A bit of a history lesson, if you will. In the 1980’s, Pac-Man was it! A cute, lovable, video game creature that was designed to travel through a maze while eating every pellet in site, stole the hearts of millions…along with their spare quarters. Pac-Man became an honest-to-God craze while revolutionizing the video game industry in the process. In its day, Pac-Man represented the ultimate in technology. Think about our world today. What are many people addicted to in our society? If you answered smartphones, you’re right! According to an October 2015 study by Pew Research, 68% of Americans own smartphones. 86% of those ages 18-29 have a smartphone, 83% from 30-49, and 87% of those living in households with an annual income of $75,000 and up own one. Those numbers are staggering! One more stat for you: 10% of Americans only use their smartphone’s data plan to access the Internet. This scenario is where things can get expensive.
If you own a smartphone, I really hope you connect it to Wi-Fi whenever and wherever possible. When you purchase a smartphone, you must also purchase a data plan from a provider. If you’re a Verizon customer, for instance, your data plan will grant you access to their LTE network whenever you’re on the road and Wi-Fi is not available. The catch is, that you purchase a data plan based on how much of their network you’ll be using. If you have a family of four, most family plans will divide a certain amount of space among the smartphones in your family. If you purchase a 1 Gigabyte (1 GB) data plan, and your son watches Netflix continuously while not connected to Wi-Fi, you will surpass your data plan, and penalties will be levied against you. Your provider will e-mail or text notifications when you’re getting close to your alloted limit, but you still need to pay attention. There have been reports of families having to pay as much as $2000 in penalties in one month! That’s an extreme example, but it is possible.
So, how can you prevent this? First of all, always connect to Wi-Fi whenever you can, be it at home, at work, or, at play. **Disclaimer: don’t tell your boss I told you to connect at work. They know you do it, just don’t tell them I told you to.** Many stores, stadiums, and public places offer “guest networks”, and most restaurants will provide access to their networks when asked. On your smartphone, tap “Settings” then “Wi-Fi”. A list of wireless networks in range of your phone will appear. You’ll see an antenna with three bars next to the name of each network. The more bars that are lit up, the better the connection will be. If a padlock appears next to the antenna, this indicates that you’ll need to know the password to connect to that network. Tap the network that you’d like to connect to, enter the password when prompted, and then click “Join” or “Connect” depending on the type of phone. When you see the same antenna next to the name of your provider on the phone’s home screen, you know that you’re successfully connected to Wi-Fi. Once you connect to a network, your phone will remember, and you’ll automatically join that network whenever it’s in range. While connected to a wireless network, you aren’t using any of your data plan, and no additional charges will be incurred by your account.
If you own a modern iPhone, and have kept it updated, there may be a setting that’s activated on your phone without your knowledge. With the iOS 9.0 update (which comes standard on new iPhone 6’s), Apple included Wi-Fi Assist. Wi-Fi Assist sounds good in theory. If you’re connected to a wireless network which has a poor connection, your phone will automatically switch to your data plan. This is helpful because you’ll enjoy improved performance, but do you remember my Netflix example from earlier? If you think you’re connected to Wi-Fi but your phone has suddenly switched it off, hand over your wallet. The first thing I did when I got my new phone was turn this feature off. If you’d like to as well, tap “Settings” then “Cellular” and scroll to the bottom. Tap the slider to the right of “Wi-Fi Assist” to turn it from green to white and you won’t have to be surprised when your bill arrives.
I bet you never thought that smartphones and Pac-Man had any connection at all. I didn’t either until I thought about writing this Blog post! At least this will provide a visual to help avoid your data plan and hard earned cash from getting gobbled up without your knowledge.