There are certain things in life that are hard to measure; things like how successful you are, how much trust you can give or how much hope you can share. These are just some of the intangible things in life that we often do and think about but just cant seem to find the absolute measurement to quantify them; much like broadband data. Impalpable as it may seem, not all have a clear picture of how data actually looks or how big or small it really is. One thing is certain, we need it in order to appreciate our mobile devices full potential. Smartphones, in particular, do make our lives easier; but sadly, sustaining them becomes a bit financially complicated because in order to appreciate what they can do, one has to connect to the internet and this would only mean additional costs. Just like our appliances that need electricity to run, smartphones need data connectivity to bring out their smartness. But how much data does one really need?

Not all data users are created equal. Each individual has his/her own needs and preferences and so before asking how much data one would really need, it would probably be best to differentiate first the type of user one is. In reality, there are free and easy users and there are heavy users. If you are the type who every so often browses the web, views and sends email, checks Facebook and Twitter; but seldom stream music and videos every day and does little to no upload and download then consider yourself a light to moderate user. However, if it seems that you are the type who just cant, definitely cant, help but tweet, post, upload, and download the slightest movement there is every minute that passes you by or would just have to check emails and download every bit of attachment there is or maybe someone who streams and downloads music and videos more often than the commercials on prime time TV then you are indeed a heavy user.

So, which one are you? As mentioned previously, not all data users are created equal; and so is data. Not all data are the same. Smartphone activities that require broadband connection vary from small bits to large chunks of data. Small bits of data will include text only emails, social network tweets, status updates, and text only instant messaging. Uploading, downloading, and streaming high quality music and videos, and playing online games are precisely the activities that suck large chunks of data.

While we are all certain that a minute is equal to 60 seconds and that an hour is 60 minutes, unlike time that has a definite measurement, data remains a bit vague. The best we could probably do for now is to give estimates. To start, for the purpose of identifying unit of measurement for data, we will use KB for kilobytes, MB for megabytes and GB for gigabytes. 1 MB is equivalent to 1,000 KB.

A plain text only email would roughly consume 3 50KB. This however greatly increases to about 300KB if a document is attached and approximately 350KB if there is a photo attachment. Browsing through a single web page will cost you about 150KB 1.5MB; while a minute of music streaming will devour you 500KB. Data consumption greatly increases to 1MB if you download or upload hi-resolution photos. A minute of video streaming is about 2 to 5MB and for a single app, game or song downloaded will roughly feast on 3 to 4MB. Five minutes of YouTube at 720p will cost you about 37.5MB.

Lately, instant messaging apps that allow VOIP calls are getting much attention. A Skype to Skype call will cost you about 3MB per minute while video calls between mobile phones is roughly 500KB per second and between phone and computer, 600KB per second. A Viber call will consume you about 240KB per minute. Being visible on the mobile scene has its hype, too. Foursquare check-ins will cost you about 180KB while map searches and navigation will gobble up about 150-200KB. Again, all these are just approximations.

You see, different smartphone activities eat up different amounts of data. Comparing them to our appliances at home, the energy consumption of one appliance is different from the other. A window-type AC and a split type AC have varying energy consumptions although both can cool the same room using the same type of electricity. The same is true with an energy efficient refrigerator that consumes minimal electricity, but drastically changes once it is left opened. For sure, a lot more energy is consumed. Talking about email, a text-only email eats up very minimal data; but once you download an attachment it gobbles up more data.

Telcos have tiered services or set of services that has increasing price points depending on what best suits the needs of the sbscriber. Tiered services are offered because telcos know that there is no one size fits all even in data consumption. In order for subscribers to appreciate and maximize these services, one has to evaluate his/her own data behaviour. Knowing how much one actually consumes in a months time is vital and if used wisely would actually benefit them more than they know. Who knows, they mightve been subscribing to 1GB data plan but have been consuming less than what they thought theyve been consuming.

Data consumption on a particular activity as mentioned above varies. Once you have identified what kind of data user you are, you can now sum up all these activities in order to determine how much data you actually consume. Keep in mind 1GB is equivalent to 1,024MB.

So, what are your possibilities with 1 GB of data? A lot! With 1GB of data you can send 100 emails with attachment, browse through 100 web pages, upload a post and a photo 50 times, stream music for 90 minutes, stream videos for 90 minutes, map navigation for 60 minutes and download 17 games or other apps. All these you can do with 1GB of data.

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If the shoe fits