INCORRECT DATA USAGE SHOWING MAKES AT&T LOOK CROOKED! | AT&T Community Forums (2024)

Not incorrect. Read this thread. https://forums.att.com/t5/Wireless-Account/Data-Charges-every-3-hours-12-3-6-9-even-when-phone-is-off/m-p/4162120#M207939

Data is not reported live.

Your phone is an independant meter of your data use. If it shows close to ATT totals then you used the data. On a daily basis it would show more data on your phone until towers report data use back to ATT and post on your account. It can take 3-72 hours for data to be reported back from towers to ATT and post on your bill.

Track for a couple of months to see how close ATT and your phone are.

As the post above mentions. Data reporting is not in real time. That is the time the usage was reported to the billing system. Whenever you start a data session on a tower it's like opening a tab at a bar. It does not settle up until the session is closed and it reports the usage to central billing. The times reported are not your exact time of usage. There is nothing dishonest here. Data reporting is about as cut and dry as it gets.

Now every phone has it's own independent data counting mechanism. iPhones have it in the cellular section and Android phones have Data Manager. If you set your billing cycle on the phone to match, you will get nearly exact results.

@David606 Hey! Now there is an analogy that is less dull than a checkbook. And for the plastic generation, perhaps more relevant.

So this screen cap is from the 5601 line (a tablet). Dial *3282# on a phone and find out your bill cycle date. Go to Data Manager on an Android device and set the billing cycle day to that date (X of each month).

It will be very close to the network reported usage. In this image the tablet says 3.89GB and the network says 3.7GB. (DirecTV is sponsored data so this is why it's not 100% exact). Regardless the network is reporting a little bit less than the data counter.

@Hawks23 wrote:

Did anyone actually READ my post? The phones are TURNED OFF every night and ALL THREE PHONES show data at 12 a.m., 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.--exactly that every single night for the last two weeks. THEY ARE TURNED OFF. Yes, I know data counts differently and takes time to register. Explain how all three phones register this every night while turned off?

Yes.

Data is not reported immediately, it's reported later (over the next 72 hours). It could be data from 60 hours ago that's being reported at 3 a.m. today.

Turning them off doesn't help, you could smash the phone into little bits, but the data wil because the data was used earlier.

See the last three lines of the (blue) attachment below.From logging into my att.com account.

If the network reporting shows data usage at 12AM....that could have been used within the last 72 hours. It could have been used at 3PM, 5PM or 7PM and it wasn't reported until 12AM. The time you see on the statistics on central billing has zero correlation to when the data was actually used.

@Hawks23 wrote:

Did anyone actually READ my post? I know that data counts differently on phones and I know it doesn't immediately show. However, for THREE PHONES to have large amounts of data used EVERY NIGHT FOR TWO WEEKS AT 12:00 A.M., 3:00 A.M. AND 6:00 A.M. when the phones are POWERED OFF and on Wifi ONLY, is VERY SUSPICIOUS. I've written the company and provided my documentation and we shall see if I get a response. I made sure I covered all bases when I first noticed this so that I knew there was no way our phones were actually using data. If they are, they are doing so while turned off and in addition, on wifi only.

Yeah....we see this all the time. It would have answered your question if you read our reply.

I use the check analogy. You write a check, but the money isn't deducted from your account when you write the check. It isn't deducted until the check is presented against your account. That might be overnight, or several days later.

You might look at your calls and texts. You might see those are also recorded when you are asleep, and hours after your phones were off.

Heres a great question for you... I have this same issue as the original poster, however I have messages reported from a number TODAY (10/3/18) at 6pm. Last time I checked, it is only 12:52pm CST here.