Forum Discussion
Solved
High Data Usage
I've been upset here with the high data usage that is being reported since I had the PureFiber installed into my house. My data usage has come close to reaching the soft cap before I start getting ov...
The Pik TV Media Box is no longer supported - and hasn't been for over a year. It was end-of-life due to Google no longer providing security updates to Android P. I would highly recommend disconnecting this box. Are you using the Pik Media Box or the TELUS TV Digital Box (model TELUS TV-21T)? If yes to the TELUS TV Digital Box - any traffic on the TELUS TV+ app does not count towards your home internet usage. However, if you are streaming any 3rd party apps such as YouTube from a TELUS-supplied box, this DOES count towards your internet data usage. The same principle applies to the TELUS TV+ app on any other device.
You mention networking a fair amount - are the devices you access TELUS TV+ from recognizing that you are connected in-home? The quickest way to check is to look at a channel that is only available in-home such as Omni Pacific (119) or Chek (121). Alternatively, you can look at your In Home Status under Account information in settings. If you're showing as out of home - this could explain the data usage and you may need to reconfigure your network so that the TV is connected directly to your gateway.
Solution: Perform a factor reset option on the TELUSTV-21TV digital box.
After and hour and a half with Telus technical support and customer support with no solution, I decided to just wing it and try a factor reset. This did change my TELUSTV-21T digital box’s In Home Status from Not Connected at Home to Connected at home.
I had to sign up for the unlimited usage (@ $20/mo) in order to avoid any overage charges I would encounter going over my 550Gb soft cap limit.
I first contact in this hour and a half was with the technical support and for almost an hour I kept trying to explain that the only needed to change the status for me. He kept thinking I as referring to the Telus TV+ app on my phone and I kept telling him the issue is with the digital box. Well, he indicated that since I could watch the channels on the digital box that this was not a technical issue and passed me onto customer support. After explaining the situation to a lady there she indicated there were no issues with my account and passed me back to technical support. Talking to this next technician, he verified that the status on the digital box was indicating Not Connected at Home and since I had upgrade to unlimited it was no longer an issue... he basically was telling me this status is “working as intended.” He then transferred me to another number that quickly disconnected me from the phone call.
It seems Telus has been removing subscription pages and such from their web site for I’m looking for an actual Telus page that explains PikTV and data usage. All I could find was this in the Telus forum:
https://forum.telus.com/t5/Pik-TV/Question-on-Data-Usage/m-p/70177
I remember information that stated “watching live and On Demand TV content on the Pik TV media box will not contribute to your internet data usage on your home network. “ But no luck in finding this on the Telus sight anymore.
I’ll keep the unlimited going for another month and if the usage drops back to my usual 100-200Gb / month, I’ll be removing that unlimited add-on and saving myself $20 / month.
Hi, did that help with the data usage?
Hello JR_Bot,
Getting the PikTV TELUSTV-21T digital box to switch from "Not Connected at Home" (aka roaming) to "Connected at Home" did not resolve the high data usage. The high usage started soon after the install of the PureFibre into the house in April which meant my PikTV went from using a copper wire line & modem to a fibre line & modem. Before the install of the fibre line, my usage was between 100-200 Gb / mo. After switching to a PureFibre plan and a factor reset of the PikTV box after, the usage is back to where I expect it to be. I'll stay unlimited for another month or two and if it still is in the expected range, I'll remove the unlimited data option and save myself $20 / mo. Here's the crazy usage readings in the past 6 months: Apr 389Gb, May 548Gb, Jun 599Gb, Jul 727Gb (a lot of using the PikTV this month), Aug 264Gb, Sep 61Gb. Note, my soft cap was at 550Gb/mo and I used only the regular channels on my PikTV; no streaming services such as Netflix, pay per view, etc.
My internal network never registered anything above 200Gb monthly usage which is a mixture of access to the WAN along with accessing computers & devices on my LAN. The only devices outside my internal network were the Telus equipment; that's the modem (copper and later fibre), the fibre WiFi access point and the PikTV box. I've since removed the Telus WiFi AP a month ago since I have no devices able to use the WiFi 6 and it was just wasting power; I'm using the WiFi 5 on my router instead. I'm not sure if any data usage was being recorded on my bill as the fibre modem and WiFi AP were talking with each other but my latest usage amount might indicated that such communication between the two devices is being billed as usage. Or, as part of their monitoring system which means Telus might be billing as usage as they keep querying their devices in my home to check on the status of those devices.
I suspect the overall issue was that the PikTV ID was registered on the server that services the copper wire network and was never switched over to the server that serviced the fibre network. Once I registered for a PureFibre plan, the correct details where finally put into sync, then saw the usage came down to what I expected to see.
I was not pleased with the Telus help desk in trying to resolve this issue. I got transferred from one person to the next and my frustration was mounting with each new person. I suspect Telus outsources their help desk to some site in India for ever person I was talking to had a strong Indian accent. They likely only had the rudimentary access to just account information and no technical skills or access to networking tools to help debug the issue. On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, the help desk definitely gets a one star rating from me. And they get a one star for at least being able to switch me later from a copper wire plan to a PureFibre plan.
