T-Mobile no longer counts Speedtest data towards data allowances

Sometimes when we experience slow speeds on our mobile devices and we call into customer service, they usually recommend we perform speedtests to find out if the issue could be on our end or their end. Naturally the sending and receiving of data during a speedtest will consume data. It might not be much but it still counts towards it. Well the good news for T-Mobile customers is that the carrier has announced that speedtest data will no longer count towards your data allowance. What this means is that if you so desired, you could run speedtests 24/7 and not worry about having to run out of data, although we’re not sure why other than to abuse the feature.

T-Mobile’s Uncarrier 6.0 announcement brought “Music Freedom” to the carrier, giving unlimited streaming at no cost, and now T-Mo is doing us another favor and making Speedtest data not count against your data allowance either. Following some detective work, T-Mobile has confirmed that data used by the Speedtest.net app — and other similar apps — will no longer count towards your full-speed data allowance. From T-mobile: “The Ookla Speedtest.net application is designed to measure true network speed–not show that a customer has exceeded their high-speed data bucket. Other speed test providers are also whitelisted.” That means customers can run as many speed tests as they want on the T-Mobile network, and reserve their often-limited high-speed data for other apps and services. Just another way the carrier continues to flex its network capacity muscle. With moves like this that barely take up any data in the grand scheme of things but are big customer-facing winners, we can’t blame them for wanting to whitelist some data traffic from going against your cap. The upside for T-Mobile is even more customers showing off their network speeds through the Speedtest app without worry that it will push them closer to their limited allowance of high-speed data.