How Much Data Do I Need for My Business?

You may already know that streaming video eats up a lot of data, but what about the important applications you use for business? In this article, we’re going to address some common application types and look at how much data and bandwidth they will require. 

VoIP

Like most things, the higher the quality of the call, the more data and bandwidth it will need. Each service uses a different codec to transform speech into data. Below are some common examples.

• G.711: uses approximately 1.3 MB of data per minute (78 MB per hour)
• G.723.1: uses approximately 0.33 MB per minute (20 MB per hour)
• G.726: uses approximately 0.78 MB per minute (47 MB per hour)
• G.728: uses approximately 0.48 MB per minute (29 MB per hour)
• G.729: uses approximately 0.5 MB per minute (30 MB per hour)

As far as bandwidth, a .256 Mbps by .256 Mbps connection should be more than enough for normal VoIP. However, having speed isn’t enough. You also need a stable, high-quality connection with minimal packet loss and latency. You can measure the health of your internet connection by taking a Speed Test that includes latency, jitter and packet loss. Cloudflare’s speed test does just that. Although, once you have the data, how do you interpret it? 

Latency, which is essentially the time it takes for data to reach its destination, is measured directly in the ping time. For an excellent connection, the ping should be under 100ms. For a good connection, it should be under 250ms. Anything higher than that is going to provide poor results. 

Jitter is the time difference between when a packet is sent and received. The longer it is, the bigger the delay and the worse the quality of your calls. Jitter is measured in milliseconds, and a good value is between 15-20ms. If it’s any higher than this, the connection will become laggy, and audio will therefore sound choppy. 

Packet loss is when “packets” or pieces of data traveling across a network do not reach their end destination. In a VoIP call, this will appear as garbled audio with missing information like words and sentences.

Video Calls

As you might assume, video calls use significantly more data than voice calls. There are a number of variables, such as video quality, screen size, and the specifications of the connecting devices. For example: 

• A video call between two mobile devices uses about 3.75 MB of data per minute (225 MB per hour).
• A video call between a mobile device and a computer uses about 4.5 MB of data per minute (270 MB per hour)

Here’s a look at usage when we factor in the video quality:

• A standard definition video call uses an average of 190 MB per hour.
• A high-quality video call uses an average of 400 MB per hour.
• An HD video call uses an average of 1.25 GB per hour.

Regarding bandwidth requirements, here are some averages we gathered:

• 1:1 video calling:
  • High-quality video: 600kbps (up/down)
  • 720p HD video: 1.2Mbps (up/down)
  • 1080p HD video: 3.8Mbps/3.0Mbps (up/down)
• Group video calling:
  • High-quality video: 1.0 Mbps/600kbps (up/down)
  • 720p HD video: 2.6Mbps/1.8Mbps (up/down)
  • 1080p HD video: 3.8Mbps/3.0Mbps (up/down)

Emails

Like online web browsing, checking your email should require no more than 5 Mbps. The amount of data used by emails with attachments can vary based on the size of the attachment. So, based on emails without attachments, you can send and receive 100 and only need 30 MB per month. 

Credit Card Transactions

Credit card transactions require very little bandwidth. On average a minimum of 1.5 mbps download speed and 768 kbps upload speed should be sufficient. Data usage is very small as well. If you were to run 1000 credit card transactions per day, this would work out to be just under 300 MB of data. 

IP Cameras

There are a few factors that determine how much bandwidth an IP security camera system uses. This includes video resolution, frames per second, file compression (e.g. H.264 and MJPEG), and the number of cameras. All four help to determine exactly how much bandwidth you need for your system.

Note that special applications, like facial recognition or license plate recognition, will eat up more IP camera bandwidth, since these applications require higher resolution and frame rate recording.

In our research, we frequently came across the following formulas for calculating IP camera bandwidth requirements. 

Resolution in pixels x Color depth in bits = Bit rate

Bit rate x Frame rate in frames per second = Bandwidth requirement in bits per second

Using the above formulas will give you its raw bandwidth requirement before compression. Audio, communication, and compression protocols also contribute to raw bandwidth, but they generally use a negligible amount. 

As an example, let’s say we have a high definition (1280 x 720 pixel) online surveillance system in true color (24 bit) that operates at 30 frames per second. Based on these formulas, we would have a raw bandwidth requirement of 665 Mbps. However, due to compression, this can be reduced down to as little as 2 Mbps (depending on the compression standard). 

Here’s a quick reference chart based on resolution and compression:

VPN

A VPN experiences something called “encryption overhead.” Encryption is a form of security for that connection and can increase bandwidth. Any activity you perform on your computer or network with the VPN enabled will use more data than when it is disabled. The increased amount could be anywhere from 2% up to 19%. The strength and protocols of your VPN will also contribute towards more usage. 

Generally speaking, the amount of bandwidth speed required for a VPN depends on the type of applications you’re accessing. For example, say you’re downloading a large HD movie file that’s 4GB of data. Over a non-VPN connection, the data usage would be exactly 4GB. However, due to the VPN encryption, the data usage will increase. 4GB is actually 4,096 MB of data, so that means you’re technically transferring closer to 4,396 MB in total.

Streaming Audio

Now, if you’re anything like me, you probably have some sort of music streaming throughout the workday. So, while this might not be “important,” it is common enough that we wanted to touch on the subject. There are dozens of ways to stream music these days. Some of the more popular services include:

• Pandora
• Spotify
• Google Play
• Amazon Music
• iHeartRadio
• SoundCloud

Typically, streaming music does not use much data or bandwidth. Although each service differs slightly in the stream quality. So what does that mean in terms of your data usage? If you were to stream music for an entire eight-hour work day, you would use about 1 GB each day. Based on your average month of 30 days, that could turn out to be up to 30 GB of data usage!

Does this seem like a lot of work? Not sure it makes much sense? Well, we made it more simple for users with our data usage calculator. This is an easy way to help determine your usage requirements, and average monthly usage based on common applications like credit card processing and emails. 

Looking for a data plan? 5Gstore has data plans available here. Reach out to us for more information by phone, email, or chat!