Using and managing your data
Checking usage, hotspots, sharing, and making a plan last.
8
People who can share one balance
60 s
How often the balance reconciles
2 GB
Full speed a day on the day pass
$5.89
Price of a one day pass
Articles in this category
- How do I check how much data I have left?
- Can I use a hotspot or share my connection?
- Can I share my data with my family?
What this category covers
The live plan. Where the usage number comes from and how fresh it is, whether you can turn the phone into a hotspot, and how one wallet balance covers a family without anybody buying a second plan.
- Reading the balance, and the timestamp that tells you how stale it is
- Tethering and hotspot use, including the countries where a host network blocks it
- Pooling one balance across up to eight people and any number of your own devices
- The difference between a metered plan and the unlimited day pass, which runs at full speed to 2 GB a day and then 1 Mbps
What it does not cover
Speed complaints and dead connections are faults, not usage questions, and they are answered faster in Troubleshooting. Money questions belong in Billing and refunds.
- Data that is slow, or a network that dropped, is in Troubleshooting
- Whether your leftover data expires is in Getting started
- How the balance itself works, and how Miles accrue, is in Account, wallet and Miles
- Refunds on a plan you barely used are in Billing and refunds
The three things that go wrong while a plan is live
| What goes wrong | Why it happens | The fix, in one line |
|---|---|---|
| The app and the phone disagree about usage | The phone counts from a reset date you chose and counts wifi traffic too. We count what the network billed | Trust the app, and reset the phone's counter at the start of each trip if you want the two to track. |
| A hotspot works at home and not abroad | A small number of host networks block tethering at their end, not ours | Check the country page before you buy. Where a host blocks it we say so there, not in the terms afterwards. |
| Data disappears faster than expected | Automatic photo backup and app updates over mobile data will empty a plan in a morning | Turn off backup and app updates over cellular before you fly. |
Ordered by how often our support queue sees them. The first is not a fault at all, and it is still the single most common usage ticket we get.
Which article answers which question
| What you are asking | Read this |
|---|---|
| How much have I got left, and is that number current | How do I check how much data I have left |
| Can I put my laptop on this | Can I use a hotspot or share my connection |
| Can my family use my balance | Can I share my data with my family |
| Why is it this slow | My data is slow, in Troubleshooting |
What to have ready before you contact support about usage
Almost every usage question is really a question about one number disagreeing with another. To settle it in one reply, send the two numbers and the times they were read.
- What the Orbislo app says, and the timestamp under it
- What the phone's own cellular data counter says, and when it was last reset
- Whether a hotspot was on, and how many devices were attached to it
- The country and the network name your phone shows
The numbers behind this category
The balance comes from the network and reconciles every 60 seconds, and the app prints the timestamp so you know how fresh it is. The phone's own counter never matches, because it counts from a reset you chose and includes traffic on wifi. One balance covers eight people. Wallet gigabytes run from $4.89 for 1 GB down to $1.36 a gigabyte at 50 GB.
Where the next category starts
The moment the number stops moving or the speed drops, you are in Troubleshooting. That category holds the three checks that fix most connection faults in under a minute, and the honest answer about which of them is the local cell rather than your plan.