Question for smartphone users

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking about getting a smartphone. Right now I just use an old flip phone. My main purpose with the smartphone will be Teamviewer, and running audio into my Team speak server from my police scanner and using the Team speak App to listen to my scanner wherever I go. This would be great since I don't have to lug around the scanner and look shady to people all the while having a bluetooth earpiece in my ear.

So as you can imagine this might uses a lot of data streaming. I'm going to run Wireshark and experiment with different voice quality settings to see what uses less bandwidth between two PCs.


Now my question: When they say you get 1 GB of data/month. Does that mean both upload and download combined? So I actually would have 500 MBs?

The current plan I'm looking at is just 1 GB/month. I have a network monitor widget on my computer and I don't hardly reach that in a month on this laptop. So I'm thinking this might be all I need. I won't be playing games. Will be checking into Twitter, Facebook, my websites and some Google searches. That's about it. I'm wondering if I should pay the extra $5/month and get another Gig? The service I'll be using is Virgin Mobile.

TIA! :D
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I cant really advise you on what you need to suit your needs. I have a plan with 10gb per month and I use most of it.
If you are on a contract they usually let you upgrade up. I think it is best to just see how you go with 1gb and then upgrade if you need it. Make sure they do not charge you a lot for data overage and check to see if you can purchase an additional data pack if you go over.
 

Supashawn

New Member
Virgin mobile plans are supposedly "unlimited"; you sign up for 1 GB of 4g speed data and then for the rest of the month if you use more you are throttled back to 2g speed and you might feel :mad: because of how slow it is (Virgin being powered by Sprint probly gets you a max of 5 to7 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). I guess I am spoiled for being on Verizon all these years. Anyway; to answer your original question, the 1 GB is a download measurement and upload is not considered.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
Virgin mobile plans are supposedly "unlimited"; you sign up for 1 GB of 4g speed data and then for the rest of the month if you use more you are throttled back to 2g speed


That's what I hear. I'm thinking that since the Opus voice protocol in Teamspeak uses about 8KB/sec (I think, need to test again) I might be fine if I go over the 1GB and get throttled done to 2G. I kinda don't foresee me going over a gig because I will only use the 4G connection when I'm out and about and WIFI when available. Especially at home. Adding another Gig will cost me $5.

Cool thing I read on Virgin Mobile's website is that Pandora, Slacker & iheartradio is free to stream without effecting your data allotment. Been a Pandora fan since circa '07.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
Anyway; to answer your original question, the 1 GB is a download measurement and upload is not considered.
This is incorrect, the amount of data you have is total upload and download, you can use 750MB down and 250MB up, or the entire 1GB downloading.

They have scanning apps on Android too, so if you live in a large city there is a chance they already have streams available for what you'd want to listen to.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
They have scanning apps on Android too, so if you live in a large city there is a chance they already have streams available for what you'd want to listen to.


I know about Broadcastify as I have been a member at radioreference.com for ten years. However, no one feeds the PD in my town, just fire and that's combined with the other town's fire. I just want to run my own feed.
 

Geoff

VIP Member

Geoff

VIP Member
I have no need for a membership. And I don't want to provide a feed. LOL Just want to have this for myself.
If you are streaming it anyways, why wouldn't you do the scanning community some good and allow others to listen to your stream? A premium membership to RR has lots of benefits. Even if you don't care about them, you shouldn't be so selfish.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
I use my iPhone 6S to Teamviewer my gaming PC all the time and Teamviewer uses very little cell data - I used probably 6MB TOTAL for a 15-minute TeamViewer session while I was on vacation.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
Well that just proved how selfish you are.
If you are streaming it anyways, why wouldn't you do the scanning community some good and allow others to listen to your stream? A premium membership to RR has lots of benefits. Even if you don't care about them, you shouldn't be so selfish.
This whole approach sounds really selfish.


I only have one damn scanner! I won't be able to tune to what I want when I want with a stream! Damn!
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
I only have one damn scanner! I won't be able to tune to what I want when I want with a stream! Damn!
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