How much bandwidth does FaceTime consume?

Question

Level 1

1 points

How much bandwidth does FaceTime consume?

I bought my parents an iPad 2 for Christmas. They love using FaceTime on it, but they are noticing they are coming up on their internet bandwidth cap between the iPad and their other internet usage (they live in a rural area and use a wireless internet service, but FaceTime works great over it).

Anyway, does anyone have any data for how much bandwidth FaceTime uses streaming video up/down? I want to get an idea of how much their ISP cap allows them, and if they went into the next tier how much additional usage that would get them.

Thanks in advance for any hard data on this.

iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iOS 5

Posted on Mar 1, 2012 2:24 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 1, 2012 4:05 PM in response to wubbus

Is there any way your parents could get a reading before commencing a timed session of FaceTime and then a reading afterwards? If not, and if you are the contact whom thy are FaceTimeing, could you get the readings at your end. ISP's vary as to how and when they display bandwidth usage and it might be a case of having to not use the broadband for a period to give the system time to update itself. You could repeat the test a 2nd time to verify its accuracy. Hope this helps if nobody else can give reliable statistics!

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Answer 2

uncleho

Level 2

180 points

Mar 1, 2012 4:19 PM in response to alanfromnewtownards

This: http://www.digitalsociety.org/2010/08/iphone-facetime-bandwidth-gets-measured/

describes that one call is about 350 kb of data per call. It does not use much bandwidth, so unless you do it everyday, there should not be a problem.

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Answer 3

pjl123

Level 5

6,208 points

Mar 1, 2012 5:18 PM in response to wubbus

One call using xxxx depends on how long the call is. Imhave used FaceTime successfully on a throttles wifi network that was regulated at 250 k bps. So do the math. Bps times seconds will give you a guide for how much bandwidth per minute you are using. I think. Somebody will know.

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