If you want to slash your monthly expenses How to Slash Your Household Expenses in 7 Easy Steps Tired of seeing all of your income go towards bills and expenses? You aren't alone. We show you some of the best ways to slash your household expenses. Read More , one of the quickest ways to do that is to switch to a no-contract MVNO mobile plan The Best US Cellular Data Plans for Your Smartphone Though mobile phones have improved over the years, cellular plans have either stayed the same or gotten worse. Luckily, we've found the best deals for US smartphone users. Read More that only costs a few dollars monthly. The downside is that you only get a few gigabytes of data alloted every month.
Unfortunately, the most frustrating thing is that much of that data is actually being sucked away by web ads. The number is seriously significant. Can you guess how much? According to a recent study, between 18% and 79% of mobile data is used to download ads.
So when you pay for your mobile bill, think about what you’re actually playing for. That’s not a happy thought, is it? Which is why it’s crucial — for your wallet and your sanity — that you take every step possible to ethically reduce your mobile data usage Saving Mobile Data: 5 Clever Ways To Reduce Data Usage If you’re on a limited mobile data plan, you may find opening your bill to be harrowing experience. Is there an overage charge? How much? And why was there so much data used? While the... Read More .
Here are a few tips and tricks you can use:
- Use Wi-Fi instead of mobile data Why Is My Wi-Fi So Slow? Here's How to Fix It Need to download data fast, but have slow Wi-Fi? Why is this happening? Here's how to fix a slow Wi-Fi connection and speed it up. Read More whenever possible.
- Install data-saving apps 4 Ways to Reduce Your Mobile Internet Data Usage with Android Apps You can reduce your mobile data usage without doing anything differently on your Android device -- just use these apps! Read More that work by compressing incoming and outgoing data. This means using Chrome’s Data Saver option, using the Opera Max browser, and installing the Onavo Extend app.
- Consider the potential benefits of enrolling in a program like T-Mobile’s Binge On, which lets you stream media while bypassing data caps T-Mobile Allows Unlimited Netflix, And That's Bad News For All of Us Allowing Netflix to stream even when you're data is maxed sounds great, doesn't it? But this could spell doom for the future of the Internet as we know it. Read More .
- Support legislation and petitions that aim to prevent ISP data caps Why Do Data Caps Exist and How Can You Bypass Them? ISP and mobile data caps are frustrating, but why do they exist? Here's how to bypass your data cap and enjoy limitless internet. Read More . It’s one of many things you can do to fight for a free and open Internet What Is Net Neutrality & Why Should I Care? A significant number see Net Neutrality as essential to the survival of the Internet. In this article, we're going to look at why Net Neutrality matters, and why we should fight to protect it. Read More .
In the future, this kind of mobile data waste may go extinct as technologies like Google’s AMP web pages Google Is About to Make Mobile Browsing Up to 85% Faster Google is rolling out a new standard that's going to improve mobile browsing speeds. Here's how it affects you and why you should care. Read More and MIT’s Polaris framework MIT's Polaris Will Make the Entire Web Over 30% Faster MIT has developed a new technology that's going to speed up the entire Web by at least 30%. Here's how it works and how it compares to Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles. Read More see more widespread adoption. But until then, you’ll have to be careful about how you browse the web.
How much mobile data do you use per month? Are you willing to pay insane prices for unlimited data? Or do you just avoid using your phone away from Wi-Fi? Share with us in the comments!
Image Credit: Chrome on Android via Shutterstock
Related topics: Data Usage, Mobile Broadband, Mobile Plan.
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If I'm at work ,(where there's no wifi ),and don't need my phone to go online , I switch on aeroplane mode. That way nothing can go online and use my data . I let anything update when I'm able to use wifi somewhere. It works for me.
It's in the best interests of mobile users to block ads.
This can be most easily accomplished by choosing to use a web browser with ad-blocking support, such as Mobile Firefox or the Adblock Browser (which is essentially just Firefox), by paying for apps with the ad-supported options removed (e.g. Moon+ Reader Pro instead of Moon+ Reader), or by rooting your mobile device and configuring your hosts file to block advertising system-wide.
No matter what you do, some ads still still sneak in, but doing all of the above will limit them to the point that they are a negligible concern with regard to data usage. You'll also be much safer from malware.
My service provider bills based on the amount of data actually used. So paying for ads is definitely not in my best interest. The ad providers are seriously out of control. they make their money by pushing ads over content, and often the ads are covering what I wanted to see. So, I have to use an ad blocker just to see what I am paying to see. Or pay extra for the ads that are blocking what I paid to see than I am paying to see what I am willing to pay for.
Hey ad companies. If you don't like it clean up your act and maybe fewer people will block your intrusive ads. Uber is the latest company to make my never use list because of intrusive ads. Hey Uber, how many customers has that ad company cost you? And you are actually paying them to run off customers?