Does listening to FM radio via your internet use up your monthly download limit??

Question

I know this sounds like a stupid question, but a friend of mine told me that if you listen to something like Triple M, and you're not on unlimited monthly downloads, you will exceed your limit and be up for excess $$. I just wanted to see if this was true. Forgive my ignorance!

Answer 1

When you surf the Internet, listen to online music/radio or watch online videos, you are downloading data from the Internet.

However, when you listen to online music/radio or watch online, data is 'streamed' to your computer. This means data is continuously downloaded during the entire time.

So if you are on a limited plan that allows you X number of MB or GB per month, you will exceed this limit very quickly. You will need an unlimited service plan.

Answer 2

I listen to the AM/FM radio in my car, sometimes the CD player. I listen to country most of the time but like an oldies station once in a while. Some days I am on the road 12 to 15 hours and it is a way for me to hear the news and some interesting facts. I like the questions/games played by the DJ, weather is important, too. What I dislike the most is some songs are double played (I don't know if this is the right term but two songs playing at the same time), doesn't happen often but enough to irritate me

Answer 3

Yes listening to internet radio does use bandwidth. Whether or not you will exceed your monthly limit depends on the amount you are able to download for free, the bitrate of the fm stream, and the length of time you listen. Normal bitrates for internet radio are between 32 and 128 kbits/s. You can do the math as to how much you can listen

1 bit = .125 bytes
32 kbits/s = 0.00381469727 megabytes/s
128 kbits/s = 0.0152587891 megabytes/s

So listening for 1 hour would use
32 kbits/s: 13.7329102 megabytes
128 kbits/s: 54.9316408 megabytes

Answer 4

If by download limit you mean that you can only receive a certain amount of data per month then yes, listening to radio broadcasts on your computer consumes bandwidth (incoming packets of information) and that is how your ISP tracks your usage.

Answer 5

Your friend is right. If your ISP limits your access to the internet, listening to internet radio is going to eat up that limit pretty quick. Every web page you access, every file you download, every email you read/write, and every second of radio you listen to will tally up to your limit.

Answer 6

seriously...you need better internet service if they're actually charging you per MB

but yeah it is data goin across the line so if you have that kind of service agreement it would be part of the deal

Answer 7

2mmm Listen

Answer 8

errr - yes.

Any traffic across the DSL link counts. That's why I went for unlimited...

Answer 9

sorry no idea about this but if i came to know i will tell ya