On IPhone 5 is it better to have 500mb internet on 4G or unlimited 3G to skype, browse and stream movies?

[Jourdan]

I want to be able to facetime, skype, use twitter and make use of my phone and so if I use it on 3G T-mobile how bad would it affect me compared to 4G (500mb) ?

[csa]

4G will give you very fast data that will allow you to do things like stream video to your device. A 60minute TV programme streamed to your device over 4G will use around 225MB of data. That is very nearly half the 500MB monthly data allowance.

Facetime & Skype video calling will use around 180MB every 60 minutes and will work on either 3G or 4G. Twitter does not require a fast data connection so will work on either 4G or 3G.

The other thing to consider is that EE's 4G network in the UK only has limited coverage at the moment. If you live/work/travel in one of the cities covered then great but if not then you might not be able to get a 4G signal anyway.

4G is great but only worth the additional cost if you are going to actually use 4G's speed. But a 500MB monthly allowance for 4G will only allow you to watch just over 2 hours of streamed video per month which in my view is unrealistically low.

4G only makes sense if you use services such as video data streaming, have a 4G signal where you live/work/travel and can pay for one of the more expensive bundles with a much higher monthly data allowance eg the £56 per month with 8GB.

Another thing to bear in mind is that once you start using 4G your usage profile will probably change and you start to use more data intensive services like video. So even though you dont plan to use more than 500MB ,,, you probably will use more than 500MB !

Whatever way I look at it 500MB seems an unrealistically low data limit for 4G.