Usage Data Disparity

The 2 people I mentioned in my earlier post turned off 5G and their data usage is now tracking correctly.  I believe TMobile is double counting data usage when  both 4G and 5G signals are available. Of course only those of us with kickback or limited plans would care. 

@skim32 Did you ever find a resolution for this? I have been having exactly the same problem for nearly 6-months! I have gone around and around with T-Mobile representatives at 611, in Chat, and on Twitter. Each escalates the problem, gives me their personal assurance that they will be the last person I have to talk to on the issue, but it is still not resolved.

One additional piece of information I have found is that dialing #web# to check usage appears to get closer to what is happening.

As you can see, this dialog shows two numbers, the amount of data used from "your data plan" and the "total on-network data". From my understanding and experience before this problem started, the "data plan" number is the amount of data that counts against your plan and it is used for purposes of kickback. The "total on-network data" number is all of the data your phone has used, including zero-rated data like Music Freedom and speed test apps. Given this explanation, it never makes sense for the "your data plan" number to be larger than the "on-network data" number.

From what have seen over the last several months the website reflects the “your data plan” number (even though it is labeled as “total on-network data”) but the app reflects the “total on-network data” number.

I've been working with the social support team on Twitter regarding this for the last 3-months. Here is a summary of my current position:

1. They acknowledged that the label on the website that says “Total on-network data” is incorrect. @skim32 You have this in your screenshot above. They say this should be labelled as "plan" data usage. They have opened a ticket and we may see this fixed in the future.
2. They claim the "your data plan" number is accurately tracking usage, even though it doesn't match the usage I see from my phone's built-in tracking. They say the "on-network data" number is not showing all of my usage. They also see this behavior in their Grand Central application and flowing through to the website. They have opened a ticket to try to get this resolved. I'm hoping investigation into this will reveal the root cause so they can finally fix it!

I agree with #1 above, but I do not buy #2. The phone's built-in usage tracking is always much closer to the smaller "total on-network" number and I am not convinced the phone is actually using as much data as the "your plan usage" number claims.

One final note, I am having the problem on two of the 11 lines on my account. These are the only two phones I have with 5G capability, and the issue seems to have started around the time we upgraded to these phones. Maybe it's related to 5G data usage tracking! It's just a theory, but I wouldn't be surprised if when I'm on a NR NSA (non-standalone 5G) network the data is being counted twice, once for 5G and once for LTE.

Has anyone been able to get this resolved with T-Mobile?  I'm not going to continue paying for twice as much data as I use.  Their Data Usage "Details" is obviously incorrect when my S20+ 5G matches what the T-Mobile Data Usage page states.

I have seen many people with this issue, and none of them have seemed to get T-Mobile to acknowledge the problem.  A Class Action Lawsuit might be the only option consumers have.

@whalen53 I'm still trying to get them to fix it after more than 6-months. After bouncing around to a half-dozen T-Force agents I now have a "manager" who has been working on it for the last 5-6 weeks. He has been following up with me, but still zero progress on getting it resolved. I don't know if he had any luck getting anyone on the technical team to acknowledge there is a problem.

Currently having a similar issue.

I'm using the mobile Internet only plan on one of my devices primarily used with hotspot and tethering which is probably why they haven't shut it off, as I've heard T-Mobile will shut off people using Internet only plans on their phones.

My data plan has renewed today at about 5:30 a.m. as with T-Mobile there's always some sort of delay between exactly midnight and when the plan actually renews.

I've been asleep since about 1:30am. I checked to see if everything had reset before I went to sleep. It had not. Data was still being typically throttled to 12 kilobytes per second or 128 kilobits per second. Dialing #web# still showed 100 of 100 gigs used.

I woke up this morning at 6:00 in the morning to check to see if it had reset and it showed 5 GB used.

What used 5 gigs?? I've been sleeping!!!!!!!!

My phone shows under 100MB used.

On and I have Google play update disabled so I know that Google play wasn't updating anything and I know that apps weren't using data in the background. I disable hotspot when I'm sleeping to save power and so I know nothing was connected, so i know nothing was connected.

Seriously what the hell.

Apps like Facebook push a lot of data in the background that don't necessarily show on your device as regular usage.  These services override your settings to continue to push data, like location bases services, regardless of whether you have them disabled or not.  My guess is, that is where the extra data usage is coming from.  

Bump. Its still happening. Now it shows 1gb in usage and 1.8gb in usage detail. Something is seriously not right. When I look at the details, I am seeing usage for times that I am home or asleep and on wifi. Any tmobile specialist can help me?

If your wifi isn’t stable during a particular period, your phone will default to using data unless you specifically stop that from happening (ie. turn data off).

gdefender wrote:

@skim32

One final note, I am having the problem on two of the 11 lines on my account. These are the only two phones I have with 5G capability, and the issue seems to have started around the time we upgraded to these phones. Maybe it's related to 5G data usage tracking! It's just a theory, but I wouldn't be surprised if when I'm on a NR NSA (non-standalone 5G) network the data is being counted twice, once for 5G and once for LTE.

I've come to the same conclusion.  There are 2 lines out of 8 on my account that have 5G enabled and both have major discrepancies between what the phone says their data usage has been and what TM claims.  Even though I have a 5G phone I've never enabled it because I couldn't see any difference in speed.  I've suggested that the 2 who keep going over their 2gb kickback limit disable 5G.  It'll be interesting to see if their usage now tracks correctly.