Help with O2 charges please

[Broadback]

I am looking to get a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini, the best tariff for me seems to be the £17 per month. However the data is limited to 750MB, which seems a little low. During a phone call to O2 the representative said that not all data downloads count, however he was unable to say clearly what did and what did not.
Like others here I shun facebook and twitter so wondered if anyone here can explain it to a peasant in plain English please?   

[Glenn]

If they work the same policy as T-Mobile, then web surfing does not count towards download limits, radio streaming would along with phone updates/application updates etc.

[Simon]

I'm pretty sure emails count.  But 750Mb isn't too bad, depending on what you use the phone for.  I don't download a lot of stuff, but I'm on the internet a lot with it every day, and also get plenty of emails through it.  My current download used is 147Mb, and I'm half way through my billing period, so I certainly wouldn't envisage going over 500Mb, even if I were to download a fairly big game.

[Gary]

I'm pretty sure emails count.  But 750Mb isn't too bad, depending on what you use the phone for.  I don't download a lot of stuff, but I'm on the internet a lot with it every day, and also get plenty of emails through it.  My current download used is 147Mb, and I'm half way through my billing period, so I certainly wouldn't envisage going over 500Mb, even if I were to download a fairly big game.

Justina has her iPhone set to download email every hour and of course its now iMessage between our two phones and she has hardly used any of her 750MB. Saying that if you get 4G you would need a lot more. For normal usage on 2G/3G it seems enough. Just make sure you stop android syncing everything all the time. I think all web browsing counts, as does emails possibly sending and downloading but I'm not sure on that, ask on the O2 community forum.

[Steve]

I think 750mb is plenty for a phone unless you stream video via 3G

[Lance]

Agreed. My plan is 500mb and I rarely he near the limit despite quite heave use.

[Broadback]

Thanks one and all for the help. Emails ( so the O2 help desk said) only use data when you send/receive photos, though I suspect that may also include attachments. So it seems that the amount allowed will be fine for me.   

[Lance]

The O2 help desk is wrong, but normal text emails would only use small amounts of data. Viewing HTML format emails will use more as it pulls the images down but still only small amounts.

[Broadback]

So the "unlimited emails" is a bit of a con.

[Simon]

No, you can send and receive as many as you like!

[Broadback]

Unless, it seems you run out of data, oh then you can send them at an extremely slow rate!

[Technical Ben]

So the "unlimited emails" is a bit of a con.

Anything with "unlimited" in the title is a bit of a con.

[pctech]

If you have your usage curtailed then its likely you are abusing the system

[Gary]

Anything with "unlimited" in the title is a bit of a con.

So far my three sim card gives me great unlimited at great speeds and no sigh of them saying nope stop using it. I don't hammer it but I can use 2GB without issue when tethering to the iPad. 

[Technical Ben]

Sorry to be your nemesis Gary, but "2GB" is not "unlimited", it's 2GB... I did not comment on if it's sufficient for the average customer (there's little such thing as average) but if it's a correct statement in advertising.

Remember, they set the measurement type.
If a super market went: How much are we selling? Oh only 1 gram? That does not sound enough, say it's "Unlimited milligrams for sale!" but slap on a fair use of 1000mg/1g!
That would be fraud. However all fair in "unlimited off peak" or "unlimited movie rentals (one at a time)" etc. As those are not self contradictory statements.

Just try explaining it to someone who watched iplayer everyday, because it's a PC dongle, and soon goes over that 2gb. "Wait it said unlimited, All I did was watch Strictly!" Now what happens? I think I note that most of the "dongles" are not advertised as "unlimited" anymore. They are 1gb, 2gb and 5gb etc and you pay accordingly. No confusion, accidental or on purpose, there.

[Lance]

Gary didn't say it was limited to only 2gb, only that he can sometimes easily get through 2gb on his unlimited tariff.

[Gary]

Sorry to be your nemesis Gary, but "2GB" is not "unlimited", it's 2GB... I did not comment on if it's sufficient for the average customer (there's little such thing as average) but if it's a correct statement in advertising.

Remember, they set the measurement type.
If a super market went: How much are we selling? Oh only 1 gram? That does not sound enough, say it's "Unlimited milligrams for sale!" but slap on a fair use of 1000mg/1g!
That would be fraud. However all fair in "unlimited off peak" or "unlimited movie rentals (one at a time)" etc. As those are not self contradictory statements.

Just try explaining it to someone who watched iplayer everyday, because it's a PC dongle, and soon goes over that 2gb. "Wait it said unlimited, All I did was watch Strictly!" Now what happens? I think I note that most of the "dongles" are not advertised as "unlimited" anymore. They are 1gb, 2gb and 5gb etc and you pay accordingly. No confusion, accidental or on purpose, there.

As Lance says (cheers Lance)  I can use 2GB quite happily with no question of hitting a limit, A friend uses his Samsung galaxy 3 as a hotspot for his laptop and uses 30GB a month or so every month, its way cheaper than broadband and phone line and speeds are very fast.

[Technical Ben]

That's fair enough then. Just saying we need to avoid the companies that promise the world but deliver nothing (except maybe a really small print saying "everything means nothings").