Verizon HOT SPOT ROUTER Made by Novatel

That's a huge difference.

Your Laptop the only thing connected?

 

it weird alright i use my laptop about the same every month and some time i use 6GB then other months its almost max out with 10GB....

 

try downloading a 1.5 gig map to your phone at the beginning of the billing cycle. to find your 4 gigs used up. so you up to 6. a year later you download again. but to your laptop. and your 6 is used up. so i up to 8.

sprint has some good deals going on. so i reactivated an older model phone. given that they finally got plans to be bigger then verizon. and so far. i'm very impressed with their coverage. much better then 3 years ago.

i dropped my internet and mobile hotspot with verizon. so now i have UMLIMITED INTERNET with sprint. and unlimited minutes and texts with both carriers. i'm saving $30 over having limited internet with just verizon alone.

 

I doubt Verizon's numbers that are actually used for usage billing are going to come anywhere near any of the other 2 counters you're using. Also, the router is having to encrypt data before sending out and this adds data overhead that your byte counter on your PC does not realize.

 

the mobile app i use on my phone tells me how much data i use. the built in software app in the phone also says. along with looking at your carrier account online. they'll all have different numbers.

but when i download my map at 1.5 gigs. according to the app, AND the file size showing on the pc. and i get a text and email alert that 90% of my 6 gigs is used up. something wrong with that picture.

 

A common culprit are system and app updates. Laptops don't know the difference between a wifi connection to a mobile hotspot or a home/paid connection with no limits. Default behavior is to update automatically. You have to disable that in the settings. Change to "prompt for updates" and only do it when not using mobile internet. If you set your cell phone to update only on wifi, don't connect it to your hotspot. Of course, this would only matter to someone not on an unlimited mobile data plan.

One thing I had intended to do, but never did, was measure the data usage of ITS. When you have it on a search it periodically refreshes the data set. On a poor connection, I've noticed it really bogs down. Suggesting a large amount of data swapping on each refresh. Now that I only use it once or twice a month, I haven't bothered with it.

 

Lawsuit Claims AT&T Overcharges On Data Plans

[FONT=Georgia, Century, Times, serif]I'm not a Verizon stock holder and I'm not an ATT stock holder. Point is they all have their faults. They both are going to have their billing quirks and there is no "counter" you can use that is ever going to match what they bill, one way or the other. But you're pretty much married to ATT now. Good luck.[/FONT]