Really? Data?

[desertrose92]

So my inquiry is kind of tech-related but my boyfriend knows I wanna video chat with him before we meet but he states making videos or video chatting uses a lot of data on his phone and laptop and since he's in South Africa his data roams [?] then he won't be able to talk to me. He has a friend there who ssays he will help with getting him more data. Has anyone gone through this before? Should I believe him or do I need to discuss this with him?

[kittyo9]

Your profile info says your SO is in Ohio-- is he traveling/abroad? If so, honestly my data is pretty crap when I'm abroad, except in Canada and Mexico. I've also got a cap of 2GB, and video chatting does indeed eat up a lot of data, so I never video chat (and very rarely voice chat) if I'm on phone data. If he doesn't have access to wifi that might be why.

[desertrose92]

He is abroad at the moment. I'm trying to find things for us to do together till he's back here but most of it uses data I guess. He didn't think he'd be there this long so he never got wifi.

[snow]

Video chatting takes up a lot of data. I have 1GB per month and I very very rarely use it for skype calls

[kittyxuchiha11]

As someone who literally has 500mb of data a month, i can confirm data goes soooooo fast. To put this into perspective, I went on holiday so had to use my data since the hotel didn't have wifi. Within i'd say 2 or 3 days i'd used every last bit to the point of i was being billed £6.50 for any extra i used. yeahhhh, my phone bill was a bit of a shock that month. My point being as the others have said, data goes really fast and things like streaming and video chats will completely wipe it. And that was only in Europe, outside of Europe i cant use my data t all so when i go to say America i cant use data at all.

You've just sort of got to think of this as it won't be forever. Like yeah it sucks you cant video chat just now, but you can still talk a little bit everyday. Messenger and whatsapp use hardly any data so sticking to them, or whatever other messaging apps you use should make sure eh doesn't run out/have to okay loads of extra fees

[Sun_King]

Know this thread is a couple months back, but have you asked if he has internet at home? Maybe he could connect his phone to his local wireless to help mitigate the data issue, that is unless I'm reading it wrong and landline internet access is also metered/limited.