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Donna writes, “I share a data plan with my family. I’m the biggest user of data, but I’m also the least tech savvy. I do very little downloading! I mostly just check emails. If someone sends me a link and I open it, am I downloading? Sometimes I use my iPhone as a hotspot for my laptop. Is that downloading? Why am I using so much data?”

Any time your phone gets information over the Internet, Donna, that counts against your data plan. This includes reading an email, opening a link from that email, and using your phone as a hotspot so your laptop can connect to the Internet.

In fact, that last one is one of the most data-intensive activities you can do with your phone. Your laptop is a powerful machine that can request a lot of data in a hurry, especially if you have more than one website open at a time. All of the images, ads and videos on those sites are being downloaded through your phone?s connection, which can eat up a lot of data really fast. This is why most websites offer lightweight versions that are optimized for browsing on phones and mobile devices.

Other activities that can use a lot of data include streaming music through apps like Spotify and Pandora, downloading podcasts, and even sharing those vacation pictures you snapped with your friends on Facebook or Instagram. If you do a lot of driving, navigation apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps can also use a lot of data downloading directions and maps.

The sneakiest drainers of data plans we’ve found are free games. While you downloaded basically all of the data for those games when you first got them from the app store, that didn’t include those annoying little ads you see while you’re playing them. Those ads are downloaded while you’re running the app, chewing up your data plan in the process.

It may seem like everyone is after your data plan, but luckily there is a way to stop them: Wi-Fi. When your phone is connected to a wireless network, it uses Wi-Fi to download things instead of your cell data. We recommend turning off your cell data and using Wi-Fi any time you’re at home or work. If you don’t have a home wireless network, you may want to consider setting one up. This will cost some money, but it will almost definitely be cheaper than paying overage charges to your carrier.

Also, all wireless providers offer a special phone number you can call or text to see what your current monthly usage is. Find out what yours is and take advantage of it before you get slapped with fees!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news for AT&T Broadband users, but on Sunday the 2nd, AT&T began implementing the usage of data caps for their terrestrial broadband services. After being tested in portions of Texas and Nevada, the data caps are now in nationwide effect for the 16 million users of AT&T’s Broadband DSL and U-Verse services. Comcast, the largest broadband service provider in the United States, already has a 250 GB data cap that has existed since October of 2008.

It is estimated that only 2% of the 16 million AT&T Broadband users will be affected by the data caps, set at 150 gigabytes of uploads and downloads per month for regular AT&T DSL customers and 250 gigabytes of monthly broadband usage for subscribers of U-Verse, AT&T’s high-speed fiber communications network. Customers will be notified once usage hits 65%, 90%, and 100% of total usage, and for customers who exceed the monthly data caps three times, they will be charged $10 for every 50GB above their allowed usage. On average, AT&T DSL customers only use 18 GB per month.

With Cable TV services being dropped in favor of video on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, cable companies are trying to make up for the lost revenue by increasing prices on their internet-access services. AT&T says that the restrictions are a necessity because the top 2% of highest-traffic subscribers use up 20% of network bandwidth, which slows network speeds for other users.

DSLReports.com offers several interesting arguments against the AT&T data caps:

“There was already no economic justification for imposing such limits on wired broadband users given the fact that flat-rate pricing is perfectly profitable, and most ISP costs for providing bandwidth are fixed or dropping… There’s also concerns that AT&T won’t be capable of metering consumer usage accurately. We’ve cited time and time again how ISPs are so eager to impose these new limits they can’t be bothered to ensure their meters work properly, and there’s no regulatory oversight of these limits. AT&T is no exception, our users already noting problems with AT&T meter accuracy, which AT&T tells us they’re working on.”

Consumers and public interest groups are already issuing complaints to the government, asking federal regulators Friday to “take a close look at AT&T’s new limits on their broadband customer’s internet usage, saying the caps could undermine the national broadband plan.”

For now, AT&T Broadband users can access their usage meters on Myusage.att.com after signing into their account to see if you should be expecting any overage charges.

Photo by Jeff Bertolucci via PCWorld