Do you have LTE? or 3G? If I had unlimited data I would just switch wifi off. My LTE connection is a lot quicker. I get approx 30mbps down and 15 up.
There are many locations, within larger buildings for instance, where signals sourced from outside such as cellular LTE can be blocked or interfered with to the point it's barely functional while the buildings WiFi system is cranking at high speed. At my desk my WiFi right now is 130.96 Mbps up, 88.99 mb/s down (Ookla), LTE 12.05 and 1.48 respectively. And I'm about 15 feet from a window....
For the FCC Speed test: 87.32, 90.57: 12.84, 3.78. though the target servers were different.
Oh and the menu bar was displaying "LTE" albeit with only two stars of the five.
The main reason I turned it off was because it was just too aggressive - it switched to LTE inside my house a couple of rooms from my router where I had a full speed 3 bar signal. And my WiFi is much faster than LTE. If it was a little more judicious about switching, it might be better.
I'm not surprised by this. When I first heard of this feature I turned it off immediately.
This is the third 'connection-related' feature that I've seen Apple implement badly recently. The other two were were iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Drive.
It works brilliantly. But Apple makes the common mistake of assuming an unlimited connection. My usage jumped up 250MB in 10 days, which is most of my monthly quota. Luckily my cellular plan now isn't painfully expensive if I go over... but it's still an extra cost.
Apple needs to make it work for everyone. 90% of people finding it great isn't enough.
A big problem I have is that while my iPhone can recognise the difference between wifi and cellular data, my computer and iPad can't recognise that they're tethered to an iPhone and be careful on data (vs regular wifi)
Personally I would love it if the iPhone simply managed my data totals. Never allow more than 10% of my monthly allowance in a day would be a good start. That way when something goes wrong I'm safe.
BTW: I'd happily give 10% of my monthly data to any nearby roaming iPhones, non3G iPads or MacBooks for them to get a severely MB limited connection - messages, emails without attachments, maps without satellite.
There are many locations, within larger buildings for instance, where signals sourced from outside such as cellular LTE can be blocked or interfered with to the point it's barely functional while the buildings WiFi system is cranking at high speed. At my desk my WiFi right now is 130.96 Mbps up, 88.99 mb/s down (Ookla), LTE 12.05 and 1.48 respectively. And I'm about 15 feet from a window....
For the FCC Speed test: 87.32, 90.57: 12.84, 3.78. though the target servers were different.
Oh and the menu bar was displaying "LTE" albeit with only two stars of the five.
True, there are many occasions where LTE is not available or 'weakened'. But I frequently switch off wifi because it is just too damn slow. There are a lot of slow access points out there and even my own office wifi buckles under local load. If got 130 mbps down and 89 up I'd be thrilled. That is more than double the speed I have ever had anywhere. Lucky you
My previous lab location was about 15% of that so its like they say location, location, location.
And ironically same with the wired network my desktop uses. The other building was maybe 50Mbps, this one pushes 800.
But yeah when out in "public" I turn wifi off, first cause it's slow (AMTRAK used to be nice, then everyone got a smartphone grrrr) and second as I once caught some sort of attempted redirect to some place on the Caribbean when it looked like I was connecting to Amtrak wifi in NYC Penn Station. So I'm no longer generally very trusting.
I think it's a great feature, but I was annoyed to find out about it. I wondered why one day my cellular data use suddenly jumped by 14 MB. Not a huge amount, but bothersome when you're like me and only have 250 MB a month!
Why did Apple choose to make this active by default instead of allowing people to opt in? I can't understand.
new iPhone 6S+/ 64 - AT&T was turned on - thanks to previous AI article I went in and turned it & other apps off - let's hear it for off options! 20GB account with AT&T - will spend big $s on iPhone no contract but will not pay AT&T anymore then I have to.
A new Apple support document about Wi-Fi Assist attempts to address complaints about the iOS 9 feature, which some user have said can cause monthly cellular data use to grow dramatically.
"Because you'll stay connected to the Internet over cellular when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you might use more cellular data," Apple <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296">cautions</a> in one part of the document. "For most users, this should only be a small percentage higher than previous usage."
Wi-Fi Assist is turned on by default, and is meant to ensure a smooth Internet experience. Because it switches over to cellular whenever it decides that a Wi-Fi signal is weak and not simply absent, however, this can potentially cause people to exceed carrier data caps without realizing.
The document notes that certain limitations have been applied to the feature. It won't switch on while data roaming, for example, and only applies to foreground apps rather than background downloads.
Likewise, not all apps can take advantage. It shuts off for some unidentified third-party apps that stream audio or video, as well as some email apps, since they might download large attachments.
Apple's own apps typically do make use of the technology, including Mail, Maps, Safari, Apple Music, and others.
To shut off Wi-Fi Assist, iOS 9 users must go into the Cellular menu in the Settings app, and scroll all the way to the bottom to find the toggle button. The option is missing on some older Apple devices, including the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, and the first-generation iPad mini.
WiFi Assist is ill conceived. It eliminated the previous transparency where a user knew whether one was using wifi or cellular. If wifi was present, cellular data was NOT used. Unless one has unlimited cellular data, not knowing is a real issue.
But the worst aspect, aside from the new feature being "on" by default, is the Cellular Data Usage in Settings does NOT count the data used by wifi assist. What?!
This needs to be fixed, and quickly. The cellular data usage counter must track ALL cellular dat usage.
Comments
Do you have LTE? or 3G? If I had unlimited data I would just switch wifi off. My LTE connection is a lot quicker. I get approx 30mbps down and 15 up.
There are many locations, within larger buildings for instance, where signals sourced from outside such as cellular LTE can be blocked or interfered with to the point it's barely functional while the buildings WiFi system is cranking at high speed. At my desk my WiFi right now is 130.96 Mbps up, 88.99 mb/s down (Ookla), LTE 12.05 and 1.48 respectively. And I'm about 15 feet from a window....
For the FCC Speed test: 87.32, 90.57: 12.84, 3.78. though the target servers were different.
Oh and the menu bar was displaying "LTE" albeit with only two stars of the five.
I'm not surprised by this. When I first heard of this feature I turned it off immediately.
This is the third 'connection-related' feature that I've seen Apple implement badly recently. The other two were were iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Drive.
It works brilliantly. But Apple makes the common mistake of assuming an unlimited connection. My usage jumped up 250MB in 10 days, which is most of my monthly quota. Luckily my cellular plan now isn't painfully expensive if I go over... but it's still an extra cost.
Apple needs to make it work for everyone. 90% of people finding it great isn't enough.
A big problem I have is that while my iPhone can recognise the difference between wifi and cellular data, my computer and iPad can't recognise that they're tethered to an iPhone and be careful on data (vs regular wifi)
Personally I would love it if the iPhone simply managed my data totals. Never allow more than 10% of my monthly allowance in a day would be a good start. That way when something goes wrong I'm safe.
BTW: I'd happily give 10% of my monthly data to any nearby roaming iPhones, non3G iPads or MacBooks for them to get a severely MB limited connection - messages, emails without attachments, maps without satellite.
And ironically same with the wired network my desktop uses. The other building was maybe 50Mbps, this one pushes 800.
But yeah when out in "public" I turn wifi off, first cause it's slow (AMTRAK used to be nice, then everyone got a smartphone grrrr) and second as I once caught some sort of attempted redirect to some place on the Caribbean when it looked like I was connecting to Amtrak wifi in NYC Penn Station. So I'm no longer generally very trusting.
I think it's a great feature, but I was annoyed to find out about it. I wondered why one day my cellular data use suddenly jumped by 14 MB. Not a huge amount, but bothersome when you're like me and only have 250 MB a month!
Why did Apple choose to make this active by default instead of allowing people to opt in? I can't understand.
new iPhone 6S+/ 64 - AT&T was turned on - thanks to previous AI article I went in and turned it & other apps off - let's hear it for off options! 20GB account with AT&T - will spend big $s on iPhone no contract but will not pay AT&T anymore then I have to.
But the worst aspect, aside from the new feature being "on" by default, is the Cellular Data Usage in Settings does NOT count the data used by wifi assist. What?!
This needs to be fixed, and quickly. The cellular data usage counter must track ALL cellular dat usage.