How much bandwidth do VoIP phones systems require?

Bandwidth is essentially the speed of your internet connection. It determines how much you are able to transmit across your internet lines over a period of time. It’s measured in megabytes per second (Mbps), a figure which will feature prominently on the internet package that you subscribe to.

At Birchills, we regularly help businesses of all size rein in their expenses and save money on their telephone bill. In the process, we have found that many of our new clients are uncertain of how much of demand their new phone system is going to place on their internet connection. With that in mind, we thought we’d take a minute to fill you on how much bandwidth our VoIP phone systems require in order to operate correctly.  

If you’re new to this sort of technology, then you’re probably anticipating a larger drain on your bandwidth than is actually going to occur. After all, these telephone systems facilitate crystal-clear communication in real time across multiple lines. Surely that must consume a significant amount of bandwidth, right?

But as you’ll find, this isn’t necessarily the case. Our advanced VoIP telephone service makes use of the latest technology – both in terms of hardware and in data compression – and that means that you can talk more for less. We’ll go into some of the specifics of this issue in the space below.  

Understanding bandwidth as it relates to voIP phone systems

Bandwidth is essentially the speed of your internet connection. It determines how much you are able to transmit across your internet lines over a period of time. It’s measured in megabits per second (Mbps), a figure which will feature prominently on the internet package that you subscribe to.

It’s worth noting that most internet providers offer different download and upload speeds. The download speed determines how quickly you can access information on the internet from your workstation. This is usually the higher figure. Your download speed will determine how quickly you can receive voice information from an incoming caller.

The upload speed is usually lower than the download speed, and it determines how quickly you can send information to the World Wide Web. This is the figure that will determine how quickly and efficiently your own voice information can be forwarded to the person on the other end of the line.

How much bandwidth do I really need to make a call?

A good rule of thumb for VoIP phone systems is that a single phone call will require approximately 0.085 Mbps of bandwidth. The precise figure for each call will depend upon how much voice information is being broadcasted and received, but this is a reliable average. With that in mind, all you have to do is take the maximum number of phone lines you have installed and multiply that by 0.085. So if you had 100 lines, you would need 8.5 Mbps of bandwidth to manage them.

It’s also worth pointing out that many VoIP phone systems make use of advanced compression technology to decrease the amount of bandwidth required. In this case, you could use significantly more phone lines for the same bandwidth. We should also add that these figures only relate to making voice calls. If a portion of your bandwidth is also used to access the Internet for other purposes, then this also needs to be taken into account.

If you’re having difficulty determining your precise bandwidth needs, just give the Birchills team a call on 01922 21 33 33.