ATT WiFi Hotspot Usage

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DB Cooper

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I tried the free trial with the ATT WiFI hotspot. ATT sent me an email saying I've used almost 3GB of data. This is interesting because we almost never use the hotspot. I'm a cyber guy, I know how and when its used and how much 3GB is. I don't believe we are anywhere near that.

When I go to their account page, there's no ability to contact ATT support. If I can't get a useful answer, I'll just let the account expire because I'm not going to chase them looking for a support number for this particular vertical.
 

Wanted33

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I'm old DB, and don't understand all these new fangled electronics these days. I did use my neighbors 12 year old when I needed help, but his parents moved and took him with them. Kinda rude I think. :)

I said all that to say this. I'm gonna hang around your thread for some usefull info. as my Ram was just shipped. I may learn enough to even try out that "Hotspot" thingy. That does seem to be quite high useage numbers if you use it sparingly. If you get an answer from ATT, please report back. Thanks

Jim
 

Joe Merchak

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I worked for one of the carriers for 18 years. I can tell you as long as you have it enabled you will use data even if you don't use it. The issue is all devices get scanned by the world on a daily basis. Thess scans will cause your device to respond and use little bits of data. I am not sure about the Ram, but some car companies leave the hotspot on even if the car is off. I know it sucks and that's why most plans are unlimited so the little that is used does not affect you.
 
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DB Cooper

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I worked for one of the carriers for 18 years. I can tell you as long as you have it enabled you will use data even if you don't use it. The issue is all devices get scanned by the world on a daily basis. Thess scans will cause your device to respond and use little bits of data. I am not sure about the Ram, but some car companies leave the hotspot on even if the car is off. I know it sucks and that's why most plans are unlimited so the little that is used does not affect you.
Hi Joe:
I'm very familiar with the space as well and generally, agree with your point. However, RAM and ATT did set this up at least so the wifi requires authentication. So, the driving around, the only thing the wifi can see are other networks. Devices that can see the RAM wifi have zero ability to exchange anything more then a couple of kbs. Until two weeks ago, I didn't even allow the truck to use OTA.
 

Joe Merchak

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Hi Joe:
I'm very familiar with the space as well and generally, agree with your point. However, RAM and ATT did set this up at least so the wifi requires authentication. So, the driving around, the only thing the wifi can see are other networks. Devices that can see the RAM wifi have zero ability to exchange anything more then a couple of kbs. Until two weeks ago, I didn't even allow the truck to use OTA.
Our trucks have 2 radios, the wifi and the cell. Yes the wifi is secure, its on the cell side which you have no access too. Your cell has a public IP and it can be scanned or used for other functions, this would have to be told by Ram what else the cell radio is used for. When someone or something scans the public IP block that your cell radio is assigned to, it wakes up the cell radio and responds to the data it's getting. Depending on how ATT deals with this type of traffic they can count it as your usage or leave it off as overhead. All cellular devices have to deal with this unwanted traffic. Just because you turned off the wifi in your truck, does not mean the cell radio is not active and talking on the ATT network. My truck is 6 days old, I never turned the hotspot on and when I logged into the ATT account it says I used 47MB. So right there it's telling me that there is data going to the cell radio and not being used as mobile hotspot. If you think these is something going on, I suggest you reach out to ATT and get a data usage report the details all the application data to and from that cell radio.

It's a shame Ram does not allow you to turn off the cell radio, but they are probably using for other things.
 
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DB Cooper

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Yes, completely agree. ATT doesn't offer any details at all regarding the usage, they just provide an aggregate number. They also don't offer a support mechanism on the portal. Pretty lame for sure.
 
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