[berry.man]

I got a limited data plan. Tryibg to conserve usage. How much data is it worth for always on MSN messenger per day do you reckon?

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[taro20]

its normally per letter useage... hey useage ur looking no more then 1-2mb a day if ur on all day... most networks will allow you to check ur allownece for wat u ave left so use it for a day then check ur allownece... most cases ur looking at less then 2mb for 24hours thou

[Radius]

This question has no answer, it's too open ended. So assuming you have a 500MB plan you are fine, no issues.

For the record, how limited is your plan anyhow?

And it's not per letter, that's not an accurate description of how the data is transported.

[shavies]

I was wondering about that as well, as I'm considering getting MSN Messenger on my Blackberry.

I'm on an 'unlimited' data plan with a fair use policy of 500mb though.

[Radius]

I use IM+ and have 6 different IM protocols active at all times. I have a 500MB data plan and with the browsing i do (which isn't heavy) I use between 50MB and 100MB a month.

So you can use that as a guideline perhaps.

[shavies]

Thanks, the only thing I use is Facebook, and I only look at forums such as this and BBC mobile, so I should be okay with MSN on it.

[berry.man]

Sure it will depend on your usager but I was wondering as a base value what the data usage per day is like so I can do some accounting on what kinda lifestyle I can get with streaming or whether I need to upgrade my data plan (500mb).

At the rate I am using my data plan is not enough it seems. I stream radio a lot.

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[Radius]

The original question is a bit misleading then. If you are streaming radio then you use a lot more. You have to take your apps as a whole and just ballpark a figure.

MSN does not use much memory though, overall I would not even consider it in most usage calculations if it was me. MSN alone will not suddenly cause you to need an upgraded data plan unless you manage to stream 499.98MB of music every month.

[Radius]

Actually if you want to drill into it, then here is a bit more specific view of the volume of traffic you are experiencing.

For MSN, take any string you send or receive. By string, I mean the actual word or words. So you send "Hi, how are you today?", that is a single message consisting of 22 characters.

Now wrap that up into an IP packet (internet protocol) and that adds about 42 bytes per packet. About that anyhow, I could be off by a few bytes.

As for the actual MSN protocol, I am not sure what else is put in the packet so maybe add 10% to your final result as a total ballpark figure and you get an idea of how much each message "costs" so to speak.

[berry.man]

Its not misleading as I was looking for ballpark numbers so I can do some data usage accounting. I know the radio streams take the bulk of it. But the bill shows data usage only.

I was wondering what it takes to keep Msn on only. But it certainly takes a obvious toll on battery life. I'm looking at 1 working dat bat life from always on MSN. Whereas I can do 2 days before charge with moderate BB use.

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[Radius]

If battery life is an issue then I suggest getting a 3rd party app for MSN that supports push notifications. I use IM+ and when I want to keep it on but not running I enter push mode.

The IM+ server located at the company who makes the software keeps you online and if someone sends a message it's pushed to your email. You can even respond and hold a conversation that way over email without even needing to open up IM+, it's a nice solution.