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Working from home: How to optimise internet data bundle
UCC boss Ms Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
Management of Internet resources has become very critical, leading to key interest in the rate of consumption or depletion of data, Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo writes.
As many people continue to stay and work from home following the lockdown to fight COVID-19, there is increased demand for Internet connectivity to facilitate work, business or keeping in touch with loved ones.
However, in Uganda management of Internet resources has become very critical, leading to key interest in the rate of consumption or depletion of data.
Every time you access or use the Internet, you expend a part of your data allowance or credit allocated to you by your Internet Access Provider for your Internet connection. The amount of data you use, though, varies depending on the service or application of your interest on the Internet.
Data usage is billed based on the volume of data sent and received via the Internet connection and not the time spent connected to the Internet. It is typically in packages measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB).
In the case of a prepaid arrangement, a data bundle may be associated with a specific validity/expiry date or can be unlimited in terms of expiry date. If the validity date of the bundle is reached before the bundle is depleted, it is foregone.
Why data deplete fast?
Anything you do using your phone or computer that accesses or depends on the Internet eats into your data bundle. So when you download or send emails, browse the Internet, send and receive messages over WhatsApp, check Facebook and Twitter, watch videos on YouTube, download movies from Netflix, you eat into your data bundle unless you use a WiFi connection. Different websites and apps also use different amounts of data.
Downloading applications (apps), playing online video games, streaming music, and watching videos use a lot of data when compared to the use of location, weather, and some social media apps.
The higher the quality of video resolution and audio, the higher the data used.
The larger the size of the bandwidth or the “pipe”, the more the data that can be transferred per second. Bandwidth is the capacity of the Internet connection (the pipe) in terms of the maximum volume of data that can be transmitted in a given amount of time.
The bandwidth of your Internet connection also affects the data speed. A key characteristic that distinguishes the mobile technologies -2G, 3G and 4G is the capacity (bandwidth) and thus data speed.
The type of phone you are using also matters. For feature phones, most apps and services only connect to the Internet on demand. On smartphones, however, apps can fetch any new information and update themselves as long as the phone is connected to the Internet.
As a result, when an update of an app becomes available, the phone owner typically has about one week to update the app. After this period, the update of the app may start to download in the background. This can result in multiple apps running updates at the same time. If any of the upgrades fails to be completed in the particular session due to low storage on the phone, depletion of the data bundle or other interruption, the update starts all over again at the next opportunity, thus increasing your Internet activity.
Additionally, apps such as cloud services that provide mirroring or back-up services usually continue to run as long as there is an Internet connection.
When you use your phone as a hotspot and add more devices or users (through tethering), then your level of usage increases. In addition to multiplying the above causes of consumption, some devices or phone types are also more bandwidth-hungry than others.
What is likely to surprise many people though is the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The encryption process in using a VPN adds about 10-15 per cent more data usage. Using a VPN could, therefore, eat into your data bundle significantly. The stronger the encryption of the VPN, the higher the data overload.
Another critical factor is data roaming - when you use your subscription to connect to the Internet outside of your home network coverage, for example when travelling abroad. This is usually associated with higher data charges due to compensation of the visited network for facilitating the Internet connection.
The author is Ag. Executive Director, Uganda Communications Commission
