Prepaid data is one of the biggest costs of learning online. If your bundle runs out halfway through a course, you lose time and money. Learning to control data use also helps at work: field staff and sales officers often use their own bundles, and the ones who manage data well stay connected when it matters.
Use WiFi whenever you can
WiFi does not use your bundle. Places that may have WiFi include some schools, libraries, community centres, churches, mosques, offices and business centres. Always ask permission, and remember that you should not log in to your bank or MoMo account on a public network you do not trust.
Stop apps eating data in the background
- Data saver. In Settings, search for Data saver and turn it on. It stops many apps from using data when you are not looking at them.
- App updates. On an Android phone, open the Play Store and go to its settings. Find the option for updating apps automatically and choose WiFi only.
- WhatsApp downloads. In WhatsApp's Settings, look for Storage and data. There you can choose when photos, audio, videos and documents download by themselves: only on WiFi, or never. You can still tap any file to download it when you need it.
- Computers on a hotspot. A laptop connected to your phone's hotspot can finish a bundle fast, because computers download large updates. On Windows, open the settings for that WiFi network and turn on , which holds back many updates and background downloads. On a Mac, look in the WiFi settings for a similar low data option.