Using BBC Radio App over 3G

[MrJim]

My Dad's recently bought a 3G wireless access point for use while he & my Mum are on holiday in France. The PAYG sim card they've bought to go with it offers 1Gb of data for use over a period of 30 days. Apart from checking emails & catching up with the news at home, my Dad's interested in listening to some BBC radio programmes using the BBC radio app for the iPad. My question is, approximately how long will his 1Gb of data last, if he's listening to internet radio? I think you can choose either a higher or lower data rate, but my guess is he will go through 1Gb fairly quickly, given that he likes to have the radio on a lot in the background.

[virtuo]

Without network overheads and assuming a constant bitrate of 128kbps You'll be looking at around 50-60Mb an hour.

Not sure what the BBC streams at, might go as low as 32 kbps from my quick phone-google, which will be 10-15Mb an hour.

A 1Gb plan will give you 34Mb a day over 30 days, so at 32kbps you'll get about 2 and a half hours a day, but you'll notice the poor quality. At 128k you'll get half an hour a day.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and streaming radio at work and they seem to average bitrates around 96kbps, so I'd assume that's a good size/quality compromise. But will struggle to get you an hour a day.

[MrJim]

Thanks for your feedback - useful information

[scaryjim]

A 1Gb plan will give you 34Mb a day over 30 days, so at 32kbps you'll get about 2 and a half hours a day, but you'll notice the poor quality. At 128k you'll get half an hour a day.

While half an a hour a day doesn't sound any good, if it's just for a holiday will he be listening every day?

I use TuneIn to stream cricket commentary, and have 500MB a month on my phone plan. I've listened to full days of test matches before several times a month without touching my limit. I'm pretty sure BBC radio streams are around 50kbps, which rolls out to around 20MB/hour and will give you around 50 hours of radio in a month. That would be consistent with the usage patterns I've seen on my phone.

So working it out per day might not be the best approach: it's more like will 50 hours of Radio be enough over the course of the holiday? In a 2 week holiday that's be enough for 3-4 hours every night.

That said, do check that the 1GB of bundled data usage is available in the EU - a lot of phone bundles with data have different limits and charges outside the UK...

[MrJim]

While half an a hour a day doesn't sound any good, if it's just for a holiday will he be listening every day?

I use TuneIn to stream cricket commentary, and have 500MB a month on my phone plan. I've listened to full days of test matches before several times a month without touching my limit. I'm pretty sure BBC radio streams are around 50kbps, which rolls out to around 20MB/hour and will give you around 50 hours of radio in a month. That would be consistent with the usage patterns I've seen on my phone.

So working it out per day might not be the best approach: it's more like will 50 hours of Radio be enough over the course of the holiday? In a 2 week holiday that's be enough for 3-4 hours every night.

That said, do check that the 1GB of bundled data usage is available in the EU - a lot of phone bundles with data have different limits and charges outside the UK...

My parents have their own place in France, & they tend to stay for about 4-5 weeks at a time (they're both retired). I think my Dad would like to keep up to date with the cricket too. It might just be a case of cutting back a bit on my parents' usual listening habits

The 1Gb bundle is designed for use in France, so there's no problem there. It's a bit expense compared to PAYG over here, but I think there's less competition in the mobile sector over there.