Securing your data plan during the holidays will get you ready for it

Usually in the summer we find the limits of our mobile plan: data allocation is exhausting, internet connection is greatly reduced and holidays are becoming more complicated. No wonder the trip makes you lose home wifi, and if you watch a lot of videos, driving usage up to 5, 10, or 20 gigabytes (GB) per week, no shortage of free time.

Here are some tips for travelers who do not leave France to control bleeding. For overseas travel, see our box at the bottom of the article.

A month before the holiday

This is the perfect time to make a diagnosis, as the data counter does not start on the day of departure, but rather when the package is reset. If it happens on July 10th, if it leaves on July 1st^Er August, for example, you should start saving Three weeks before your vacation starts you should leave the data with as little used counter as possible.

So the first objective will be to find out when the package will be restored. Second: Learn about the package from your operator. According to Digital Barometer (Crédoc) from the Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions, 20% of French people have a maximum of 10GB of monthly data. On the other hand, the third advantage is at least 50GB. Take advantage of the opportunity to check what happens if your data is allocated: some operators charge too much, others block the connection, and many severely restrict its speed.

Third Objective: Evaluate your consumption in advance. You can identify the most data consuming applications in the menu of your smartphone (on iOS, Under Android) But this will only give you an approximate idea: As your consumption habits are different during this period, their turbulence may change during the holidays. Therefore, it is best to calculate the rating by combining the following small table and how you plan to use your smartphone:

If you decide your package is low, replace it. If older, you have a better chance of increasing your data allocation for free by asking your operator or switching to competition.

A few weeks before departure

It’s time to dump her and move on. To get started, reset your smartphone’s data meter, which will allow you to monitor your consumption day by day (on iOS, Under Android)

When connected to a mobile network, watch as many videos as possible. If you have enabled Auto Backup of your photos and videos in the cloud via the mobile network, disable it (below Google Photos) Tito for Automatic Download of Media: If you receive a lot of videos through WhatsApp, for example, Prevents their automatic download ; They will only appear if you click on their thumbnail. On the iPhone, you can enable it Low data mode Reduce consumption of all applications worldwide.

Connect your smartphone to WiFi while you work at home. When the holidays come, use the opportunity to download all the heavy documents you need for your holidays: travel documents, movies, series, podcasts, music, magazines, manga, etc. It may also be helpful to download a geographical map of your resort (Below Google Maps, Under Maps.me).

During the holidays

Moderate your video consumption, that is, slow down on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Nothing forbids sharing videos with your loved ones, but if your collection is not very generous, publish only two or three short shots a day. And, above all, be sure to check your data consumption: if the app is overused, you need to know it quickly to moderate its usage.

If you find yourself accessing the data wall too quickly, control the bitrate of the videos you watch (there are procedures for this. Under Netflix, Under YouTube Where Under Facebook, For example). If you are traveling with a loved one, whose plan is not at risk, connect their phone to take advantage of the internet connection sharing (on iOS, Under Android)

As a precaution, avoid connecting to Wi-Fi in hotels, cities and cafes: many computer security experts advise against it. Although the risks of hacking and data theft are lower than in the past, they have been proven. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). However, if you are forced to use public WiFi, the National Commission for Computers and Freedom (CNIL) Check advice with the company owner The exact name of the network to avoid being mistakenly connected to a network set up by pirates. CNIL encourages you to engage only in secure sites during the browsing session and not to disclose sensitive information such as credit card numbers.