Help! i88 Using over 1k of data per update!

[segers]

After I got my nextel bill last month, I almost fainted! According to Nextel, I used almost 15mb of Data! I set my phone to do 5 minute updates and for a few days I set it to use 1 minute updates.

So, I started tracking the accumulated usage on the nextel network. I have the data only 1mb plan. (Nextel can only give you accumulated data usage totals, not day by day totals which I think SUX!)

Accumulated totals As reported by nextel customer support:

5/19/2005 - 209.50kb peak
72.93kb off peak

5/23/2005 I Did not turn phone on again until 5/23/05. I ran one update to the accutracking server and my accumulated data usage was as follows:
211.50kb peak
72.93kb off peak

Also, in some of my prior tests, It appears that Nextel is charging me for data each time I merely turn the phone on. I noticed that if I merely turned the phone on it cost me about between 400bytes and 950 bytes each time.

Can someone please help explain why my transaction size is over 1k for each update to the accutracking server?

Thanks!

[Skibum]

I believe that you are looking at TOTAL data transfer, not just transfer within your account for the web. This includes registering on to and off of the NEXTEL towers.

[jnewell]

It's the TCP/IP network overhead. To open a TCP socket connection to a server, send a byte of data and close the connection results in almost 500 bytes of data used. That's the cold hard fact. Accutracking uses HTTP which has additional overhead because at least two open/close sequences occur.

The reality is that an update can consume about 1.3KB of data. That's why you want to make sure that the Smart Sending feature is enabled.