Data Plans overage in 17 days.
I just got the AT&T 4g camera at the beginning of September, purchased the 1GB/3 months package thinking that would be adequate. Unfortunately I was billed on the 23rd of the Sept. another 35 dollars because I went over. I had about 350 pictures by then sent as thumbnails, maybe 50k in size a piece. requested maybe 3 full size pictures. I did one firmware upgrade during that time. Is this normal? I don't see how any of this would amount to anywhere near that 1GB limit. Is there a way to actually figure the true amount used? I don't know if I should call them to find out what went on, if this is normal then I probably can't afford this $70 a month camera, I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives out there.
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My battery has been fine. I got 2 6V 12ah batteries, and it's been holding at fully charged. How big are the firmware upgrades? I see there's another update for it back from the 29th, but I'd hate to push it over the limit as I'm at about 350 more pictures. Who knows if I'll get charged 35 more dollars.
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John...is there anything coming in the future so customers can actually view the amount of data used throughout each month? If there's a way to do that now I cant find it.
At this point it seems to be a guessing game or an educated guessing game as to data use. Some sort of measuring tool would be really nice. That way, new customers such as myself, could monitor detailed settings for say...2 weeks...view data use, then scale back or ramp up settings.
At this point I have no idea, even though I got premium, how much data is being used as my phone buzzes throughout the night. I would really like to avoid Spartan renewing multiple plans/cams during the middle of hunting season when we are all busy chasing animals vs being worried about data being used up. A measuring tool, even if not dead on accurate would be better than nothing.
Maybe there is a way to do this now?? But if so I cant find any literature on it.
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The firmware updates are about 3 MB. That’s smaller than a video. Daytime videos are about 5.5 MB unless there is a lot of moving foliage in the background.
Definitely contact tech support. I’m running several A4G, requesting videos from some, I know I’ve gotten more than 1500 pictures in a year, and most of mine haven’t come close to using the 4G data in the plans they’re on. The high res thumbnails don’t use that much data.
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Is there anyway some of the exst users can provide some sort of guide from past usage?
For example:
1 cam/small thumbs/no vids taking a mix of day & night pics totaling 6500 pics a month.
What about exact same results from LARGE thumbs?
What would happen if you throw 50 vids mixed into that in a month?
Just looking for something to gauge it by.
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Large daytime thumbnail is about 175 KB.
Daytime videos are a little under 6 MB unless there’s a lot of moving foliage in the background, in which case they can be twice that big. Most will be under 6 MB.
You should be able to do the math with those numbers to get the maximum usage estimate. I don’t have the small thumbnail size handy but I should be able to find it this evening. I don’t use that size.
Setting changes use a little, but not enough to really matter. FW update is 3 MB or so.
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I had two buddies that both used up their data in a little over a month and they both had almost identical usage. They were having large thumbnails sent and it was 1063 large pics transmitted, about 120-125 videos and 40-50 HD requests. Add in a few firmware updates and settings changes to the list. They had the three month plan. One renewed his plan and switched to small thumbnails, requested almost no videos or HD and don't think there was any firmware updates this time and he made it two months and 11,000 pictures.
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Ok thank you for that info.
When reading the info on premium credits it says "There are no limits on the # of pics, vids, HD requests, etc...and no extra charge for large thumbs, transmitted HD photos or transmitted videos"
This may simply be a terminology thing, but isnt that the same as saying it's unlimited data? Or am I reading that wrong?
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Patrick,
The cameras use data connections for transmitting pics. As Johnny says, credits are for the portal and app.
Here are some examples.
If you have a Verizon or AT&T camera and buy your data plan from Spartan, the plan includes both data and premium service. Spartan doesn’t offer unlimited data plans, but they do have some very generous plans available.
That’s the case also for people running Bluegrass, CellCom, and Nex-Tech cameras, although they pay their carrier for bundled data/premium. The cameras are using whatever data plans the owners have with their carrier, whether it’s a certain amount of data or unlimited. The camera just uses some of that.
For US Cellular, owners pay US Cellular for data and Spartan for premium. Verizon camera owners can put their cameras on their personal cell phone plans. They pay Verizon for data and Spartan for premium. With these plans, the amount of data available also depends on the cell plan that the customer has. For example, I have the 2G Verizon plan so my camera pulls data from that.
Some of us who run AT&T cameras use AT&T DataConnect (Buy-A-Session) for our data and we pay Spartan for premium service.
I hope that helps a little
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I emailed them earlier this morning, we'll see what they say. Good to know the firmware update is only 3MB or so, that was the only thing that I wasn't sure about. I just can't see any reason it would have been over 1GB. Now the free premium credit they give you to start wouldn't have had anything to do with it. I purchased that 1GB/3 Month plan on the 6th, wasn't sure if that free credit, somehow triggered it to reset.
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Kris - did you hear back with an answer?
Last month there was a period where I was "exceeding my plan" about every 3 days! I was too busy to deal with it but after a couple weeks I stopped getting the emails. Interestingly, my usage (number/size of photos hasn't changed much since I first got the cams) so i assumed there was some glitch somewhere. -
Here was Spartans response to my inquiry I sent them regarding going over 1GB only transmitting 300-350 thumbnails, 2-3 full size pictures and one firmware update.
"There was a network change from AT&T around August and September which would've cause some network connection issue. We've update the camera firmware to accommodate these changes. Please update your camera to the latest firmware 9/30/2019. As a one time courtesy, we can issue a partial refund for the plan charges. "
It was nice to receive something, $20, but really that doesn't get to why I went over, nor with that low of usage, it shouldn't have went over anyways. Maybe the firmware will help. I followed up asking if that network change would cause that much data to be sent. Here was that response.
"It may have affected the usage. Updating the firmware has helped with most recent data connection issue. It may reduce the amount the time the camera tries to re-connect. "
I truly hope that fixes it as I can't afford $772 a year if that continues.
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I sure hope it will correct the issue and I won't see that happen again.
On a side note, I did receive a call today on my work phone from spartan camera. The lady ask how things were going, and I told her what went on, that I did email and did get a response back from tech support. The phone call did throw me off because no where did I leave my work number, then I remembered that I did try to call from work the tech support but I didn't get anyone, so instead of leaving a message, I decided it would be best to leave an email. I guess they go thru who calls and doesn't leave a message and still makes an attempt to call the person back. Kudos on that.
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