When I travel, I tether my MacBook to my iPhone for Internet access. Recently, after being away from home for only three days, I got a text from my service provider stating that they had slowed down my data speed for the remainder of the billing period because I had exceeded 5GB. (I have an unlimited data plan, but they slow things down after 5GB.) I couldn't figure out how I could have downloaded that much data in three days, since I hadn't watched any videos or downloaded any big files. So, I reset the Cellular Data Stats on my phone and then started to keep track of usage. Sure enough, in less than an hour it had racked up 250MB, from casual web surfing: just text, pictures and a bit of streaming audio.
Eventually, I realized that it had nothing to do with my computer. The phone was just racking up data traffic, on its own, for no discernible reason. I reset the Cellular Data Stats once again, with the computer disconnected, and one by one, turned off cellular data access to each of the phone's apps. It was still moving data at the rate of 1MB per minute. The only way I could get it to stop was to turn off main cellular data enable switch. As soon as I'd turn it on again, it would start sending/receiving data again at around 1MB/minute. I tried reseting the phone, with no effect. Any ideas why it would be doing this? It's not costing may anything since I'm on an unlimited data plan, but I'd really like to know what all of this data is for.
