Mobile internet has gained substantial popularity in India. The companies like Aircel and Tata Docomo created primary demand for Mobile Internet and most of the Indians in non metros have experienced internet for the first time on Mobiles only. With the launch of 3G by operators in India, the popularity and subscription of data services have gone up substantially. The popularity of social networking sites, games, music and e-mail etc. have made mobile internet indispensable for youth. But if you are on tight budget and little frivolous especially with 3G connection you may end up with heavy bills.
Here are few tips on how you can keep your Mobile internet bill in check:
Avoid using Pay As You Go plans. Subscribe to Data Packs :
If you frequently use mobile internet ,then it’s better to subscribe to some data plan. Pay as you use plans are normally very costly for ex. Airtel charges 30 paise/20 KB (Rs.15/MB), Vodafone 10 p/10KB. 3G Data Packs are cost effective and come with different validity and free data which can be selected depending upon your usage.
Pay As You Go plans may serve the purpose if you are occasional user but today we have Data Packs with 1 day validity to 6 months validity.
Switch to Wi-Fi wherever possible:
Free Wi-Fi hotspots are available at major locations like cafes, restaurants, malls, airports, institutions etc. Today most offices are Wi-Fi enabled which should be used to access Internet on your mobile. People having Wireline broadband should have Wi-Fi modem so that your mobiles and tablets can access Internet via Wi-Fi. So if you dont’t have a Wi-Fi modem with your wireline broadband then you should get one.I know some may want wi-fi tricks for hacking the passwords, i will surely post some wi-fi tricks later on this blog.
Frequently Check "What you have subscribed????":
Some networks like reliance and airtel automatically subscribes some plans and you won't get any confirm message, but your balance will be lost. So beware of this brilliant scams!!!!!
Use browsers which use data Compression Technology:
There are specialized browsers like Opera mini, Bolt etc. which are designed specifically for accessing Internet on mobile and these use compression technology to compress the data which reduces the data size before delivering to your mobile phone. These browsers enhances internet access on your mobile with reduced data usage. Most of the mobile now come with these browsers but if your mobile is without them you can download from the internet.
Browse Mobile versions of websites:
Desktop versions of websites are normally very data heavy as they have images, videos, ads etc. while the mobile versions of websites carry less data as they have only important contents with lesser images. This takes lesser time to load and displays faster on your mobile. If you don't know the mobile version simply type http://m.yoursitename.com or http://www.yoursitename.com/m this will automatically show you the mobile version converted by google viewer
Avoid ‘ALWAYS ON’ Mode:
This is one of the most important way to check your data usage on your mobile. If your mobile has ALWAYS ON option for accessing Internet then your mobile is constantly updating your emails, software, app etc constantly which means data is being downloaded more frequently then you might think. Your configured mails in always on mode are downloading all your mails as and when they are delivered in your mail box . Even spam mails too get downloaded and you are charged for that. One way to handle is that you deselect ALWAYS ON option and download your mails when your want them to . It is also better to access e-mails through browser if you want to keep data usage low.
Disable automatic software/ app updates:
Many of the softwares or apps keep running updation in background , if you have kept them in automatic update mode. It is wise to disable automatic update for these.
View Video content judiciously:
Watching videos will not be a wise idea if you are on tight budget because 10 minutes of video may eat up data equivalent to around an hour of other normal stuffs. And control the temptation of clicking on View HD Video on 3G connection. Similarly do not upload high resolution images or videos .
Do not leave pages open for long , which automatically reloads periodically:
Some of the websites automatically reload/ refresh their pages. Do not keep these open for long.