Mobile Hot Spot Data Quotas

[TheKrell]

I have been taking advantage of free streaming SiriusXM along with my subscription for my car radio. I have a number of Echo smart speakers at home, at my wife's temporary apartment, and now at work.

I originally brought one of my Dot's in to work so that I wouldn't miss any more Alexa-only deals that came and went while I was here. I connect it up using my T-Mobile cell phone hot spot. That worked so well, I decided to play SiriusXM at work as well. I even switched to a 3rd gen Echo to get better sound.

But it seems my T-Mobile family plan, which has unlimited data to the phone, does not include unlimited hot spot data. That is still limited to 2GB/month. I'm already at 80% of that limit and I'll hit the top and get throttled to 128kb/s until the next month. I think SiriusXM streaming takes twice that bandwidth, so this may prevent me from listening to my Echo. Nuts.

I don't want to pay another $10/mo on my T-Mobile plan to get an additional 10GB. Any other ideas? One wonders how T-Mobile determines that my SiriusXM stream is going through my hot spot rather than directly to the phone.

 

[n0qcu]

Why don’t you just put the SiriusXM spp on your phone snd stream it that way?

 

[TheKrell]

Why don’t you just put the SiriusXM spp on your phone snd stream it that way?

Yeah, I suppose that would work. I was also thinking a Bluetooth adapter for my PC and pairing the Echo. Hmmm. Let me check to make sure I have a firewall hole... Well this sucks. I am unable to log in on player.siriusxm.com. More fiddling required.

 

[NYDutch]

I don't want to pay another $10/mo on my T-Mobile plan to get an additional 10GB. Any other ideas? One wonders how T-Mobile determines that my SiriusXM stream is going through my hot spot rather than directly to the phone.

When you enable the hotspot feature on your phone, a flag is set on your account with your carrier. The phone data and hotspot data are assigned different IP addresses by your carrier.

 

[TheKrell]

Well, this is weird. I can log in using this computer and manage my account. But using the same email username and password, player.siriusxm.com says the password is wrong. Bother.

 

[NYDutch]

Well, this is weird. I can log in using this computer and manage my account. But using the same email username and password, player.siriusxm.com says the password is wrong. Bother.

Are you typing in the password on your PC or using a stored password. If it's stored, you may have inadvertently included an invisible character, a space, etc, at the beginning or end of the displayed password when you set it up that may not be easy to detect. Changing your password at siriusxm.com may straighten it out.

 

[TheKrell]

Are you typing in the password on your PC or using a stored password. If it's stored, you may have inadvertently included an invisible character, a space, etc, at the beginning or end of the displayed password when you set it up that may not be easy to detect. Changing your password at siriusxm.com may straighten it out.

Thanks for the help. It wasn't the password, it was the damn username! At some time in the remote past, my username for streaming was changed from my username for login to my account. Argh! I totally forgot about that. So I'm in on this PC. I didn't bring in a Bluetooth dongle yet, but I confident that should work.

Edited to add: A T-Mobile SMS message indicates I've reached 100% and will be throttled. I hear no evidence of that thus far. Either SiriusXM takes a lot less bandwidth than I have been able to discern from Googling it, or else T-Mobile is taking their time in throttling me. A third possibility is that the SMS messges are wrong and I have unlimited Mobile Hotspot service.

 

[TheKrell]

A T-Mobile SMS message indicates I've reached 100% and will be throttled. I hear no evidence of that thus far. Either SiriusXM takes a lot less bandwidth than I have been able to discern from Googling it, or else T-Mobile is taking their time in throttling me.

Still playing fine this morning 24 hrs after hitting 100% of my Mobile Hot Spot quota this month. I think SiriusXM must take less than 128kb/s for one stream. The Internet is just wrong claiming it is 256k. Does anybody know the actual number? It's probably VBR...

 

[NYDutch]

Still playing fine this morning 24 hrs after hitting 100% of my Mobile Hot Spot quota this month. I think SiriusXM must take less than 128kb/s for one stream. The Internet is just wrong claiming it is 256k. Does anybody know the actual number? It's probably VBR...

Try streaming some higher data use video as a test?

 

[TheKrell]

Try streaming some higher data use video as a test?

Great idea. But I just have a 3rd gen Echo with no display.

 

[NYDutch]

Great idea. But I just have a 3rd gen Echo with no display.

Ahh, ok... I thought you had more than one device you could use with the hotspot feature.

 

[TheKrell]

Ahh, ok... I thought you had more than one device you could use with the hotspot feature.

Not at work!

BTW - to answer my own question, only after very concerted Googling did I find this: How Much Speed Do I Need to Stream Music? | HighSpeedInternet.com. For SiriusXM, it shows 0.06–0.13 Mbps, which numbers I believe. This is probably rounded up from 128kb/s and is also a variable bit rate and explains why it's still playing fine even if I am being throttled. I see a claim by a Reddit user that the compression is AAC (streaming) and only uses 64kb/s. I don't know who is right. But for the moment, I am happy with the result. There will be no need for Bluetooth folderol.

 

[Foxbat]

I believe there are different bitrates supported. My Denon AV receiver says it’s streaming SiriusXM at 256 kbps. It’s possible the Echo uses a lesser bitrate since it isn’t a high-end Audio device.

The SiriusXM App has Audio Quality settings of Normal, High, and Maximum, so it’s just a question of which one Amazon choose for your Echo.

 

[TheKrell]

My Denon AV receiver says it’s streaming SiriusXM at 256 kbps.

Does it say what coding it uses and is it AAC?

 

[TheKrell]

6 days after I exceeded my Mobile Hot Spot data max, my Echo still sounds as good as always.

I was preparing to bring in a Bluetooth dongle so that I could send music to this Echo, should T-Mobile throttle the Mobile Hot Spot I'm using through my cell phone to play SiriusXM. I just discovered that 3rd gen Echoes (which this is), 4th gen Echoes and Echo Dots, and the Studio, all have configurable 3.5mm jacks including audio in! So, no need for Bluetooth folderol regardless.