cell phone , and have to buy cards based on how many days . I did flip that switch , just because I could ... and who knows , I might want to call my girl friend while my wife's using the landline ! I did test it with a local call .
I knew about wifi calling , our grand kids use it when they come for a visit . And I was not asking about data charges , I was asking about call minutes . I know damn well I ain't getting charged for data when I'm hooked to my home network . Go back up to the top , mine was the second response to the original post .
I like calling from it even in the house and am still learning. Working on taxes the other day, I had to call Intuit and their number is
1-800-4INTUIT. Cell phone does not have letters with numbers and I had to look them up on home phone.I always check to make sure wifi is on and with all different places available seldom use data. Often if you had already signed into someone's wifi, phone automatically goes to it when you return but sometimes not.
I don't use the home phones at all anymore, much more convenient to have the contacts and call history all in one place.
The best ones like iphones do.
I have 6GB a month included in my $10 a month plan which gives free calls, texts and MMSs to any home phone or cellphone in the country,
Even when my plan only had 1GB of data included per month i never used anything like that, even when the broadband was down for a day or so and I used the hotspot on the phone instead.
I don't need to use that except when at home.
I'll go out on a limb here and surmise that your country isn't Canada .. Perhaps - for the sake of everyone here who might appreciate a better monthly plan - you could be convinced to state your country and the company / plan that you enjoy ? John T.
Some things you should be aware of. You're in an unusual usage mode. These phones are really designed for people with some kind of real data plan, eg at least a couple of gigs per month. You should make sure that Google Play is set to only update and install apps over wifi. You can also set a data limit in settings. I'm not sure if that just issues a warning or will actually cut it off.. I think there may be a system update setting to only do that over wifi, not sure. But even with all of the above, I would not be surprised that you could turn the cell data on one day and see it blow through 100MB or more doing something you did not expect, eg the phone doing some system update.
One example of how you can get surprised is using the phone for hotspot to connect say a laptop to the internet once in awhile. If you haven't used the laptop for awhile, it could be ready to do a Windows update. You connect it to the phone hotspot, it could blow through a gigabyte of data without you even realizing it. There are preventions for this too, which would be setting the phone wifi connection to metered on the PC. But it's an example of how you can get surprised if you don't know the rules and watch out.
I used to have a 3G "dumb" phone and was used to checking my wifi throughput only on my wifi-only tablet using Ookla's "Speedtest" app. When I got my first smartphone, I installed that app and was curious what my throughput would be using the 5G signal available from my wireless carrier right in my own home. I was shocked to see the huge amount of data used just by that one run of Speedtest. If you don't have an unlimited data plan, you really need to be careful what's installed and how it's configured so when you need to turn data on, you don't waste your data ceiling.
Yes, one run of Ookla can burn through 100MB+ of data. The faster the connection, the more it uses. Not even sure if aborting it after it's run for just a few seconds and you get a good idea will prevent the total usage. If you look at the typical carrier terms and conditions, it says that data usage is counted based on the requested data transfer size, not what was actually downloaded, completed, etc. Never really understood that. I'm on Mint/tmobile, apparently in the past they did not count speed tests as data used, but now they do. Or at least there is confusion as to whether it counts, it may count if you use some servers but not others, etc.
I got a 5G phone and haven't tested it much since I don't want to burn through data and don't have an "unlimited" plan. From what I've seen, around the home area here 4G and 5G are about the same, 75mbps.
Yep. And the myriad of menus - mysteriously stacked & hidden - are what allow the user to disable the background data wasters. By far the easiest way for me to ensure zero cellular data is to turn it off from my account at the service providers web site. ... but .. that makes it difficult/impossible to access cellular data when needed for some odd-ball situation .. ie: if I have wifi to turn cell-data ON - I don't need cell-data
- because I have wifi .. I have set the cell-data limit alarm at 100 mb < $ 15. >
- and used about half of that without really doing anything - still just learning & exploring the menus & settings. John T.
FYI and mine too, just checked and this is what I get from Tracfone in the US for $125:
Service 365 Days
Minutes 1500
Texts 1500
Data 1.5 GB
I actually paid $110 with a discount.
Smartphone I bought to replace my flipper cost $99 and came with a month of usage, some minutes and some data. Everything rolls over when you buy time extension. There are several plans.
Just checked and saw this:
Balance ( Last updated 0 mins ago)
8.57 GB DATA REMAINING9332 TEXT REMAINING
9088 MINUTES REMAINING
A just-slightly-better plan, <unlimited / unlimited / 2 gigs>
with my provider here in Canada, would be $ 35. / month. $ 420 per year. !
Airplane mode allows you to enable/disable all of the radios on the phone. With Airplane mode enabled, (all radios off), you can selectively enable WiFi and/or Bluetooth. When you need cellular data, just disable Airplane mode.
Ahhh - thanks for that. I've never been sure what airplane mode actually does. John T.
That is pricey. If you are like me and do not use the phone much but want it for emergency when not at home it might be cheaper for you in the long run to find a low cost plan if they have them where you are and forgo the minutes you have accumulated.
... or carry on with my existing $ 100. per year pre-paid that has served me for 11 years - and simply forgo cellular data - because free wifi is almost everywhere ? John T.
There are security risks with using public wifi.
It's a scary world out there ! .. if someone hacked my cell phone they'd die of boredom before causing any big problems .. Before I had high-speed internet at home, I'd regularly visit the coffee shop for wifi .. with my laptop that had all my stuff on it .. I guess I'm just lucky .. ? John T.
We live in a sea of thieves today. Just in the past month a friend had her computer taken over and online banking account wiped out. My brother in law paid ransom to have his computer restored and we have advised him to change passwords and bank records to be safe.
We do not bank online and I have no worthwhile info in my tablet and cell phone that I might use on public wifi.
I have 5 cell phones in the house (different brands, no iPhones) including the one that doesn't work and the one that's supposed to stop working today. ALL have numbers on the keypad.
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