Yeah it'd be awesome if someone created an app that you just set the variables to suit your plan (eg. flagfall, call rate per 30 secs or per minute, etc).

If it automatically reset at the beginning of your billing month that'd be even better!

I am with Optus and have been checking my usage meter too. Last night whilst connected to my wi-fi, Cellular Network Data was at 68.2mb, this morning I checked and it's up to 68.4mb - how can it increase? I know it's checking stuff during the night, but it was on my network not theirs.

I'll try and get hold of Optus to see my account status, but I suspect I'll get no joy on that front...

I think I read something on Optus' t&C's that SMS and Data Usage could appear up to 72 hours after usage, but I could be wrong.

If you've only used 68 since the 11th then you should be sweet. I'm a little under 200, but I have been streaming lastfm, but only because Optus offered no limit on the first month and I want to see how much my 500mb limit gives me.

Maybe. It's really odd because now I've just downloaded my mail (still on my wi-fi), and it's changed to 68.7mb... I'm confused!

UPDATE: Just off the phone from both Optus accounts and Optus iPhone support. According to them both, the cellular usage is calculating "accumulated data" from both wi-fi and Optus. The only current figure they could provide me with was $ - which didn't help at all. I'll just have to wait till they finish setting up online billing...

in my experience, with my iphone, i have noticed that when you are connected to wi-fi (eg. at home) and you don't use the phone for a while (like 30min-1hr etc) and you then have a look at the connection, that the wi-fi will not be connected.

as soon as you try and surf, manually check mail, facebook etc, the wi-fi reconnects.

my theory here is that the wi-fi connection is put to "sleep" or disconnected while it is not being used, probably to save battery life. (wi-fi is potentially uses more battery than the 3g/2g cell network?)

i think the .2mb you noticed overnight would probably due to push mail, periodic checks, or some type of data transfer that is still occuring over your cell network connection, while the wi-fi is in sleep.

my best guess! have other people noticed the wi-fi disconnect after a period of unuse?

with the iphone usage meter, let me just say that despite your reset status saying "never" if your iPhone has crashed requiring a reset, it's possible it reset the data usage counter but still says "reset: never". this happened to me. I know it only had about 20Mb total used in there before the phone shat itself, so i've just added that figure to what is currently displaying... be aware of that!

I just rang Optus about their online data usage still not working... "the issue has been escalated".. hrmm

Definitely not true. I don't have a SIM in mine at the moment as Vodafone is stuffing me around and I have been using the phone only on my WiFi network. The cellular data usage hasn't moved since I last had a SIM in it.

Just spoke to Telstra about my situation. My data usage adds up to about 18,800 kbs (using the Telstra table) but the total amount for the month is 81,920 kbs! My iphone Usage meter reads 18mb which corresponds to the daily Telstra tables added up together.
The girl, even though she was helpful, could not explain why. We both assume its probably because i upgraded from a different phone and there may have been a "hangover" from the previous plan. She made some notes in my file in case I get a whopping great usage bill and i can use that as defense to claim compensation.
I am going to wait till this months account is settled and I can then start afresh. Hopefully the iphone and Telstra amounts should then be in sync.

Heres hoping!!

Hmmm, I suspected that was the excuse that Telstra was/is going to use. Only problem with that excuse is that it does not apply to me. Never used any data with my old mobile phone.

I guess all we could do is watch this space!

Yes, I've been monitoring it more in the last day and testing by downloading on wi-fi - you're right, the numbers didn't move.

I think vandozza has a good theory about the iphone disconnecting from Wi-fi when the screen blanks, as I've noticed sometimes when I wake the iphone up, the icon on the screen quickly changes from the Optus network to Wi-fi. I guess the dedicated Optus iphone helpdesk is just learning as they go on some things!

I don't think the wi-fi necessarily turns off with the screen, I think it's just after x min of inactivity. Cauese if you hit refresh on your mailbox then the screen off/lock the phone it still uses the wi-fi for this session.

But after waking my phone it takes like 5 sec to reconnect, sometimes it's longer (maybe when there are no immidiate network connections required? Basically just because you wake your phone, it doesn't auto connect to wi-go unless there is an immidiate need. At least that's how it looks to me.

I have experienced a similar issue since getting my iPhone on the 11th. As I noticed my data usage increase more on the Telstra site than the Cellular Data usage on the iPhone, I ensured I reset my use on my account rollover date on the 17th of July.

Consistently since the 17th, Telstra's website has showed a data usage approximately 2 times as much as the iPhone. My sessions generally last 24 hours unless i reset my phone because I'm using Exchange Activesync with push email 24/7.

I checked on it today again and it was still about twice what my uploads + downloads are showing on the iPhone. As such I called Telstra's iPhone people about it.

iPhone:


Telstra:


The guy I spoke to was helpful to a point. Until the official bill is issued, the data usage isn't official and should not be relied upon. They put a note in my account about it and said they would follow it up in case it was wide spread. (can you imagine if it happened to all those people on the 10MB data plan?)

I've put some more detail on my blog and will post an update after the bill is issued. iPhone - Telstra Data Usage Discrepancy

I think the problem here is that you signed up to your new data pack I'm guessing half way through your bill cycle.

So if your bill normally produces on the 10th of the month, let's say you signed up to a new datapack on the 25th. Automatically it shows that you've used half your data for the month, as you are only charged pro-rata and so only get what you pay for up until the next bill produces, on the 10th of the next month (I'm just guessing at the dates, yours are probably different).

As you/someone mentions earlier in this thread, it will all be fine next month (well, supposedly).

This is what happened to me.

Vodafone seems to be charging a minimum session cost - I've been monitoring my usage every day on the phone and the voda site and the voda site consistently has 15-20% more than the phone.

Still don't think I'll get through my 250VMB* though.

*Vodafone Mega Bytes.