<p>It makes sense.
Take a website.
Hypothetically it could be viewed by anyone with an Internet connection.
But, depending on their computer, their operating system, their browser & their plugins, the experience will vary.
As their equipment gets more sophisticated, they will be able to access better graphics, streamed videos etc.
However, some of those things can be turned off.
Chrome & Opera for example compress data with the mobile version of the browser so you don’t use so much.</p>
<p>We have an old, small data plan, with iphone 5 and 5s’. I haven’t upgraded from ios6 and am the only one who never gets data alerts. The other three started getting them right after upgrading to ios7, when they had never gotten them before and how they used the phone did not change. Both Apple and the carrier said the new operating systems use more data and assume everyone has big data plans. Yet they did away with unlimited. It’s really frustrating.</p>
<p>Here’s an article from usa today about how to reduce your data usuage. <a href=“Check it: Which iPhone apps are data hogs?”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2014/09/21/app-data-usage-on-iphone/15843705/</a></p>
<p>It looks like you need to change your settings so that updates on the phone are wifi only. I listen to podcasts and I when I am away from wifi and download them, it will chew up a bunch of data. And if I use my phone as a hotspot, oh boy that chews up so much data. </p>
<p>I live in a rural area but when I visit a large city, my iPhone drains the battery in no time and I use a ton of data. Much more so than when I am in my town. </p>
<p>My D set her phone to wifi only and when she needed info from the phone turned it on. She uses almost no data. She figures she doesn’t need every email or Facebook update right away. She does work at a desk and has access to her personal email there and her phone gets texts and calls. </p>
<p>FYI for the paranoids…
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/verizon-atandt-tracking-their-users-with-super-cookies/2014/11/03/7bbbf382-6395-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/verizon-atandt-tracking-their-users-with-super-cookies/2014/11/03/7bbbf382-6395-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks Deb922 that article is helpful. Are they saying you need to “reset” with each billing cycle???</p>
<p>You don’t need to reset but you can. If you go into the cellular setting, you can see how much data each app uses. Turn off some. E.g., I turned off Groupon’s cellular because it constantly refreshes and uses hundreds of MB’s. </p>
<p>I think a lot of people, notably kids, are taking advantage of the much easier ability to listen to music without realizing it’s not on their actual phones and they’re paying to stream it. Songs show up in your playlist and they play it from the cloud. Podcasts too. The ease of listening to Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, etc. … and they don’t realize that’s all using streaming and at a pretty high rate. </p>