When using a smartphone or a tablet with a SIM card, it is a must to subscribe to an Internet subscription to browse with a data connection and use applications, without incurring excessive traffic costs. Modern subscriptions now offer many GB of data included, but it can happen to download a large number of data and not actually realize when we have consumed. In this guide we will therefore show you how to control the thresholds of Internet traffic on Android phones, so that we can always know when we have consumed our subscription. Often the methods used also allow to keep under control the residual credit and the other parameters included in the offer (such as the minutes and the SMS included).
Integrated control system
On many Android smartphones a control system of the consumed data is included, which can be reset every month at a pre-established date and can be customized according to the offer in use. To take advantage of this feature, simply open the Settings app and check for the Data traffic threshold or similar item (on some Android smartphones it is also called Set data plan and is present in the SIM and mobile networks section).
Once the right menu has been opened, simply enter the mobile data threshold available with the offers, enter the meter reset date (i.e. the day on which the offer is renewed) and choose how the system will intervene, alerting and blocking the data connection when a certain threshold is reached (for example 90% ). In this way, even if we do not control the actual traffic consumed, the phone will keep the bill for us and block us in case of excessive consumption.
If we are unable to set up the integrated system, we can use one of the recommended apps below.
App to check traffic thresholds
The best free app to check the thresholds of internet connections on consumption is, without a doubt, My Data Manager.
This app allows you to measure, in a very precise and clear way, the consumption of internet bandwidth while browsing with your smartphone and also measures the consumption of each individual application installed .
This is its best feature because, if an app uses too much data in the background consuming a large part of the subscription threshold, we can intervene, blocking it and prohibiting it from using the data connection (from now on it will only use WiFi).
After installation on Android, we open the app, press the Menu button to enter the options and set the subscription plan by touching Set Data Plan .
From the next menu, just enter the monthly threshold in MB or GB of the subscription plan to begin monitoring the use of data on the Android phone.
After browsing and downloading, you can go back to the application interface (which works in the background) and watch the consumption made. You can filter the daily, weekly and monthly traffic and you can also see a historical and complete statistics of the past. The most useful part is that which measures the traffic generated by the individual applications to which, as mentioned before, the use of the data connection can be prohibited.
In the event that you approach the threshold, My Data Manager sends an alert on the screen to warn the user to pay attention. There are also several very interesting additional features including the analysis of daily traffic to generate a forecast on how much will be consumed monthly. Finally, there is the widget to add on the main screen to always keep an eye on the thresholds .
My Data Manager is definitely the best generic application to calculate the thresholds of mobile internet subscription plans on consumption, both on Android and on iPhone.
Alternatively, we can also use other apps to control the use and consumption of Internet data and the traffic thresholds of the 3G and 4G data connection, such as 3G Watchdog, which allows you to configure the credit thresholds to avoid exceeding them.
App of the Italian telephone operators
If you use a plan Three, the best way to see the internet consumption thresholds and the residual credit of subscriptions and top-ups is My3 | Customer Area 3, very easy to configure. Widget 3 is available in three sizes and allows you to select your plan, automatically downloading the residual thresholds with updates every hour from the portal 3. The widget also allows you to access, without having to enter the password, the portal3 to top up your credit via the internet, to change options or for other operations.
If you use a subscription or a rechargeable Vodafone we can use the My Vodafone Italia app, excellent for entering customer service and seeing the counters of promotions as well as the remaining credit.
TIM offers an app called MyTIM that allows you to keep under control all the meters of the active offer, as well as the remaining credit and other useful info on the line.
Wind has an excellent app, MyWind, which can count all the counters, also offers a widget that works well on Android.
If we have a Fastweb mobile subscription, we can use the MyFastweb app, which can display a counter with data traffic, the SMS counter and the number of minutes consumed up to that moment. It also provides a convenient widget (connected to the SIM inserted in the phone) to be able to view the counters without even opening the app.
As for Iliad, we wrote an article specifically with the apps to check Iliad residual credit and counter offers
Conclusions
If we want to know the maximum speed of our line, we can use Internet Speed Meter, an app to measure the speed and internet traffic of the Android mobile phone that we talked about in another article.If we have an iPhone instead, we recommend you read the guide how to control data traffic consumption on the iPhone, in which we show you the integrated system and the best apps that we can use to check traffic thresholds.
