Unusual High Data Usage

[tosmoke]

I have a 6gig plan, and I'm a typical smartphone user....on the top end I use 700mb per month, at the most.  And that's been my average amount (sometimes 650mb) since the iPhone 3G has been out.

Now all of a sudden, bright and early Monday morning (Nov 8), I get the same text message from Rogers saying I'm at 80% of my data usage.  Then an hour later, I get a 100% data usage text message.  I quickly logged on to "My Rogers" web page and check my statistics, I'm currently at 147mb over my 6gig limit.

Then I call Rogers to see what's going on.  I tell the rep (then 7 reps after that), that something is going on between my phone and the Rogers Data Network that I obviously don't have any control over, and they cannot tell me anything other than the data usage, the times it happened, and that my IMEI number matches my account.

This is of little help to me as I didn't do anything unusual between Thursday (when the excessive data usage started - sometimes 2 gigs on one instance) and Monday morning.  I'm a heavy email user, but very few of them have attachments, and the ones that do are perhaps 1mb, 2 at the most.

At that point, I completely turned off my cellular data connection on the phone, and even went as far as to turn the 3G off.  That was Monday morning.  24 hours later, with cellular data turned off, I sign in again to "My Rogers" and notice another 2 gigs of data adding up to my account.  Now I'm 2 gigs over my limit, and have done nothing special or extra-ordinary out of my daily routine.  And I know this because the highest amounts of data usage are either when I'm sleeping (12:47 am - used 83,614kb) or driving home from work (5:08pm - 2,018,000kb).

Now, I've tried to get ahold of someone in Rogers that could help me with this situation, and no one can tell me anything other than my "out of the ordinary" data usage and the times they were recorded, and to wait until my bill comes in and then they "will see" what they can do at that time. 

This is absolutely insane!!!  I've spend 2 hours a day for 2 days trying to get to the bottom of this and cannot get a straight answer from anyone at Rogers, whether they are in Customer Care or iPhone technical support.  I've gone over the apps on my phone to see if there is anything installed that's out of the ordinary....nothing different from the beginning of the month.  I've check to see what's running in the background, nothing but the SMS, email, the MyRogers app, and my iPod.  

I know I'm talking to deaf ears in this forum, and won't get any help or support from Rogers, but hopefully, if more customers that are experiencing what I am going through, and the customer that posted previously, perhaps more will come forward and we can have some sort of group support to show Rogers this is not an isolated issue.

Any Rogers Employees reading this form, you can reach me at bigsmokejoey@gmail.com to provide any assistance.  My account profile (linked with my cellular phone number) has a lot of documentation from my last two days of calling in to support my issue.

PLEASE HELP !!!!!

***edited labels***

[PointyTail]

My iPhone was intermittently racking up huge amounts of data, and was all listed under "System Services" in the Cellular control panel, and in the HotSpot usage stats. What was odd was that I paired the iPhone to my iPad once in a while, and never saw much data usage when this was done. And I thought I was using the Hotspot feature for nothing else.

What I discovered was that if I plugged the iPhone into my Windows 7 PC with Hotspot still enabled, the PC automatically created a new network interface for the PC, and started load balancing between my cable internet and iPhone internet! It appears this is due to both W7 network interfaces (cable modem and iPhone) having the same default routing metric.

As an senior IT guy, this caught me rather off guard. I know Windows server can load balance, but I didn't think regular Windows could without using third party network mods.

So the crux of this story is; make sure you turn off the iPhone Hotspot when connecting it to a PC.

[RogersTony]

Hello @PointyTail,

Welcome to the Rogers Community Forums!

Thank you for your post, I had no idea that having the hotspot on while plugged into your PC would start tethering and using data from your iPhone. That would definitely eat up a tonne of data quickly especially if it was going on for a while.

I'm sure many will find this info useful as no one wants to see data overage fees at the end of the month.

We look forward to your future contributions! 

Cheers,

CommunityHelps

RogersTony 

[PointyTail]

Note you will see the top of the iPhone screen turn blue when this happens, as the phone does this to indicate that Hotspot is actively connected to something, which in this case is the PC. It might be possible to stop this behavior by adjusting the routing metrics on the interfaces. I will have to try it. 

[PointyTail]

I suggest someone at Rogers familiar with things like load balancing and routing metrics confirm what I have found. If they concur, you might want to pin this solution somewhere obvious, and make sure your Apple wireless support staff know about it as well. Because if you look at Rogers historical solutions to this issue, it's all mostly wharrgarbl about things like WiFi Assist, which really has little to do with it. lol

[tikno100]

Ho there,
I just signed on 2 yrs flex tab with iPhone 8 on Nov 23. Had chat to Roger Live chat for help coz my 1GB data plans had finished on Nov 24. Specifically, I was using 1.7 GB at 9.30 am while I usually was sleeping (woke up after 12 pm). Anyone ever has this experince and share to me what’s might have happened on that day ? Thanks for your sharing or comment

Sutikno

[tikno100]

Btw,

I have a quite strong wifi connection at home

Sutikno

[RogersMaude]

Good day @tikno100,

Thanks for your post & Welcome to the Rogers Community!

I understand your need to know where the transmissions are coming from to prevent charges related to high data usage on future invoices. Several things can have an impact on the data consumption and I most definitely want to help you in understanding how this works, better.

First of all, did you check what it was used for?

To see how much cellular data that you've used, go to Settings, then tap Cellular or Mobile Data. 

To see how much cellular data an app is using, scroll down to find the app. If you don't want an app to use cellular data, you can turn it off for that app. When cellular data is off, apps use Wi-Fi for data.

To see the cellular data usage for individual System Services, go to Settings, then tap Cellular or Mobile Data. Then scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap System Services.

Cellular data can't be turned on or off for individual System Services.

Do you know if you set up your phone while connected to Wi-Fi? The initial configuration might have used up what was included in your plan.

To prevent additional charges, simply text "DATA" to "222" to Top-Up.

Hope this helps!

RogersMaude

[tmildav]

I too was receiving texts stating I was at 80% than 100% data usage then have now been charged $50. For overage. I haven't done anything different and actually thought the texts were a scam. Apparently not. Haven't been able to speak to anyone over the holidays. Something is definitely wrong I actually had my cellular data turned off and have been within a wifi area in my home since Dec 22. What the heck?

[RogersTony]

Hello @tmildav,

Welcome to the Rogers Community Forums!

I know that no one likes to see Data Overage charges on their bills, it's a very unpleasant surprise! Especially if you've disabled the Cellular Data on your device.

Can you describe how you disabled the Cellular Data on your iPhone/iPad? Do you have the Wi-Fi Assist feature enabled or disabled? Have you done an update on the OS of your device recently? Have you ever noticed this type of unusual data usage previously?

We look forward to hearing from you!

RogersTony

[juliajinzh]

Unusual High Data Usage for my Son's cell phone

I received a bili over $700 as Rogers charged my son data usage for over $500! it was so weird as my son does not bring the phone to school and at home we have unlimited wifi. I only received one text message saying $200 is over limit. and 3 days later, we received the bill for over $700! 

As i called Rogers, they told me they did not know where he used the data, but they sent out text message whenever ...  Nobody helped me on this. they just want me to pay the bill asap. that's not right. it was not the first time for this unusual high amount. and somebody needs to help me on this. 

the school does not allow him to bring the phone and at home we have Rogers unlimited Wifi. Is Rogers unlimited Wifi not working? We bought 1000 but download speed is only 43. Can somebody help me on this? 

[RogersYasmine]

Hello @juliajinzh,

A warm welcome to the Rogers Community Forums and thank you for posting your concerns here! 

High data usage charges can certainly be worrisome, especially when they are not expected! It is true that we do provide data alerts to our customers who are on a Share Everything plan. The Data Manager (or the Main Line if no Data Manager has been assigned) will receive a data alert once the plan's data has reached 90% and 100% and after accumulating $150 and $250 of overage charges.

Please note that you also have the ability to set up data usage alerts using our Data Manager available through the MyRogers app and Rogers.com. I use this option for my own family and once they reach a certain amount of data used, I switch off their data until our bill cycle resets. It is quite useful in helping keep track of everything!

I'd also like to advise that if you have both the mobile data and Wi-Fi enabled on a device, the device will automatically use the option that is currently providing the best/strongest signal. So it is possible your son's device could have been flipping back and forth between the two options during use. This is why we always recommend turning the mobile data OFF in the device settings when not in use to ensure it doesn't get utilized inadvertently.  Although we do not collect data usage info for specific apps, you can find this information directly from your Apple or Android device through the device settings.

You may also want to consider migrating your lines to one of our new Rogers Infinite Plans which offer a set amount of data available at max speed. Beyond the max speed data bucket, each line gets unlimited data at a reduced speed (Up to 512Kbps) means no more data overage charges on your bill. You'll have to ability to decide which lines share their data and which lines do not. To learn more about these plans, please CLICK HERE.

With this being said, if you would like us to review your billing to ensure there were no discrepancies made, we'll be more than happy to do so. Feel free to send us a private message @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, please CLICK HERE.

Thank you!

RogersLaura

[Laecie]

Since switching to Infinite plans, my husband and I were on a 16 GB plan and always stayed within out limits. We only use Data for internet, we monitor our use and since switching plans but not usage amounts with only myself on it, 10 GB gets used in 3 days. Same usage as before...what in the world?

[RogersZia]

Good evening and welcome to the Community @Laecie,

It's always a good idea to monitor your usage patterns for unusual activity. Did you do an upgrade to a new device along with the price plan change?

If your usage habits haven't changed I would recommend you to check the Background App Refresh feature. It basically allows apps to refresh their content when connected to Wi-Fi or cellular in the background. You can find the feature in Settings >> General >> Background App Refresh.

Additionally please check to see if the Wi-Fi Assist is enabled by any chance. You can find the feature in Settings >> Cellular >> Wi-Fi Assist (depending on the number of apps you may have, you would have to scroll all the way to the end to find the feature). 

If this is the first month since the price plan change, I would recommend you to monitor the usage for the next couple of months, just to identify if the high usage persists. 

On the positive side, you don't have to worry about overages with the Rogers Infinite plans :).

Hope this helps!

RogersZia

[Laecie]

Everything you mentioned have and were installed. We changed plans 3 months ago and since then been monitoring usage. It's been "infinitly" disappearing.

[RogersZia]

@Laecie,

What devices are you guys currently using? What do you typically use your data for? Did you have these same phones with your old plan too?

I would recommend you to check out the Tips to Manage Wireless Data Usage page to find ways to best optimize your wireless data.

Hope this helps :).

RogersZia

[rmcdonald88]

I have noticed a sudden and dramatic spike in data usage that has put me over my monthly limit. I have not changed or added anything in and am wondering if anyone else has the same issue. I am always concerned my account has been hacked. 

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @rmcdonald88.

Thank you for your post and welcome to Rogers Community Forums!

Discovering a sudden spike in data usage can be troublesome, especially if you are not doing anything out of the norm. 

Assuming the data usage you're referring to is on your phone line, have you checked which app(s) has used the data the most?

You can monitor the data usage on your device; this feature is available both on iOS and Android devices. 

You can check out the Tips to Manage Wireless Data Usage, as suggested in the post above, to better manage your data usage. 

Regards,

RogersMoin

[jszabo]

My daughter did not listen, download or stream any music on her iPhone but a data overage came and the music app apparently used 6gb’s of data. No idea!!!

[RogersZia]

Hello @jszabo,

Welcome to the Community!

I know unexpected charges can be quite inconvenient. May I know where you're viewing the break down of what the data was used for? Is the usage for this month significantly higher than her typical usage?

Depending on the plan type, there are notifications sent out when you're close to using up the data included in your plan. 

If you'd like us to review the usage and billing in detail please reach out to us via PM @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. If you're not familiar with our private message system, please check out this blog. 

RogersZia