Excessive data usage

[JR67]

I have a holiday home and purchased a portable WiFi device. Usage was normal for 6-9 months. Netflix using around 1GB per hour, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a little more and other apps such as iPlayer etc, using similar or less. 
Suddenly my data usage was going through the roof. I’m talking 6 Gb per hour  regardless of what we were watching. I checked the settings on everything to ensure I wasn’t inadvertently updating or downloading stuff. Connection is secure, so not possible anyone else can be using my data. In fact no one else lives near enough to be connecting. 
This continued to the point we couldn’t use it. 
Back to our other home now for a few months, so brought the WiFi device with me. Connected it up in order to establish usage here as opposed to the holiday home, and data usage back to normal. 3 hours of Netflix last night and usage was 1.9Gb. 
So it’s a problem unique to the location. No idea why this should be? The TV set itself? Can that effect anything? Yet it’s been the same tv we’ve always used at the holiday home and this issue only recently started? 
Already spoke to EE tech team but they were unable to advise other than the usual tips to check certain things which I’ve already done. No phones or iPads switched on yet data disappearing at a ridiculous rate. 
Curious to know if anyone more tech savvy than me has any ideas? 

[James_B]

Hi @JR67,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

Most streaming services with adjust streaming quality based on your connection speed. Do you see faster data speeds in your holiday home? Does your TV there support higher resolutions than your TV at home?

Thanks

James

[JR67]

Hi James

yes the tv in the holiday home is most definitely a better one than the one in my other home. 
The odd thing is that it wasn’t eating up the data ( in holiday home) when initially connected. I’d gone several months with usage of 650mb per hour to maybe 1Gb per hour. Then using the exact same channels, Netflix etc, it rocketed. 
I was thinking maybe my wife or I had inadvertently changed a setting but having gone through everything and selected “ good” quality as opposed to the “ best” etc, it’s still the same . 
Any idea what the expected usage would be on perhaps BBC iPlayer or Netflix for an hour on standard definition streaming? 
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Very kind of you. Appreciated.

[James_B]

Hi @JR67,

Please take a look at this Netflix help article for more information on how much data it uses.

BBC iPlayer has recently introduced some UHD and HDR content that will use significantly more data than SD or HD content.

Hope this helps.

James

[JR67]

Thanks James

I’ll look that article over. 
Cheers 

J

[James_B]

No problem @JR67

James