.....that talk time on the phone has no impact on data usage. Most phone applications are designed to transfer data and obviously that is what is happening. You can go into your phone settings and change the intervals that the applications automatically connect. No conspiracy here since you can control this type of access.
I have a Galaxy S4 on MetroPCS. Unlimited talk, text, and data (first 1 GB).
I understand the part about the limit. I hit a specified limit and my unlimited plan slows to a crawl. Figured there would not be a problem because I will not stream videos, music or any such thing. I will rarely if ever check email. Rarely if ever use internet. I have never downloaded an app. So should be no problem staying under that cutoff point, right? How could I ever use a GB of data when all I do is talk in total about a half hour a month and exchange a dozen or so texts.
Checked my data usage a week after buying phone and was surprised how much had been used. What really surprised me though was when I scanned my data usage by app.
Dropbox I had never touched and did not have an account for was using data. Ditto Google play music. I had not listened to even 1 song. Google Drive used data even though I do not have an account and never opened the app. Youtube had used data even though I had never watched a single youtube video. Same thing for a dozen other apps that were preloaded and NEVER touched/used. I noted each one had a listing for foreground and background data used. Settings allowed for setting to limit background usage. I have now done that on all of them.
So here are the questions. Why do any of these apps need to use data when I am not using the app? Why would they need to use data in background when the app is not even open? What data about me is being sent? What data are they sending to my phone which I am clearly not aware of? What possible value am I getting out of stuff that is happening when I am not even holding or looking at my phone?
This all seems like a bit of a scam. Do the owners of these apps get some kind of kickback from MetroPCS for driving my data usage up eventually forcing me to a more expensive data plan?
I feel like the guy at the poker table deciding what to bet and noticing the guy next to me is sneaking my chips.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic