Apple’s latest mobile operating system iOS 9 has brought with it all manner of shiny new features. Some are excellent, but one in particular is a little suspect, promising a better mobile internet experience, if you don’t mind the associated costs, that is. And most of us, I fear, would rather have less-than-perfect connectivity than an inflated data bill.
If you go to “Settings”, then “Mobile Data”, and scroll right to the bottom, you’ll find something called “Wi-Fi Assist” on an iPad or iPhone that’s been updated to iOS 9. This feature will be turned on by default after the update. What it does is automatically switch you over to a mobile data connection once the device detects that a Wi-Fi connection is poor or weakening.
The problem is, almost all of us are on limited data plans. Whether it’s buying a GB or two of data each month on prepaid, a monthly allowance on a contract — which, once depleted, can result in eye-watering out-of-bundle data rates — or a combination of the two with top-up accounts, we simply can’t afford to use mobile data the same way we use Wi-Fi.
Hell, most of us have changed our behaviour accordingly, limiting things like updates to times when we’re in Wi-Fi range. So turn off “Wi-Fi Assist” and remind your device it’s not in South Korea, and neither are you.