05-04-2013, 04:18 PM
Your should be aware that AT&T's terminology is misleading, in their online Text/Data usage details, they refer to all data usage as "Data Sent". You shouldn't imply a direction from that, they don't have a "Data Received". In their PDF monthly bills they use better terminology and call it "Data Transfer".
Also, from my family iPhone experience, AT&T seems to accumulate and charge once a day for some data usage, so the time reported might not be very significant. I think apps like Mail are doing small data transfers fairly regularly to check for mail, but that doesn't seem to be reported at the moment it occurs, but maybe when the connection is terminated, or near the end of the day.
One thing that uses a lot of data for my wife is receiving email with attachments, even if she never reads them. Some people send full resolution 5MB/image pictures and don't realize what that might be costing mobile users when they receive it.
Also, from my family iPhone experience, AT&T seems to accumulate and charge once a day for some data usage, so the time reported might not be very significant. I think apps like Mail are doing small data transfers fairly regularly to check for mail, but that doesn't seem to be reported at the moment it occurs, but maybe when the connection is terminated, or near the end of the day.
One thing that uses a lot of data for my wife is receiving email with attachments, even if she never reads them. Some people send full resolution 5MB/image pictures and don't realize what that might be costing mobile users when they receive it.