Data Usage

The Data Usage page of KVH Manager displays the following information related to the vessel's VSAT data usage, for both High-speed and Unlimited Use channels:

Current data plan to which the vessel is subscribed
Total amount of data used by the vessel during the current billing cycle, as of the latest report (see UTC timestamp)
Graphical representations of the amount of high-speed data the vessel has used, as of the latest report (see UTC timestamp)
Maximum upload and download speeds available under the subscribed plan

Note: Data Plan usage information may update as often as every 5 minutes, although reporting delays may occur from time to time.

To view VSAT usage data in finer detail, go to the Application Reporting, Daily Billed Usage, and Usage Timeline pages.

Cellular Data Usage

If you are subscribed to the KVH Global cellular service, you can find your KVH Global cellular data usage on the Cell tab of the Data Usage page. The following information is available:

Graphical representation of the total amount of your $99 cellular usage allotment that has been consumed during the current month, plus any overage
Cellular data used within each tiered destination zone, displayed in both cost (subset of total allowance) and megabytes (MBs) or gigabytes (GBs)
Aggregate cost and MBs/GBs of the data usage from all destination zone tiers

Note: KVH Manager does not report third-party cellular data usage (i.e., data carried by your own cellular service via a SIM installed in the BDU).

Managing Cellular Data Usage

The Data Usage page offers several ways to manage your KVH Global cellular data usage.

First, you can turn off the higher-cost Tier 3 and/or Tier 4 destination zones. Turning off both of these zones restricts cellular data usage to Tiers 1 and 2 (includes most U.S. and European destinations). Turning off just the Tier 4 destination zone prevents any variable "pay by country" rate charges.

Second, you can set a maximum cap on total cellular data usage. When the data cap is reached, cellular use will be disabled until the start of the next monthly billing cycle. The data cap is based solely on MBs used, and not on the associated dollar amount. To avoid overage charges, be sure to consider the per-gigabyte cost of data for the tiered destination zone you expect to operate within.

IMPORTANT! When selecting a data cap level, be sure to account for these two ways in which actual data usage will likely exceed the selected cap:
1. Due to the nature of roaming cell services, usage reports may take as long as 48 hours to route to our cellular service provider. This latency may result in additional cellular usage beyond the cap because the service provider hasn't yet received the latest usage report that would have promptly shut down the service.
2. Our cellular service provider calculates a megabyte (MB) as 1024 bytes, while KVH's airtime plans use 1000 bytes. (All usage totals shown in KVH Manager are based on 1 MB = 1000 bytes.) Since our cellular service provider executes all data caps, each data cap will actually allow 2.4% more cellular data through the system than what was selected. For example, if you select a 20 GB data cap, the system will actually permit 20.48 GB (20,480,000 bytes).

FInally, you can set alerts to notify you of certain usage levels. See Usage Alerts.

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