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T mobile free unlimited music not really free

Jshadow said:
T-mobile free music streaming doesn't use high speed data. The free music apps they whitelist use 2G data.
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... what?

No, it's still using 4G-speed data; it just doesn't count against your data allotment.

2G isn't really fast enough to stream music reliably - trust me, I've tried it on the rare month when I exceed my 5GB limit and get my music streaming (again, no Music Freedom here) throttled to 2G-like speeds. It doesn't work well at all. And it definitely wouldn't be able to download 60MB in 15 minutes. ;)

Related (from the Music Freedom FAQ:
Will my music streaming be slowed to 2G speeds after reaching a certain data limit?
No. Music Freedom is just that, the freedom to stream all of the music you want to your smartphone without affecting your 4G LTE data bucket while you are on our Data StrongTM network. If you reach your 4G LTE data limit through other means your on-network data will be slowed to 2G speeds but music streaming through included services will not be slowed down. If you stream music when you’re off our U.S. network (i.e., roaming) your domestic data roaming allotment will apply.
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Indeed, that's the point of the Music Freedom program. :)

The issue being discussed in this thread is that some of the ancillary data consumed by those applications (album art, ads, lyrics, etc) does count against your data allotment. That's not really explained well on the Music Freedom page. Additionally, it seems that the OP is seeing a lot more data being used and measured than actually should be.
 
I think it's a matter of metering. I had to convince myself that I wasn't being 'charged' for my own Music Freedom. In my case, I use a hotspot and was able to login to my admin account and look at various stats. You can see that I've been charged 2.1GB towards my 5GB but looking at the actual stats for just one of my attached devices, I've used much more than 2.1GB, 3.7GB in fact. And that doesn't include the other three devices that I've used on my hotspot. Not sure why the difference between 3.7GB and 4.2GB in the second screenshot.
Tmobile screen shot 1.jpg Tmobile screen shot 2.jpg
 
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MelonSplitter said:
#932#
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Wouldn't that only show data as measured by the device and not the network? Even on music freedom, the phone itself will show high data usage because you really are using that much data. Did you double check with your account online that you were being pegged for all of that?
 
enesha said:
Wouldn't that only show data as measured by the device and not the network? Even on music freedom, the phone itself will show high data usage because you really are using that much data. Did you double check with your account online that you were being pegged for all of that?
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That USSD code actually sends a query to the carrier, and the carrier responds with the data (which is why different carriers might have different codes for checking usage).
 
codesplice said:
That USSD code actually sends a query to the carrier, and the carrier responds with the data (which is why different carriers might have different codes for checking usage).
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I'm not sure that's accurate. I'm pretty sure the device meters itself, just on observation. You can also view WiFi bandwidth and Ethernet bandwidth used as well, which has nothing to do with the carrier.

I stream a lot of music with Google Play, and my device reports high data usage. If I check on T-Mobile though, it has only registered a few megabytes of usage from the navigation/web surfing I've done as well.
 
TheAmazingDave said:
I'm not sure that's accurate. I'm pretty sure the device meters itself, just on observation. You can also view WiFi bandwidth and Ethernet bandwidth used as well, which has nothing to do with the carrier.

I stream a lot of music with Google Play, and my device reports high data usage. If I check on T-Mobile though, it has only registered a few megabytes of usage from the navigation/web surfing I've done as well.
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Android has its own built-in data-usage-tracker-thing, yes. But that has zero to do with the #932# short code, which absolutely does "call back" to the carrier to retrieve the usage information. (Whether it's accurate or timely in its information? well, that's a whole other question.) Try dialing "#933#" without a network connection and it will fail.

BTW, there are a bunch of different short codes available on T-Mobile, including stuff that the device itself wouldn't know or track (and none of them report on Wifi or Ethernet bandwidth):
raXpOkzl.png
 
codesplice said:
That USSD code actually sends a query to the carrier, and the carrier responds with the data (which is why different carriers might have different codes for checking usage).
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Ok then I wasn't aware of how exactly that worked. Can we verify that it shows billed data versus the data that the phone actually used? I could see a system where it reports all data having been sent, and the administrative part shows the filtered data numbers. It could be useful in some situations to see how much actual data usage, vs billed. Just pontificating tho, so not sure lol
 
How much is actually used depends what rate their using for the streaming. Say if it's 320kbps MP3, that would use something like 400MB in an hour or so. They could stream at a lower rate like say 128kbps, but everyone would probably be howling that it sounds like shit. Album art, lyrics, etc. shouldn't be much, images are only low-res, one per song.

I've got free, unlimited, music streaming from several providers, because of where I am, but I may still have to pay for the data it uses, if I'm using metered cellular data and not WiFi.
 
mikedt said:
How much is actually used depends what rate their using for the streaming. Say if it's 320kbps MP3, that would use something like 400MB in an hour or so. They could stream at a lower rate like say 128kbps, but everyone would probably be howling that it sounds like shit. Album art shouldn't be much, it's only thumb-nail size, nothing high resolution, one per song.
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Check your math - MP3s are generally variable bit rate encoded.

A 40 minute CD, in PCM, is usually less than 600 MB. The same as an MP3 could be 60 to 100 MB. ;)

Play Store music is 64-bit 320 kbps, songs range from 6 to 11 MB each for about 5 minute songs. Worst case of that would be a third of your estimate.
 
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