In recent months, I have been asked quite often by friends or users of iDevice.ro if activating 4G on your smartphone or tablet will generate a higher data consumption than using 3G on these devices.
The question comes mainly from people who have just started using it 4G internet and found that they consumed more data than normal in daily or monthly use and without a careful analysis many may believe that 4G generates higher data consumption.
In reality we are talking about a problem of perception because it is not a matter of higher data consumption just by simply using a connection 4G instead of the 3G as if we were talking about increasing the energy consumption of a battery by changing the current consumer.
The higher data consumption after switching to 4G is based on the simple fact that the user uses the terminal for more internet browsing, viewing multimedia content, etc., so it practically does more and consumes more.
4G speeds are up to 3-7 times higher than 3G, depending on the network, and in this situation a person it can do a lot more in a shorter period of time on your own mobile terminal, consuming more data at the same time.
For example, a 1-minute YouTube video clip will load up to 2-3 times faster on 4G than on 3G and you will be tempted to watch more than usual because it loads much faster, so you will consume more internet traffic as a result.
By loading the information from the Facebook application faster, you will want to see as much news as possible, possibly also video clips, so you will consume more than usual.
On the other hand, a faster connection can allow viewing the clips at a better quality, so implicitly their size is larger and the consumption increases accordingly. In the same vein, 4G video calls have better quality than 3G ones, and data consumption is higher than normal.
The same is applicable to other applications that stream video, the type of internet connection also determines the quality of the content, so a better quality will generate a higher data consumption, and the examples can go on endlessly.
Now to conclude and clarify for everyone, 4G internet can generate more data consumption than 3G internet depending on what the user does on his smartphone, the higher consumption not being implicit, but a result of the way of use.
