I have 2 moultrie cell cams. They cost me $21 a month .. . . . . . . I have the pics set to upload to my app once a day to save in battery usage. And the batteries last right around a year.
Cecil, you summarized much of my reasons & how I use my cell cams.
I get them all out in October, pull about 3/4 of them in May, redeploy all in October.
For those running year round, for much of the year, they only need to upload pics once or twice daily, which greatly extends battery life over the "instant" gratification. In fact, if you want to extend your battery life even more, plus save on those cell plan service plans, you cans "swap" out cell cams every few days with some plans.
Let's say you have 6 cams on a particular plan. (Of course, depends on brand, etc., but . . . . )
You "could" swap out cams every couple days, more or less running 12 cell cams on a 6 cam plan. Of course, if you really "need" your pics uploaded more often than every 48 hrs or so, this might not work for you. But for many cams, every 2 or 3 days uploading can be totally fine.
Exact purposes depend on the particular cam, its location, and time of year.
I'm only going to the cams roughly twice a year to refresh batteries a and salt.
For those cell cams left out ongoing, year-round . . . . . .
I typically have to visit them more than twice annually,
mainly monthly in April, May, & June due fast growing limbs, weeds, leaves, etc.
Other than that, typically just once in October, once after deer season.
If there is an unexpected problem, the cell cam will let you know, on top of current battery level, which is one of the best aspects of running cell cams over traditional trail cams. Can't tell you how many times over the years, I've actually just overlooked turning on a trail cam, only to come back weeks later and realize.
Sometime after mid-summer, the plant growth can slow down to where only 1 more visit is needed for remainder of year, when new batteries and sd cards can be installed, then "good to go" (on batteries & cards) until next year.