Technologie :
Smartphones
What is a Data Plan ?

The traditional GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) service offers voice and simple text transmission only.

Instead, the Internet allows access to the multimedia resources.

So, the mobile internet service is called a data plan. This service offers data transmission through an IP network and ultimately a connection to the Internet.

With a data plan , we have the connectivity to the internet. That is, we are able to access the Internet whenevr we want and wherever we are, on a smartphone or another mobile device.

Here is another definition. A data plan is part of the service that mobile operators offer to give you connectivity anywhere under the sky.

A data plan involves getting us connected to a 3G, 4G or LTE network. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is a 4G wireless broadband standard.

We know all that a data plan comes with a price which can often expensive. Generally, we need the use of VoIP, locally or internationally, according to the vailable data plan :

• where we do not have a Wi-Fi,
• while we are on the move, we want to share and post online text and multimedia files (email, photos, or video calls).

What's about the price ?
What does a data plan cost?

The cost of data plans varies according to the amount of bandwidth we purchase monthly. It also depends on the deal we make when buying a smartphone, one-year or two-year service engagement.

The average data plan costs around $CAN 30 per month, for a limit of 2 gigabytes a month.

Beyond that, we pay around 10 cents for each additional megabyte that you use.

Unlimited data per month would be very expensive. Planning is therefore quite important.

Typical packages for data plans are, for example: 200 MB, 1G, 2G, 4G and unlimited. It is important to estimate our data usage per month.

¸ Let's mention also that there are some pre-requisites for our devices: smartphone, tablet or laptop computer. They will need to support the wireless protocol that carries the data plan .

A device at least needs to support 3G. For 4G, we need a high-end smartphone. The device also needs to be multimedia-ready and offer features for comfortable emailing.

Low-end devices that just support 3G lack the possibilities for a great mobile internet experience.

An open system that allows installation of third-party apps is definitely an advantage, as those are often better than the native apps.

Another important point ! Controlling the data plan usage.

We need to pay attention to how much data we are using if our data plan is not unlimited.

Among the items to be considered in the estimating usage are the emails sent and received (because received data counts as well), with their eventual attachments, streaming music and video, the number of web pages viewed, social media usage, video conferencing and of course VoIP.

There are tools that enable us to control and monitor our data usage, notifying us of thresholds passed and informing us on quantities used.

For this matter, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia have their apps from third party developers.