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How much data for 20 min. of face time ?

J

jigsb007

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2010
308
0
Hello All.

i am a sprint customer ( still under 14 days ) and we have LTE at my home and i guess withine 6-7 miles radius of my home too... everything looks good here... i am getting around 12-15mbps down and 5-8 mbps up average.. we can do facetime on data ....

today i was at sams clud and willing to do facetime to show things to my wife, but it wasnt that gr8, as inside there was no LTE. we did facetiem, but it was like doing chat on Dialup....
so, i was thinking to move on Verizon, it seems like they have Strong LTE network ( We dont do Face time that much, but if you have a facility, why not to use it )

So, my question to you guys, how much data does it need to do face time average 20 min. every day... as if i go varizon i might go 8gb shared data plan..

Thnkas,,,:confused:
 
Anandtech says FaceTime takes 100-150 kbps both ways, so 20 min would be 30-45 MB.

Here's a nice article for you: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57450599-94/will-apples-facetime-app-hog-your-data-plan/

In short, FaceTime is designed to not take a lot of bandwidth since it is often bottlenecked by the upload speed of home Wi-Fis which is often around 1Mbps (125 kB/s).

EDIT: Anandtech says "100-150 Kbps" which is capitalized wrong so I don't know if he means kbps or kB/s. If it's the latter then a 20 min call would be 240-360 MB which is much more. I doubt it though given that that would mean a higher bitrate in both ways than a DivX-compressed DVD, which looks much better than a FaceTime call.
 
Last edited:
Still its not clear for me..
i have 2 days to change from sprint untdt to verizon 8gb.
please help....
 
pgiguere1 said:
Canada. Look up our home Internet plans... The most popular provider in my province (Videotron) charges $55 for 8Mbps up / 1 Mbps down and it's their most popular plan.

But the CNET article said that, not me.
Click to expand...
What province is that? I'm in Manitoba and I use Shaw, and I get some decent speeds here.

I believe Shaw is Canada-wide. So I'd suggest switching. :rolleyes:
 
jigsb007 said:
Still its not clear for me..
i have 2 days to change from sprint untdt to verizon 8gb.
please help....
Click to expand...

Sorry it's not clear for anybody either. If you want to make sure and have a Mac, FaceTime your Mac and look how much bandwidth it uses with a tool like iStat Menus and multiply that by the time of your call.
 
I would wait if I were you. Sprint is just getting started and if you already have it, it will probably get better over time. Realistically how many times are you going to be at SAMs Club to do FaceTime? Also how do you know that Verizon is better from inside a place like SAMs Cub?

I have Sprint but we don't even have LTE in our area yet, but I'm not willing to give up unlimited when we are this close to getting it. I just think that people who are jumping ship now are going to regret it in the not too distant future.
 
chrisvee said:
What province is that? I'm in Manitoba and I use Shaw, and I get some decent speeds here.

I believe Shaw is Canada-wide. So I'd suggest switching. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Quebec. We don't have Shaw, it seems to only be offered in western provinces (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). The only two major providers are Videotron and Bell.
 
rocknblogger said:
I would wait if I were you. Sprint is just getting started and if you already have it, it will probably get better over time. Realistically how many times are you going to be at SAMs Club to do FaceTime? Also how do you know that Verizon is better from inside a place like SAMs Cub?

I have Sprint but we don't even have LTE in our area yet, but I'm not willing to give up unlimited when we are this close to getting it. I just think that people who are jumping ship now are going to regret it in the not too distant future.
Click to expand...

Humm.. even i am thinking the same.. and today Softbank bought 70% sprint...
 
jigsb007 said:
Hello All.

i am a sprint customer ( still under 14 days ) and we have LTE at my home and i guess withine 6-7 miles radius of my home too... everything looks good here... i am getting around 12-15mbps down and 5-8 mbps up average.. we can do facetime on data ....

today i was at sams clud and willing to do facetime to show things to my wife, but it wasnt that gr8, as inside there was no LTE. we did facetiem, but it was like doing chat on Dialup....
so, i was thinking to move on Verizon, it seems like they have Strong LTE network ( We dont do Face time that much, but if you have a facility, why not to use it )

So, my question to you guys, how much data does it need to do face time average 20 min. every day... as if i go varizon i might go 8gb shared data plan..

Thnkas,,,:confused:
Click to expand...

This might be a bit off the topic, but just want to caution you that Verizon's signal is very sensitive to buildings (at least in my case). I lived in Florida, Arizona and for some reason Verizon was great. But I moved to Maryland several month ago, and Verizon is just bad in general where ever I go. For example, I live in a basement with a huge windows to outside I consistently get two bars. But if I try to make a phone call, 95% of the time I will get a drop call within the first 2 minutes. I ended up having to put my phone right next to the window and use a bluetooth. I know it's the walls because the moment I step out I get five bars and no drop call. I have also experienced the same (in Maryland as well) as soon as I walk into a mall and some restaurants. Just something to keep in mind.

Except where I live, I have visited the mall and the restaurants with my friends who has ATT, and they get 4-5 bars inside buildings.
 
gentlefury said:
US upload speeds are horrible.....LTE upload speeds are about 5x faster than the average home speed. I have top tier AT&T home internet and I get about 2.5Mbp/s...pathetic!
Click to expand...

pgiguere1 said:
Canada. Look up our home Internet plans... The most popular provider in my province (Videotron) charges $55 for 8Mbps up / 1 Mbps down and it's their most popular plan.

But the CNET article said that, not me.
Click to expand...

I feel you guys ... I was in same boat when I was in India ... I got a 1 Mbps line 3 years back and I was YAY !!!! And none of my friends were able to get it till about 2 years back...

Now in Singapore and its a totally different story ... 50Mbps Up + 50 Mbps Down and yes I can actually push all of that :eek: .... when someone asks me if I will think about going back to settle down in India, I cringe for atleast this one reason if not others :D
 
SanjeevRana said:
I feel you guys ... I was in same boat when I was in India ... I got a 1 Mbps line 3 years back and I was YAY !!!! And none of my friends were able to get it till about 2 years back...

Now in Singapore and its a totally different story ... 50Mbps Up + 50 Mbps Down and yes I can actually push all of that :eek: .... when someone asks me if I will think about going back to settle down in India, I cringe for atleast this one reason if not others :D
Click to expand...

Yeah I can't wait until US catches up! I am paying for as high as AT&T offers and its only 23Mb/s down and 2.5Mb/s Up.....really sad.
 
gentlefury said:
Yeah I can't wait until US catches up! I am paying for as high as AT&T offers and its only 23Mb/s down and 2.5Mb/s Up.....really sad.
Click to expand...

I guess its just the size of the country and population ...

Singapore runs more like a Company than a Country !
 
SanjeevRana said:
I guess its just the size of the country and population ...

Singapore runs more like a Company than a Country !
Click to expand...

Nah, its because the telecom industry in the US is a total monopoly. There are 4 companies to choose from (usually only one or two available per area) and they all only compete with pricing. None of them compete with true speed (FIOS comes close...but not even close to other countries)...they all know they can screw you on speed and also charge a premium for it...so why not!! And with upload, they figure most people won't notice how slow it is....I do a lot of remote screen sharing and video streaming...so I notice.

One of these days a company will decide to blow the lid off the speed ceiling and it will force competition. FIOS is such a limited area that its hard for it to even make a dent.
 
The more you explain it the more it sounds like India's issues ... he he...

Anyways for the love of god I have not been able to understand the horrendous 3G speeds in SG ... LTE is now awesome, but the 3G ..oh my god!

Broadband Speeds - Good
Fiber Speeds - Excellent
LTE - Awesome
3G - wtf !
 
rocknblogger said:
I would wait if I were you. Sprint is just getting started and if you already have it, it will probably get better over time. Realistically how many times are you going to be at SAMs Club to do FaceTime? Also how do you know that Verizon is better from inside a place like SAMs Cub?

I have Sprint but we don't even have LTE in our area yet, but I'm not willing to give up unlimited when we are this close to getting it. I just think that people who are jumping ship now are going to regret it in the not too distant future.
Click to expand...

gentlefury said:
Nah, its because the telecom industry in the US is a total monopoly. There are 4 companies to choose from (usually only one or two available per area) and they all only compete with pricing. None of them compete with true speed (FIOS comes close...but not even close to other countries)...they all know they can screw you on speed and also charge a premium for it...so why not!! And with upload, they figure most people won't notice how slow it is....I do a lot of remote screen sharing and video streaming...so I notice.

One of these days a company will decide to blow the lid off the speed ceiling and it will force competition. FIOS is such a limited area that its hard for it to even make a dent.
Click to expand...

Guys guys....dont change topics,... i need your suggestiuons.. dont compare now US and singapoor..
 
jigsb007 said:
Hello All.

i am a sprint customer ( still under 14 days ) and we have LTE at my home and i guess withine 6-7 miles radius of my home too... everything looks good here... i am getting around 12-15mbps down and 5-8 mbps up average.. we can do facetime on data ....

today i was at sams clud and willing to do facetime to show things to my wife, but it wasnt that gr8, as inside there was no LTE. we did facetiem, but it was like doing chat on Dialup....
so, i was thinking to move on Verizon, it seems like they have Strong LTE network ( We dont do Face time that much, but if you have a facility, why not to use it )

So, my question to you guys, how much data does it need to do face time average 20 min. every day... as if i go varizon i might go 8gb shared data plan..

Thnkas,,,:confused:
Click to expand...

ill test it out for you and get back to you.

I'd die if my upload speeds were that slow. Thankfully I have fios so im sitting at 75dl 20-25 up
 
Last edited:
gentlefury said:
Yeah I can't wait until US catches up! I am paying for as high as AT&T offers and its only 23Mb/s down and 2.5Mb/s Up.....really sad.
Click to expand...
:eek: for as low as US$13/month people can enjoy 100Mbps up and down in Hong Kong
 
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