Making the most of your Off Peak Data
Update 15/03/2022: Wireless Nation now offers Endless Data standard as part of its Lifestyle Broadband, Coastguard, and NZMCA packages. The following article may still be useful though, as optimizing the amount of data you’re using at any one time will mean more bandwidth left over for the most important things. (for example, not having lots of things downloading in the background means smoother video calls).
Mornings are wonderful. Coffee, birds chirping, breakfast – and heaps of data. What’s not to like? Our Off Peak Data helps you stay connected, and not just through the early hours. With a few simple tricks, you can optimise your Off Peak Data to keep yourself connected throughout your day, with plenty of Anytime Data to spare. Here are a few ways to make the most of your Off Peak Data:
- Download videos from Streaming Services
- Download music and podcasts
- Schedule system and software updates
- Use this time to sync work or photos to the cloud
Mornings that keep you going all day
Our Off Peak Data is data for midnight till 5pm. It’s your internet connection for the morning, and if you really make the most of it, it can keep you connected for the rest of your day.
That’s enough to make everyone a morning person, even if you’re the ‘don’t-talk-to-me-until-midday’ type!
The logic behind offering Off Peak Data is pretty simple: it means usage is spread across the day, so we can keep offering fast internet connections during peak hours. At Wireless Nation, we offer Off Peak Data for our customers on RBI Wireless, NZMCA Data and Lifestyle Broadband plans.
It’s one thing to simply use your Off Peak data, but to optimise it, there are a few clever hacks. We want your data plans to keep you fully covered, so we thought we’d put together some tips on how to get the most from your Off Peak Data.
1. Download Videos
Video streaming is what chews through most people’s data. However, if you download your content onto your device in the morning using Off Peak Data, you can watch anytime without chewing through your Anytime Data. P.s. check out our help article on how much data is used when streaming.
Below are a few pointers to save you a whole lot of hassle:
What Streaming Services allow downloading?
There are more video streaming sites these days than you can shake a bag of popcorn at. Here’s a list of some of the most popular ones that allow you to download videos to watch later:
- Neon (Lightbox)
You can download your movie rentals, but it needs to be to the device you’re going to watch them on.
You’ll need to upgrade to a premium account to download videos on Youtube.
You can download movies and TV shows, but again, they can only be watched on the device you download them onto.
Again, download to your heart’s content, but only onto the device you’ll be watching on.
Watch your downloads on a bigger screen: get crafty with screen mirroring
Most devices can cast video onto a bigger screen, but it’s important to note that it will re-stream it (using data) even if you’ve already done your download.
What you can do to avoid this trap is to use screen mirroring – here are some how-to guides for Android and Apple.
Of course, it’s much easier to simply download the content you want to watch later on the device you want to watch it on.
2. Download music, podcasts and audiobooks
Audio isn’t quite as hefty as video, but it can certainly take a chunk out of your data! Get yourself all set up with music, podcasts, and audiobooks, so you’ve got a full pantry of content when you need it. Whether it’s for your commute, your work day or your soundtrack to cook dinner to, your ears will never go hungry.
With Spotify Premium, download as many songs, playlists, or podcasts as you like. Audible has audiobooks available for purchase and download, and you can access and download podcasts on the Apple Podcast app, Google Podcasts, Pocketcasts, Spotify, and many other popular podcast apps.
3. Schedule Updates
This is where it gets really clever. System updates, whether they’re for your computer, smartphone, or tablet, can hog a whole lot of data. Fortunately, you can schedule your software updates to only run during Off Peak Data times. Click on the links for more detailed instructions:
- For Windows: You can find this in advanced options (under update settings).
- For MacOS: You can find the scheduling option under energy settings in System Preferences.
- Android: You can schedule both app updates and system updates for off-peak hours.
- iOS: iPhones are set up to automatically update only when the phone is connected to Wifi or cable internet connection.
4. Work offline and use your Off Peak Data to sync to the cloud
Welcome to the beauty of Offline Mode. You can pause syncing in Google Drive and Dropbox during your Anytime Data hours, and then use your Off Peak Data to sync this work to the cloud. Simply choose ‘work offline’, and when morning comes, switch it back to normal.
Give yourself plenty of Anytime Data to spare
There are some things that simply can’t be loaded ahead of time – social media and gaming, for example. After all, these are the kinds of connections you want in real-time. This is where your Anytime Data comes in, which you’ll have plenty of after making the most of your Off Peak Data.
Your Off Peak Data options
At Wireless Nation, we offer Off Peak Data between Midnight and 5pm for RBI Wireless, NZMCA Data and Lifestyle Broadband plans.
At Wireless Nation, we have a simple aim: to keep you connected.
Ready to get wiser with your mornings and get the most from your day? Reach out to our friendly team about your Off Peak Data options today.