Data usage of CA on Android

M8TJT · Last edited by M8TJT on Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:11 am; edited 1 time in total

For anyone interested, I did a test trip today from Glinton, just north of Peterborough through to the Birchanger Lane services on the M11 by Stanstead, a trip of about 75 miles. I had the CA maps on all the way. The total CA 3G data usage for this trip was about 7.25Mb. working out at about 100kb/mile. After that for the rest of my trip, I had CA in the background and, as expected, it used no more 3G data.

So there you go, CA uses about 100kb/mile with maps on. Well it did on my trip anyway. Anyone else done any controlled trips to check it?

EDIT:
In the light of MaFt's comments below, I have donned my anorak once more.

The latest database was downloaded via WiFi prior to trip.

Data was due to CA and included traffic both ways. I use Traffic Monitor app which allocates usage to the app using it.

Zoom was the default zoom and autozoom was on, but I didn't slow down much. Much of the trip (A15, A1, A14 and M11) was at 65-70mph (ish) so not a lot of zooming.

Given all that and noting MaFt's comments, my result of 100kb/mile seems likely to be closely approaching the minimum data usage with maps displayed permanently. Unless of course MaFt knows differently Very Happy

AliOnHols · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 1936

M8TJT · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 11:21 pm Post subject:

And just what are you implying by that? Shocked

MaFt · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:29 am Post subject:

You need to consider zoom levels too. If you have it set to auto-zoom then when you speed up and slow down you are downloading extra sets of the map tiles for each zoom level. This will increase the data usage.

If you have a static zoom level but zoomed in quite close then you will need to be downloading more tiles per mile therefore more data. If you have a static zoom level and have it zoomed quite far out then you will download less tiles per mile thus reducing your overall data usage.

Did you update the database over mobile data too or was that done separately?

Also was that download figure solely CamerAlert usage? Did any emails get downloaded or any other services updating over 3G etc?

Interesting though still and a useful figure to point to when people ask!

MaFt

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:39 am Post subject:

Is it possible to add a data counter to CA for thise who might be concerned by download limits? Not necessarily in the foreground but on the settings screen maybe

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:13 am Post subject:

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