Usage meter accuracy, actual usage

[gary454]

 Sometimes I wonder if Telus was intentionally - artificially raising my monthly usage (in my past usage graph) leading up to the bandwidth caps in May, to scare me into accepting the unlimited bandwidth for the 15.00 monthly charge. For example, telus has my usage well over the 150gb starting August 2014 (309gb) up to an incredible (impossible) 585gb used in March of 2015. There are 3 of us in the household. We all surf the internet - NONE of us download large files, none of us do any online gaming or music. Our wireless is secure - no possible chance others are stealing. Starting in May of 2015, our usage fell to 98gb, June was 106, July 135 and now we received the email warning us that we are close to the 150gb limit (140gb as of a few minutes ago) which I feel is still far more than we are actually using. From a low of 98gb to a high of 585gb - doesn't make sense?

[Lola]

I don't have any advice for you but I have to say those numbers are insane. I use Shaw. We have three computers and two phones on it. Our plan is 150gb a month and we've never, in ten years, used more than 20gb a month, and that's with music, downloading, etc. There's something wrong with Telus.

[Hassancalgary]

Hello , 

My friend was with Shaw for pass 7 years . Telus door to door person came in and sign him with talus phone and internet 25,  He was using before Jadoo tv( internet tv) 1 ipad and 1 laptop. His usage was not change before and after but when he was using telus internet on his first month he receive over usage data charge  $15 . Same month we call and telus has to upgrade to broad ban 50 because as per there side my friend is using too much internet, but we never use that much internet when we were at Shaw. after 2nd month we got a bill again $5 because he was going over 400gb . What ? finally he switch back to Shaw and average data usage 160gb to

200 gb even he has 300gb limit plus shaw normally does not charge even he goes over. So really don't know

what part is wrong. 

[Edmund]

As I said after monitoring for months on the actual usage, the only thing which is wrong is Telus giving us a figure which is very much larger than our actual usage and surely telus figure is a fake and just wanted to promote its business by constantly calling us to upgrade the plan, I am thinking of switching to shaw too .  A friend also monitors the usage with shaw and the result shows shaw may be rather honest.

[xl]

Some thoughts on high consumption...

-do you have anything that uses a "cloud service"?  Are any of your machines a chromebook?

-did you recently update your computers to Windows 10?

-do you use Netflix?

-are you using SmartTV features to watch movies?

-do you have security cameras that send images to the cloud like Dropcam?

-do you have Android TV box like TVpad, HTV, Pivos?

-anyone using Kodi or XBMC?

-anyone using Roku and/or Chromecast?

-anyone using the cloud to do backups?

[Pfnadell]

We watch a little Netflix. We have a hopper that allows us to watch Dish anywhere using the internet getting local programs from our other home in AZ . The crazy thing is we were gone for April, May and June and our bill was more than twice as much as last year for the same months. BC HYdro says I am having power surges even when the house is vacant. Do you thing it could be my 4G internet connection?

[NFtoBC]

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@Pfnadell wrote:
 The crazy thing is we were gone for April, May and June and our bill was more than twice as much as last year for the same months. BC HYdro says I am having power surges even when the house is vacant. Do you thing it could be my 4G internet connection?

---

What bill has more than doubled? Your Hydro bill or your Telus bill?

As discussed in your other post, your Telus Gateway consumes about a dollar of electricity per month. Hardly noticeable on your bill.

Do you have someone supervising your house in your absence?  Has BC Hydro provided a timeline of these 'surges'?

 If your Telus bill has doubled, then it would appear someone is accessing your Wi-Fi.

[NFtoBC]

@Lola

  Twenty GB per month is a pretty low household Internet consumption. I know of folks using those volumes of data on mobile!  Your family must be very conservative Internet users. 

@gary454

   My consumption has been up and down over the past few months, with one exceedence  of the cap, so I expect no conspiracy. I agree with @xl that you need determine where the consumption occurred, either through logs on your gateway, or recollection. 

[RebelBC]

My router keeps track of my usage as well.  In my last billing cycle, my router shows around 204GB of traffic but website usage is showing 70GB more.  Previous months have been close with about +/- 5GB.

[gary454]

""Some thoughts on high consumption...

-do you have anything that uses a "cloud service"? Are any of your machines a chromebook?

-did you recently update your computers to Windows 10?

-do you use Netflix?

-are you using SmartTV features to watch movies?

-do you have security cameras that send images to the cloud like Dropcam?

-do you have Android TV box like TVpad, HTV, Pivos?

-anyone using Kodi or XBMC? -anyone using Roku and/or Chromecast?""

No, none of the above.

[Bon]

Where can I find what I am using?  The only thing I have with Telus is my phone and it has iCloud.  The only streaming I do is listening to music when I on travelling.  I have only done that once for one hour.

[NFtoBC]

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@Bon wrote:

Where can I find what I am using?  The only thing I have with Telus is my phone and it has iCloud.  The only streaming I do is listening to music when I on travelling.  I have only done that once for one hour.

---

This discussion is about home phone, and home internet. You can see your Cellular usage on the My Account website, using the My Account App on your cell phone, or by using the built-in  monitors on your phone itself. The built-in tools may not be exactly the same as Telus counts, but are generally reasonably close.

[Bon]

Thank you.  I will download an app on my phone.

[Lola]

I hit the wrong button up there, obviously. Lol. I can't delete it.

From the original post I assumed the household wasn't watching movies or doing any large data stuff, because the poster said they weren't. My household doesn't either. We use the internet for work, 12 hours a day, we use youtube, but not things like netflix, or clouds, or anything listed above. If the original poster's numbers are as high as he says and his household is using similar to mine, then there's something wrong with Telus.

[NFtoBC]

@Lola

  You can edit a submitted post using the down arrow or caret in the upper right hand corner of your post any time you wish. I do it often if I have not sufficiently proofread my posts!

My use pattern fits your description, but I see about 2 to 3 times the data volumes you describe, which is why I suggested your family use is very conservative. In our household, we have 2 - 3 users (one on a tablet only), no streaming video, but a fair number of web page accesses. We do not use the internet for work, though. 

The peak of 257 was from a friend coming to do a major download on my faster internet connection, and the October high was for the update to my computer operating system and phones and tablets. While I agree the OP consumption of 585 GB is extraordinary, usage up to the range of 50 - 60 GB per month without streaming, should be common. Telus has stated the 95% of their customers would be under the caps they have imposed.

It would be excellent if we as consumers had an easy means to view our consumption independently, however one would need to run all traffic through one's own router for that tally.

[gary454]

As mentioned, our internet usage and habits have not changed at all during these periods.

[Exhile]

I don't know what happened but the yearly usage history is now showing read bars of past monthly usages.

It would be nice if Telus could fix this problem ASAP as I do check Internet usage on a daily basis.

[Exhile]

Around 3:30pm today I checked my usage and the reading was at 242GB with an updated time of around 1:30pm ish. Now the usage meter reads less than what I used and the time the meter was taken only shows "within the last 24 hours" instead of the actual time recorded. I'm not sure what's going on with Telus but the usage meter readings still have some software bugs to work out.

[Kevingbg]

One usage to keep in mind that people often don't think of - updates to iPhones, iPads, and Android tablets and phones.  These can be quite large and hit multiple devices in your home in a short period of time when the update comes out.

[courierdog]

Firstly, I run a secondary Router after the Telus Router

Second, I turn off the Telus WiFi

Nothing comes into or leaves my home system Wired or WiFi without being monitored.

After having been the Victim of Excessive Data Usage by a third party I will not repeat any error or omission of security on my part. Telus Provide me with a lot of assistance in tracking down how and where the leak in excessive data occurred. While there is nothing I can do to recover the excessive data usage i can prevent any repeat of the situation