When your airtime vanishes, cuplrit’s not Econet Zimbabwe

Today, I am taking an unusual step to defend Econet Zimbabwe​ against the uninformed people throw tantrums at the country’s largest mobile network service provider, accusing it of ‘stealing’ their valuable airtime.

Not in any way am I undermining the pain one goes through when their airtime just vanishes, I once went through it myself when I had my first smart phone a few years ago, but I have learned my lessons.

When your airtime vanishes and you have an Android device, its purely your fault.

I know nothing about iOS devices because I have never been able to afford one and in that regard if your Apple phone chews up your airtime, perhaps yes, you can throw as much flak on Econet cause, they could be to blame.

But here are the facts on Android devices.

Android powered devices have default auto-update and background data service settings which allow the phone to immediately update or run background data services as soon as you load airtime.

So, as soon as you load airtime, your phone starts doing that background stuff.

What this means in simple terms is this; most, if not all the Apps on your Android device require the internet here and there- chiefly for updates and location services.

So during that time when you do not have internet, your Apps, be they games or photo editors, among many, will be waiting patiently for the time when you have airtime and subsequently, data connection access.

As soon as you load airtime, the Apps start communicating for updates and if there are any, downloads will start immediately.

Remember the data tariffs of Econet and the rest are ridiculously expensive at 10 megabytes for a dollar and what this means is if your App is 30 megabytes and it is updating itself, it will cost you three hard-to-earn dollars.

What this means is that if you ‘juice your phone’ with a dollar and you have an App more than 10 megabytes updating, it will chew the dollar and still fail to update.

The next time you have airtime, the same App starts downloading the same update afresh.

IF you go to the data usage settings of your phone, it computes the amount of data each App has used and there you can see for yourself the culprit Apps

 

Your phone computes the amount of data each App has used and there you can see for yourself the culprit Apps

Making sense?

Now the best way to avoid losing your money to sharks called Econet is this;
Go to the settings of your phone and go to data usage, then set data usage limit, a feature that will allow you to set the amount of data that can run before your phone gives you a warning or stops any data usage.

Still in the data usage settings, you can be able to view each App and the amount of data it has used.

Here, you can tap on the App and you will be able to restrict background data for each App.

Background data is the data an App uses silently as long as the device is connected to the internet, whether it is locked or not.

Restricting background data for each App means that an App will only access the internet when you have opened it.

Restricting background data for each App means that an App will only access the internet when you have opened it.

There is also an option in settings to have apps ask you when they need to update and you can say No!

NOTE: You can have Whatsapp access background data because if you restrict it, this means Whatsapp messages will only come in when you go to Whatsapp.

With Whatsapp, you have to go to Whatsapp then choose settings then Chat settings.

With Whatsapp, you have to go to Whatsapp then choose settings then Chat settings.

From here, you go to Media auto-download then untick all for images and videos because if you do not, as soon as you recieve a message with a picture or video (sometimes too big), Whatsapp automatically downloads it even if you do not want it!

You know how some people send some stuff that’s shitty and heavy.

The same goes for GMAIL, you can disable auto downloads for attachments.

After doing all this, make sure when you ‘juice your phone’ you first turn off your data (under settings/ mobile data) so that when you ‘juice’ you can be able to make calls, or buy the relevant data bundles (Whatsapp, Facebook bla blah) before any background Apps -not Econet- chew your airtime!

Another thing you need to do is to avoid downloading some silly Apps that constantly have adverts popping up. Those adverts use data because they are coming from some server. There are also some Apps that update too regularly, avoid them.

Another thing you need to do is to avoid downloading some silly Apps that constantly have adverts popping up

Remember, Play Store has millions of Apps and many claim to do what they can’t do – like polygraph, or heartbeat check Apps!

So, the best way to have the genuine Apps that won’t do silly things on your phone is to check for those with a blue diamond.

You see, Econet only charges for the data that you use, so as much as it is expensive and its service it sometimes very bad, they never bill you for what you did not use.

The attached images of how to do this stuff can be different from what our phone looks like as the settings, language and interface differ with each Android version and phone type.

So, since Econet’s customer service is so shitty that – despite them telling us customer calls are important to them- they take over ten minutes to allow you to speak to a ‘customer representative’, feel feel free to Whatsapp me (Whatsapp only) to +263 773 245 709 and ask about your specific device.
But remember you got to have data to Whatsapp me, but of course, I am available to help you to avoid future losses of your valuable money.