wi fi - Is 150 MB / month enough for limited use?

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I've been thinking about getting a pre-owned Samsung Fascinate from Verizon for $40. I can't afford a $30/month unlimited data plan, but I was considering the $15/month 150MB data plan.

I'm planning on using it primarily as a phone/PMP, without heavy use of internet-related features. Most of my data usage will probably come from these things:

• Downloading apps


• Occassionally checking weather, maps, etc.



• Texting through Google Voice. I plan all cancelling my texting plan and moving all my texting activities to Google Voice. I only use around ~300 texts (sent and received) per month.

Is it reasonable to expect these activities to remain within 150MB/month? On a related note, I am usually on my university's campus, which has wi-fi. Can I use the wi-fi network to avoid suffering data charges?

Update: Verizon ran a promotion this weekend. For upgrading to a smartphone with unlimited data plan, you got a $10/month credit for the next 24 months. So the $30/unlimited data plan effectively becomes $20/unlimited, and I went with that instead of the $15/150MB plan.

Answer

Yes. I agree with everything that Bryan has said but want to add...

You can use an app like Phone Usage that helps you monitor your network traffic. The Pro version ($2.35) also allows you to set data limits that will send you a notification if you go over. So you could set it to 125 MB and you'd know when you are getting close and you can throttle down your usage. Verizon has a 30 day return policy (although I think they are changing it to 15 days) so you can monitor your traffic and if you find that you are using waaay too much you can always cancel and go back to what ever you had before.

Another useful app (if you've rooted your device) if DroidWall which lets you set which apps can access your 3G connection. This would be useful if you identify that an app that requires background sync and uses a lot of data. It would also be good if you are getting close to you 150 MB limit and want to lock down your data usage.

Finally, many apps let you set a wifi only rule. For example BeyondPod has a setting in the apps that says "Only download podcasts when on Wifi" but if you really want to take control of your phone you can download Tasker and set an almost unlimited set of rules for how your phone operates.