Techie question re mobile phone data

[Jones]

If I use my mobile phone data by hotspotting or tethering my laptop to it will it use up more than usual? I've been heavily reliant on my phone for internet over the last few months and have only used 50% of the data allowance with my mobile phone plan so I'm wondering if there's any advantage to getting a separate internet connection at the house I'm renting now? Is there any reason to not just use the data allowance with my phone plan? Well other than that the speed is sometimes a bit slower.

 

[liam1310]

I'm not very techie myself, I sometimes use it that way. Have Unlimited data usage, I'd imagine it would use more hooked up to the computer, since the phone is on doing stuff aswell as hooked to the computer. How much extra im not sure, wouldn't imagine a whole lot extra would be used, if you close some apps and tabs etc.

 

[Mari]

If I use my mobile phone data by hotspotting or tethering my laptop to it will it use up more than usual? I've been heavily reliant on my phone for internet over the last few months and have only used 50% of the data allowance with my mobile phone plan so I'm wondering if there's any advantage to getting a separate internet connection at the house I'm renting now? Is there any reason to not just use the data allowance with my phone plan? Well other than that the speed is sometimes a bit slower.

In general, will use more data when i.e. surfing on your computer vs surfing on your phone, I would say.
I‘ve never measured it but here are some points.

i.e. when you go to some main stream news portal on your computer, you see more advertisement (unless you use AdBlocker or similar) and those advertisements use also your data volume.
Many of the portals are adjusted to mobiles, so portal detect that you are connecting via mobile/tablet and you don’t get so much advertisement in the background, but more pop-ups that you close and that’s it.

Also it might happen that your computer pick up some upgrades and start to install them, if you have in your settings to automatically download updates. It can be turned off in the settings. So you might spend extra data volume on that to.

also in general when you surf on your computer and you are connected to your fixed line with, in general, unlimited data volume, and then you transfer to hotspot, people generally forget that they are on the hotspot and i.e. watch videos like they normaly do. So you forget you’re on actually your phone with limited data volume and do what you usually do on your computer.

in general, I would say that, yes, you spend more data volume when you hotspot and surf via computer, than to only surf via smartphone.

you can measure it in your settings.
Generaly phones have statistics and you can reset those statistics and see how much you spend one day surfing on your phone only and how much you spend when hotspot turned on and surf via computer and your phone.

 

[Metrist]

Is there any reason to not just use the data allowance with my phone plan? Well other than that the speed is sometimes a bit slower.

Your phone plan might not allow, or have restrictions about using your phone as a hotspot. I used mine for a hotspot, and after a month or so, my provider messaged and said it is not allowed. But it worked fine as a internet connection.

 

[sid]

Essentially the latptop is not aware that 4G data is being used since it connects to the phone’s WiFi network. Therefore, it will download and install those large windows updates merrily which can chew through 4G data allowances rapidly. If you have a large data plan, typically 80 GB+ than you should be fine.

 

[Bobo08]

Hi @Jones. Accessing internet by tethering your phone does use up slightly more data than usual, but that is not relevant because you said that your phone data plan is more than enough for that. The main advantage to getting a separate internet connection to the house is that you can use an ethernet cable to connect your computer directly to the modem. Then you can turn off wifi on both the modem and your laptop, thus reduce the wifi exposure you get.

 

[Alejo]

it could use more if you have things in the background on your laptop that connect to the internet, things like checking emails or programs that automatically update (internet browsers are known for doing this). Messaging software like Telegram or WhatsApp, even Skype will remain connected to the internet constantly. Also if you have things like location services, or websites that have your permission to use your location will use more data as well.

Also, some websites on mobile are lighter than on a regular browser, so you will download more data if you tether.

It makes sense to continue to tether if your average data usage is under your allowance, so I'd give it a shot over a month or two and see what your average is. Otherwise a simple internet service with decent broadband should do the trick and perhaps you can drop your tether allowance on your mobile plan so as to drop your monthly bill, if it's possible.

My two cents.