Mobile Internet and BBC listen again

If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that offers
unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for �7.50 per month) am i correct in
thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website and use the "listen
again" feature all day long for free.

TIA

James

---

› See More: Mobile Internet and BBC listen again

john doe wrote:
> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that
> offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for �7.50 per month) am i
> correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website
> and use the "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>
> TIA
>
> James

The 'unlimited' internet access will probably have a fair use policy, you
will need to read the TOS carefully.

--
Continuum - Meet people from all over the world... then kill them.

Free online multiplayer action game http://www.getcontinuum.com/

"john doe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:vXDCj.11138$%[email protected]...
> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that
> offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for �7.50 per month) am i correct
> in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website and use the
> "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>
> TIA
>
> James
Not sure what sort of phone, if any, would be capable of playing "listen
again"

On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that offers
> unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per month) am i correct in
> thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website and use the "listen
> again" feature all day long for free.
>
> TIA
>
> James

Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle 'streaming'
content. For a start, how much data do you think a day-long use of the
BBC streams would amount to, and how much would you pay a wired ISP for
that much data? You may have seen press reports about people presented
with phone bills in the tens of thousands of pounds after they've tried to
do what you are asking about.

Get a portable personal media player or a pocket radio set. Many mobile
phones include both those things anyway.

Service providers still use the term 'unlimited' in their publicity with
the special meaning of 'very very limited in every meaningful way but
unlimited in some sense that has almost no practical application and we
haven't quite worked out how to define it anyway'.

As far as the £7.50 "O2 Web bolt-on" is concerned, streaming is
specifically forbidden:-

..-----<http://www.o2.co.uk/termsconditions/tariffsandboltons0153>
| [...]
|
| *O2 Web Bolt On*
|
| 1. The O2 Web Bolt On provides you unlimited use of O2’s 3G/GPRS Mobile
| Data Services for Permitted Uses only for £7.50 per month.
| 2. Permitted Uses are use of your SIM card within a handheld mobile device
| for the purposes of internet browsing only. Any other use of the O2 Web
| Bolt On will not be a Permitted Use, including but not limited to:
| 1. Email;
| 2. Use with Data Cards or Modems;
| 3. Instant Messaging,
| 4. IP Telephony,
| 5. Point 2 Point file sharing and file transfer,
| 6. VoIP (e.g. Skype™),
| 7. Video and TV streaming,
| 8. Slingboxes; and
| 9. Use in conjunction with routers.
| 3. O2 reserves the right to impose standard browsing charges for usage at
| any time if O2 reasonably suspects you of using the service for uses
| other than the Permitted Uses or abuse of the service, including using
| an atypical volume of data as compared to normal users of the O2 Web
| Bolt On, which will normally be less than 200MB of usage within a one
| month period (termed “fair usage”).
|
| [...]
'-----

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

IanM wrote:
> "john doe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:vXDCj.11138$%[email protected]...
>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that
>> offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for �7.50 per month) am i correct
>> in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website and use the
>> "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> James
> Not sure what sort of phone, if any, would be capable of playing "listen
> again"
>
I use Three X-series Silver on my e61 to use listen again. It doesn't
really make much of a dent in the allowance.

john doe wrote:
> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract that
> offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for �7.50 per month)


�7.50 per month for unlimited mobile broadband sounds miles too cheap.
Unlimited packages on here are �25 + VAT:

http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/


>am i
> correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC website
> and use the "listen again" feature all day long for free.


I think you could listen to Listen Again on a smartphone with Real Player
for Mobiles installed on it, but you need to subscribe to a mobile broadband
package, because just subscribing to a fixed-line broadband package doesn't
get you mobile broadband thrown in for free - you have to pay separately.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm

Whiskers wrote:
> On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract
>> that offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per month)
>> am i correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC
>> website and use the "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> James
>
> Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle 'streaming'
> content. For a start, how much data do you think a day-long use of
> the BBC streams would amount to,


The BBC's Listen Again streams are using 64 kbps, so that works out as being
27.5 MB per hour of listening, or 37 hours of listening per GB.

A 3 GB mobile broadband package costs �15 per month:

http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/

A typical radio listener listens to the radio for 20 hours per week, and in
the UK 21% of the time is spent listening to the radio in the car (which is
the closest thing to mobile listening that there's data for - 60% of
listening takes place in the home and 15% takes place in the workplace, but
the other 5% wasn't listed), so assuming that someone has fixed-line
broadband at home and they can access the Internet via Wi-Fi or fixed-line
at work, then the average radio listener would listen to

20 hours per week x 21% x (365 / (12 x 7)) weeks per month = 18.25 hours
of mobile listening per month

That equates to about 0.5 GB of data per month if you listened to Listen
Again at 64 kbps.

Fixed-line is obviously cheaper, but 0.5 GB isn't a lot of data - it works
out as being �2.50 per month out of the �15 for 3 GB monthly payment.


> and how much would you pay a wired
> ISP for that much data?


How are you going to receive fixed-line broadband when you're sitting in
your car on the motorway?


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm

"IanM" <nobody@no_where.co.uk> writes:
> Not sure what sort of phone, if any, would be capable of playing "listen
> again"
>
Any Symbian Smartphone with realplayer will work. I use my N70 to listen again
quite a lot. A 64k stream doesn't really dent my web'n'walk plus 3G fair use
allowance.

Whilst the live links are pretty easy to find, the links to the listen again
links are hidden. The beebotron http://beebotron.timeforabrew.com/ makes them
easy on a phone.

Phil
--
There are 10 types of people in the world, those that
understand binary and those that don't.

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
> Whiskers wrote:
>> On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract
>>> that offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per month)
>>> am i correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC
>>> website and use the "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> James
>>
>> Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle 'streaming'
>> content. For a start, how much data do you think a day-long use of
>> the BBC streams would amount to,
>
>
> The BBC's Listen Again streams are using 64 kbps, so that works out
> as being 27.5 MB per hour of listening, or 37 hours of listening per GB.
>
> A 3 GB mobile broadband package costs �15 per month:
>
> http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/
>

I dont see any reason to get mobile broadband when it's cheaper to have 3G.
Three PAYG internet add-on is �5 for 2GB of data, yet they want �10 for 1GB
of data on broadband, four times the price.

I would rather wait a bit longer, 448 kb/s is not that slow, and be able to
download twice the amount.



--
Continuum - Meet people from all over the world... then kill them.

Free online multiplayer action game http://www.getcontinuum.com/

Andy W. wrote:

> I dont see any reason to get mobile broadband when it's cheaper to have 3G.
> Three PAYG internet add-on is �5 for 2GB of data, yet they want �10 for 1GB
> of data on broadband, four times the price.

.... with a free USB modem!

And it isn't 4x the price if you don't want or need 2GB.

regards, Ian

Phil wrote:
> "IanM" <nobody@no_where.co.uk> writes:
>> Not sure what sort of phone, if any, would be capable of playing
>> "listen again"
>>
> Any Symbian Smartphone with realplayer will work. I use my N70 to
> listen again quite a lot. A 64k stream doesn't really dent my
> web'n'walk plus 3G fair use allowance.
>
> Whilst the live links are pretty easy to find, the links to the
> listen again links are hidden. The beebotron
> http://beebotron.timeforabrew.com/ makes them easy on a phone.


The BBC's said it's going to be adding new audio formats for the live and
on-demand streams:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs...our_co_1.shtml

"Andrew Livingstone asked about the new formats and players we're using. For
on-demand radio, national networks will add a new format from April (with
other stations following later); for live, new formats start in July-ish.
Important to note that we don't plan to remove, for now, any currently
available format. If something works now, it'll continue to work."

I reckon they'll start using AAC+ or AAC, and it turns out they've been able
to use these codecs for the last 4 years and for some reason they've not
used them yet:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/ar...ertake-DAB.php



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm

Andy W. wrote:
> DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>> Whiskers wrote:
>>> On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract
>>>> that offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per month)
>>>> am i correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto the BBC
>>>> website and use the "listen again" feature all day long for free.
>>>>
>>>> TIA
>>>>
>>>> James
>>>
>>> Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle 'streaming'
>>> content. For a start, how much data do you think a day-long use of
>>> the BBC streams would amount to,
>>
>>
>> The BBC's Listen Again streams are using 64 kbps, so that works out
>> as being 27.5 MB per hour of listening, or 37 hours of listening per
>> GB. A 3 GB mobile broadband package costs �15 per month:
>>
>> http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/
>>
>
> I dont see any reason to get mobile broadband when it's cheaper to
> have 3G. Three PAYG internet add-on is �5 for 2GB of data, yet they
> want �10 for 1GB of data on broadband, four times the price.


I've found the Internet Monthly add-on for �5 per month:

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/pric...t_it_costs.omp

but do you know where it says that you get a 2 GB allowance per month
because I'd like to put a link to it on an article I'm writing?


> I would rather wait a bit longer, 448 kb/s is not that slow, and be
> able to download twice the amount.


Do all of the 3G PAYG Internet deals use W-CDMA and only mobile broadband
subscribers use HSDPA then?



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm

Phil wrote:
> "IanM" <nobody@no_where.co.uk> writes:
>> Not sure what sort of phone, if any, would be capable of playing
>> "listen again"
>>
> Any Symbian Smartphone with realplayer will work. I use my N70 to
> listen again quite a lot. A 64k stream doesn't really dent my
> web'n'walk plus 3G fair use allowance.
>
> Whilst the live links are pretty easy to find, the links to the
> listen again links are hidden. The beebotron
> http://beebotron.timeforabrew.com/ makes them easy on a phone.


BTW, how reliable have you found listening to the live radio streams? And
can you increase the buffer size in Real Player for mobiles to reduce the
chances of the stream rebuffering?


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
> Andy W. wrote:
>> DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>>> Whiskers wrote:
>>>> On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract
>>>>> that offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per
>>>>> month) am i correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto
>>>>> the BBC website and use the "listen again" feature all day long
>>>>> for free. TIA
>>>>>
>>>>> James
>>>>
>>>> Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle 'streaming'
>>>> content. For a start, how much data do you think a day-long use of
>>>> the BBC streams would amount to,
>>>
>>>
>>> The BBC's Listen Again streams are using 64 kbps, so that works out
>>> as being 27.5 MB per hour of listening, or 37 hours of listening per
>>> GB. A 3 GB mobile broadband package costs �15 per month:
>>>
>>> http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/
>>>
>>
>> I dont see any reason to get mobile broadband when it's cheaper to
>> have 3G. Three PAYG internet add-on is �5 for 2GB of data, yet they
>> want �10 for 1GB of data on broadband, four times the price.
>
>
> I've found the Internet Monthly add-on for �5 per month:
>
> http://www.three.co.uk/personal/pric...t_it_costs.omp
>
> but do you know where it says that you get a 2 GB allowance per month
> because I'd like to put a link to it on an article I'm writing?
>

http://www.threemail.co.uk/personal/..._go_/may_1.omp

Just over half way down

>
>> I would rather wait a bit longer, 448 kb/s is not that slow, and be
>> able to download twice the amount.
>
>
> Do all of the 3G PAYG Internet deals use W-CDMA and only mobile
> broadband subscribers use HSDPA then?

No idea, I just know my 3G phone is incapable of 1.5Mb/s.


--
Continuum - Meet people from all over the world... then kill them.

Free online multiplayer action game http://www.getcontinuum.com/

Andy W. wrote:
> DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>> Andy W. wrote:
>>> DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>>>> Whiskers wrote:
>>>>> On 2008-03-14, john doe <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> If i get a new phone that has internet capability and a contract
>>>>>> that offers unlimited internet access (ie, O2 for £7.50 per
>>>>>> month) am i correct in thinking that i would be able to go onto
>>>>>> the BBC website and use the "listen again" feature all day long
>>>>>> for free. TIA
>>>>>>
>>>>>> James
>>>>>
>>>>> Most unlikely, even if you have a phone that can handle
>>>>> 'streaming' content. For a start, how much data do you think a
>>>>> day-long use of the BBC streams would amount to,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The BBC's Listen Again streams are using 64 kbps, so that works out
>>>> as being 27.5 MB per hour of listening, or 37 hours of listening
>>>> per GB. A 3 GB mobile broadband package costs �15 per month:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/typ...ile-broadband/
>>>>
>>>
>>> I dont see any reason to get mobile broadband when it's cheaper to
>>> have 3G. Three PAYG internet add-on is �5 for 2GB of data, yet they
>>> want �10 for 1GB of data on broadband, four times the price.
>>
>>
>> I've found the Internet Monthly add-on for �5 per month:
>>
>> http://www.three.co.uk/personal/pric...t_it_costs.omp
>>
>> but do you know where it says that you get a 2 GB allowance per month
>> because I'd like to put a link to it on an article I'm writing?
>>
>
> http://www.threemail.co.uk/personal/..._go_/may_1.omp
>
> Just over half way down


Thanks. Have you tried listening to the BBC radio station live streams? If
so, did the signal drop out or was it okay?



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

The adoption of DAB was the most incompetent technical
decision ever made in the history of UK broadcasting:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...ion_of_dab.htm