Just a public announcement (cue the Apple haters).
With IOS 9, Apple added a feature, turned on by default, called wifi assist. Basically, it will use cellular when you're wifi connection is poor. Not sure what "poor" is, but it might be worth turning off. My 14 year old came close to maxing out his data because he was having issues connecting to our home wifi.
To turn it off:
Settings
Cellular
Scroll ALL the way down to the bottom
Look for Wi-Fi Assist
Turn it off
-Rob
Turned it off as soon as I heard about it. Cell service isn't worth the assist with weak wifi available around here....
For the first time since they invented the cellphone, I am paying out of pocket. I am getting VERY in tune with finding free WiFi and saving my cellular!!!!
I turned mine off a while back, especially since I went to a lower data plan, saving money where I can.
Unlimited data plan here, so I don't care.
Worth noting when going overseas and using pay as you go plans.
Thanks for the heads up!
Yeah, we're on unlimited data, but we're actually about to cut back to a 15gb share plan. Even adding up all the individual lines' worst-case months last year, we didn't break 9gb.
But I turned wifi assist off anyway, because if the wifi is really weak the phone keeps trying anyway, which lunches the battery and the performance. If wifi is that bad it's better to just turn it off altogether.
It also drains battery life as its constantly searching for a cell signal while on wifi in case the signal is weak at any point. Plus you get a crappy, lag ridden connection that is no fun. It sits there and keeps switching back and forth between the stronger signal and you'll get packet loss and degradation and thats not what you want when you're using streaming apps.
I was thinking of going to a 15 gig shared plan, but looking back my wife herself averages 15-20 gig a month (works in a park, streams Pandora while mowing or plowing snow) and I use 6-8 gig, so it wouldn't make sense to not stay with our old unlimited plan.
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