Mbps FamilyTalk Nation450 v. UnlimitedChoiceSM

Your current plan does not limit data speeds. You get whatever the network allows which may or may not be more than the 3mbps of the unlimited plan.

Ok, thank you  - is there any way to find out "what the network allows"? I'm just trying to get a sense of what we may be giving up, because the last time we switched plans it wasn't made clear what all of the downsides were (specifically, my losing my unlimited data when I rolled my plan into my husband's...but that's another story, and the reason for wanting to change plans again)

Download a speed test app like "Speedtest". Your results will vary depending on location and network congestion. The big question would be how exactly do you use your phones? The 3mbps restriction would likely only impact video streaming and with the streamsaver, perhaps not even that. Everything else one typically does, email, Facebook, web browsing, etc, will work fine at 3mbps.

I will try the app, I have done that with CenturyLink at my business.

The biggest issue is probably that my husband is listens to European internet radio stations a lot on his phone, off-wifi (often in the car). If he has problems with that he is not a happy camper!

Ok, speed test shows 17.88 down and 4.12 up on LTE.... not sure if the 3Mbps max is going to work for hubby, need to look into that more unless someone knows off-hand what a good internet radio connection requires

Audio streams at a much lower rate than video.  

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@sbieri7 wrote:

Ok, speed test shows 17.88 down and 4.12 up on LTE.... not sure if the 3Mbps max is going to work for hubby, need to look into that more unless someone knows off-hand what a good internet radio connection requires

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But you won't get that all the time in all locations. I've gotten download speeds as high as 60Mbps but sometimes I'm lucky to get 1mbps. As @lizdance40 mentioned, audio streams at a much lower rate than video. Talk radio would probably work fine at 0.2mbps, so 3mbps shouldn't cause a problem. Unfortunately, you won't know for sure until you try it but once you make the switch, you can't go back to the old plan.

@sbieri7Yep, what @lizdance40 said is spot-on.  Audio typically streams at around 100-300kbps, so you really only need a solid 0.1-0.3 (ish) download, to get really high quality audio.

I listen to a lot of NPR and such, streaming, and find they stream around 120 or so, just a reference, and I don't think I've ever seen music (audio only) exceed about 250 (my daughter streams more tunes than I do, these days, my music is mostly already on my device;-]).

AT 17.88 down, you could stream around 178 decent quality channels (at once), or about 60 or so high-quality channels (also simultaneous).

I think a lot of people get into the video paradigm, and have the thinking that they need a much faster connection than they do, for just audio (although your speeds are plenty for video too, even decent HD).

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@sandblaster wrote:

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@sbieri7 wrote:

Ok, speed test shows 17.88 down and 4.12 up on LTE.... not sure if the 3Mbps max is going to work for hubby, need to look into that more unless someone knows off-hand what a good internet radio connection requires

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But you won't get that all the time in all locations. I've gotten download speeds as high as 60Mbps but sometimes I'm lucky to get 1mbps. As @lizdance40 mentioned, audio streams at a much lower rate than video. Talk radio would probably work fine at 0.2mbps, so 3mbps shouldn't cause a problem. Unfortunately, you won't know for sure until you try it but once you make the switch, you can't go back to the old plan.

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@sandblasterQuite a few audio sources publish their bitrate(s).  I know my various NPR stations do, and I've seen other audio sources that are really good about posting these.

I find that my mostly news/talk radio typically streams at about 0.120, but I have seen some other sites that call it at about 0.140 (all mbps).

Agreed, they won't get that speed, but I can't recall a single "glitch" I've ever had, listening to the streaming news; I surmise that between the low bitrate, and some buffering, that it's really hard to have an issue...

I just finished an online chat with ATT, and was told the "plus" plan is 12 Mbps vs 3 Mbps for the other shared plans.

It's not in the literature anywhere I could find.