Combine Your Mobile and Fixed Broadband Connections to Download More Gigs of Data

If you download tons of data and other files off the Internet (like downloading games from Steam and streaming video and the like),  reaching that cap and connection speed throttles are facts of life in this digital age.

I’m using a Smartbro/PLDT Home Bro fixed broadband connection at our home.  It runs a paltry 1.6 Mbps on its best days but I can only download 15GB worth of data every month. I download games from Steam, Origin and Xbox Live so that 15 GB limit isn’t much.   To augment my data cap limit, I use my Sun 999 “Unlimited” Mobile Internet line to get  another 15GB worth of downloads.

That’s a total of 30GB per month.  Still not much, but it’s something.  But once you hit that cap, they throttle your Internet connection speed which ruins everything that you do with the Internet.  In order to utilize your max download cap every month and not get your connection speed throttled, all you need to do is schedule your downloads.

If time is not an issue for you,  queue all of your downloads on the day before  your cap resets.  PLDT Home Bro/Smart Bro resets the cap on the first day of the month.

Your mobile phone data plan has a set date in resetting download  cap so queue  your games and other “data” needs, close to the reset day.

In my experience, I download stuff  in the afternoon of the last day of the month until 12 Midnight of the first day of the new month.

For any other day, I use my Sun “Unlimited” Data Plan to download the rest of my games. I normally download stuff in the evening and until the next day. The download speeds aren’t that great on my Sun mobile connection but at least it’ll knock off a few gigabytes by morning and I do this until I hit my cap.

Oh and my Sun Internet connection is utterly spotty and a tad stable at its best so I don’t mind if they throttle my speed.  Using it to browse and surf is like watching fungus grow or paint dry in a cold day.

So use the available broadband and mobile connection you have. Just make sure that  you know the day your data cap and the day  it resets.  And it helps to be patient as well.