We have historically been on a family bucket data plan of 3gb. Which has been more than enough. I’m around the house all day, which means that I am on WiFi. Since getting on this plan in April, I think we’ve exceeded 2gb only once (to 2.2gb) before last month.

Then Clancy discovered tethering. Which, due to her present work situation*, she has had to make extensive use of.

Last month, she went right up to the 3gb limit. I was going to have to watch it like a hawk this month. Or not, because it became very apparent very quickly that she was not going to stay underneath the cap. Or was she? I was given a glimmer of hope because we got a free courtesy GB. Maybe. The problem was that the meter kept switching between 3gb and 4gb, and I had visions of getting charged an overage every time it bounced from 4 to 3. So before she got to three (just) before, I went ahead and upgraded to the 10gb plan, which was all of $20/mo more. I told Clancy, whom I had been keeping posted on the situation, that we shouldn’t have to worry about data usage anymore.

I was wrong. Early last week she was approaching the 10/11 limit, and I was back to worrying about the inconsistency of our allotment. I thought that 11 might be okay, but 10 clearly wouldn’t. I found myself, yet again, wondering what use a courtesy GB was if I couldn’t actually rely on it.

Once again, though, this was a non-issue as she rocketed past both 10 and 11. I upgraded to 15/16. The cycle ends tomorrow, so it’s unlikely that we will hit that limit. We’re likely to stay at 15 for next month, when her job duties will return to normal. Then we’ll probably return to 10.

Her mother is looking at getting a smartphone for Christmas. I’ve offered to allow them to piggy-back onto our account. Data usage had, after all, never been an issue. Except it temporarily is, and now I’ve got to say that they’re welcome to join our plan so long as it’s a Christmas thing and doesn’t start until January(ish).

* – Due to her current job situation, she is having to deal with Arapaho-levels of paper work. Since it’s on EMR, she needs Internet access. At the nursing home where she is temporarily stationed, the WiFi is lousy. Since coffee isn’t as big a deal out here as it is out west, there are few “third places” for her to go. It tends to be more complicated for her to work here than elsewhere. So she’s been doing her work while tethered in to her phone.