When it comes to data limits, the first thing that may come to mind is cellular data plans. Not many of us consider the amount of data we’re using on our home Internet services like cable or DSL. However, Comcast has actually been one of the leaders in the use of data caps, charging as much as an extra $100. On most of their residential plans, you’re allowed up to 1.2 TB of data. That may seem like a lot, but if you like to stream frequently, you may quickly use up that data. Check out our data usage calculator to see for yourself. Note that if you do use over 1.2 TB, they’ll charge $10 for every 50 GB of extra data.
What’s the Best Way to Avoid Overages with Comcast?
Comcast recommends a few plans with unlimited data if you think you could go over this limit in a month. Per Comcast:
As of January 1, 2021, the plan will be available nationally. It does not apply to Xfinity Internet customers on our Gigabit Pro tier of service, Signature+ More and Super+ More packages, Business Internet customers, customers with Prepaid Internet, or Bulk Internet agreements.
Luckily, if you live in the following Northeast markets, Comcast does not enforce these limits: CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, VA, VT, WV, the District of Columbia, and parts of NC and OH.
How Much is Unlimited Data from Comcast?
Comcast provides customers that go over their limit one free allotment of 50 GB of data every 12 months. Although, this is only the first time. If you do it a second time, they will charge you an extra $10 a month. At an extra $25 per month, Comcast’s xFi Complete with unlimited data plus its xFi Gateway will allow you to have unlimited data. Keep in mind that this is only for the states listed above.
How Can I Avoid the Comcast Data Cap Fee?
If you have the choice available to you, providers like Verizon and T-Mobile do not have any data caps on their fixed Internet services. If cellular isn’t available to you, check out Starlink instead. Of course, this also has its limitations. Another option is to switch to HD-only streaming, since 4K uses much more, and monitor how much data you use.
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:
IP Camera Bandwidth Requirement
Resolution
H.264
MJPEG
1MP (1280×720)
2 Mbps per camera
6 Mbps per camera
2MP (1920×1080)
4 Mbps per camera
12 Mbps per camera
4MP (2560×1440)
8 Mbps per camera
24 Mbps per camera
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.
Data Usage can add up quickly, especially streaming all those videos around the holidays. Monitoring data usage and tracking it can be done in a couple ways, but you can also get a general idea of usage before you even start. This can be important for ensuring you don’t go over any usage limits or reach your allotted high speed data before the month is over.
We only covered some of the most popular streaming services. If you don’t see yours listed, we also offer a handy data usage calculator you can use at our website. Check it out here!
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon has no public information for streaming data usage at this time. Based on research from users online, here’s what we can surmise from an hour episode:
SD: About 0.14 GB per hour
HD: About 1.82GB per hour
Disney+
Disney+ automatically detects your system’s capabilities and internet connection speed and delivers the highest quality experience possible as a default setting. They also give you the choice to change your data usage settings on all devices. With the Auto option, you can stream in the highest quality, up to what your device supports.
For example;
4K: 7.7GB per hour
HD: Up to 2GB per hour
SD: 0.7GB per hour
HBO Max
There’s no specific data on this, but the application automatically adjusts the video quality based on your network bandwidth and connection speed. Most shows and movies are available in high definition (HD). Manual video quality settings are not currently available.
Hulu
HD video streaming will use about 650MB per hour. Data usage controls are NOT available, nor is an official data chart, but this data was confirmed from users on their forums. Hulu does however have quality control settings, which can help with data usage.
Netflix
Standard-definition (SD) video streaming on Netflix uses 1 GB of data each hour.
High-definition streaming will consume 3 GB of bandwidth per hour.
4K videos use 7 GB of data every hour.
For comparison, Netflix offers the following video settings:
Low: 0.3 GB per hour per device
Medium: SD: 0.7 GB per hour per device
High: Best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour per device for HD, and 7 GB per hour per device for Ultra HD
Auto: Adjusts automatically to deliver the highest possible quality, based on your current internet connection speed
Paramount+
Per their Help guide – mobile data use will fluctuate based on the quality of your Internet connection and varies from 74 MB per hour for the lowest connection speed, up to 800 MB per hour for the highest quality video stream.
As cellular technologies grow, so does our need for content and therefore, our consumption of data. According to a recent report from Ericsson, average mobile data usage is over 10GB per month. Ericsson attributes this increase by only two factors.
Mobile data is more readily available and since most users are on cell phones usage is higher than on fixed broadband services.
The amount of mobile broadband routers have also risen. Think about all the people who had to start working from home. Those in more rural areas found a sudden need for a stable connection with high bandwidth, but no access to wired services. LTE Advanced and 5G technology have made this more possible. Sure, there are battery powered mobile hotspots, but they generally don’t have the power, nor the features to support everything a work-from-home employee requires.
It’s easy to rack up data on your cellular connection using a mobile broadband router compared to your cell phone. No longer is it just you browsing the web or making video calls, but now everyone in your home or office is using the same connection. The report – Ericsson’s Mobility Report – shows mobile data usage hit 11GB per month in both the US and Western Europe.
Also something to note, according to a study by Pew Research, some 15% of US adults are now mobile-only internet users – meaning they don’t have a home broadband connection, but instead rely solely on their smartphone. Smartphone ownership has increased to 85%, up from 81% in 2019.
If this trend continues, the monthly global average usage per smartphone is forecast could reach 35GB by the end of 2026. Smartphones continue to be at the epicenter of this development as they generate most of the mobile data traffic – about 95 percent – today, a share that is projected to increase throughout the forecast period.
