31772a6dd13fa30012a6de614c7ac0fc9734955e5797a33812 Money And Knowledge: 5 ways to reduce your internet bill

5 ways to reduce your internet bill

Netflix has finally stepped into the Indian market, but the two big problems that the company as well as the consumers face are poor bandwidth and high costs of data. According to a study, watching a one-hour standard definition Netflix video consumes 250MB of data, while a HD video can take up to 2GB. However, there are apps and browser extensions available for mobile devices as well as desktops that can reduce the data consumption rate and thus save your data Wi-Fi as well as mobile networks.
1.Opera Max – Android Opera claims that its Opera Max app can save up to 60% of data on all apps on the phone, including videos streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube etc. Therefore, you can watch an hour of Netflix video by consuming 150MB of data instead of the usual 250MB. Moreover, if you don’t want to use Netflix on mobile data, you can block access to it in settings. The app is available only for Android devices for now.
2. Opera Mini – iPhone & iPad iPhone and iPad users, on the other hand, can go for Opera Mini browser. This browser offers data savings of up to 60% even on video playing mode on both iPhones and iPads as well as Android devices.
3. UC Browser – iPhone, iPad & Android UC Browser offers data savings of up to 80% on both platforms, Android and iOS. Moreover, the company claims a 20% faster browsing experience courtesy its cloud acceleration technology.
4. Google Chrome – Android, iPhone and iPad Google Chrome for Android and iPhone comes preloaded with a data compression engine, though it does not offer data savings as high as those of Opera and UC Browser. The data saving feature is turned on by default in Android devices (Options > Settings > Data Saver). However, iPhone users need to turn it on by themselves (Options > Settings > Bandwidth > Data Saver).
5. Google Chrome Data Saver Beta – PCs While the Chrome browser for desktops does not have the data compression technology baked in by itself, you can instead go for an extension released by Google last year. As the name Data Saver Beta suggests, the extension is still in beta testing. The data compressions rate varies, with some users reporting 10% savings while others claimed data savings as high as 70%.
6. The catch Of course, using these mobile apps means that you will have to open the Netflix website on the mobile browsers, not the official Netflix app. This way the data is routed through the third-party company’s servers, which may be a problem for those who are concerned about the security of their data. However, all companies claim that the data routed to their servers is completely secure and they do not store users’ details.
7. Other video streaming options Netflix is not the only company offering video streaming service in India, as a number of video streaming companies have emerged over the years. These include nexGTv, Box TV (owned by Times Internet Limited, the digital arm of The Times of India), ZengaTV, YuppTV etc.
Such companies not only offer syndicated content but also live TV streaming and have technologies that save data costs by varying the bitrate according to the network. For example, the nexGTv app automatically changes the video quality when the user loses 3G connection and is switched to 2G instead. This results in a smooth user experience without a huge loss in video as well as audio quality.
-- Ravi Sharma, TOI Tech (source:techgig)

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