[wellylug] VOIP calling band-width usage

[Phillip Hutchings]

On 8/17/07, Colin & Josephine Lewis <cjlewis at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:
> I know this is slightly off-topic, but I am thinking of getting Skype
> but was wondering what sort of band-with impacts this might have on my
> broadband plan usage.  Does anybody have any ideas on typical usage
> requirements, and especially the differences between simple voice based
> approaches and going to a full voice and video scenario using a webcam?

It's hard to say with Skype, it's an odd beast. It's peer-to-peer, so
sometimes you'll be forwarding traffic for other peers, depending on
whether you can accept incoming connections.

As Skype claims to work on 56k I'd estimate its audio stream is
similar to the GSM codec, which uses about 4kB/sec from memory. Video
will use more, generally 50-200kB/sec depending on quality.

Since Skype is so closed it's hard to say.

-- 
Phillip Hutchings
http://www.sitharus.com/