VoIP Bandwidth Calculator: VoIP Checklist for Your Business

Kevin V. Nguyen

March 29, 2019

Are you looking for a VoIP bandwidth calculator? Need help with VoIP troubleshooting? If you're replacing landlines with VoIP, 8x8's VoIP service a cost-effective solution for businesses. Depending on your business needs, VoIP software can give you access to all kinds of features. These can include video and voice calling, remote calling, and voicemail to email. And, 8x8 can help with VoIP setups, advanced software features and ensuring business continuity.

Let's take a look at how to find your VoIP bandwidth before taking a look at checklists for your new VoIP service.

How Much VoIP Bandwidth Do You Need?

When you set up a new VoIP service for your business, it's different from setting up VoIP at home. At home, every family member probably has streaming devices or computers. That's why homes need higher internet speeds than offices.

Measuring Bandwidth at Home

At home, if four or five family members are online, 75-100 Mbps may be enough speed. For one person who streams an occasional movie, 5-10 Mbps is standard.

Here's how much bandwidth or internet speed is needed for:

Watching movies: 3-4 Mbps
Watching HD movies: 5 Mbps
Playing video games: 3 Mbps
But, for offices, it's different.
Measuring Bandwidth at Work

Offices that use VoIP phones can add more phones because VoIP phones require less internet speed.

Bandwidth is the maximum rate for downloading data, says Nerdwallet. Five Mbps might be enough for 25 phone lines. That's because VoIP phones use digital connections through your internet or broadband. And, they don't require a lot of bandwidth.

Here's how much bandwidth will be needed for each employee:

Checking the internet or social media: 1 Mbps
Watching or participating in a video conference: 1-4 Mbps
Downloading large files: 50 Mbps

If you're only running phone lines and no videos or streaming, you can use 100 phones with 75 Mbps. But, it's likely your office will use VoIP to run phone lines, check email and have video conferences and online tutorials. A rule of thumb is to do an internet speed test. Then take the average daily use rate and double it for your office internet speed. That way there are no lags or latency.

Bandwidth Calculators

Voice bandwidth is based on data consumption, peak load hours and audio packets. IP networks don't use analog the way landlines do. They use audio codecs that convert audio signals to digital audio packets end-to-end. To measure exactly how much bandwidth or internet speed you need, use a VoIP bandwidth calculator.

Typically, it takes about 11.2 Kbps to make a VoIP call. That's based on 224 bits x 50 pps.

Here are 3 types of bandwidth calculators:

This is a basic online bandwidth calculator. It converts bytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and so forth.
This bandwidth calculator is a bit more complex. It helps determine voice paths in your IP network. This is used when setting up VoIP phone lines.
This bandwidth calculator is fairly simple and it includes sample bandwidths at the end.

Need help with VoIP troubleshooting? Businesses don't usually do their own bandwidth calculations. For VoIP troubleshooting, contact 8x8. VoIP offers communications solutions for small, medium and enterprises businesses. You'll have an experienced provider who can ensure a smooth setup!

VoIP Checklist: Is Your Business Prepared?

It's important to ensure pre-planning is carefully handled with new VoIP phone installations. With proper wiring setups for VoIP phones and software installations, your phones can each have a separate IP address. That way they don't hit "congested" internet traffic from videos and all calls are prioritized.

How to Prepare for an Outage or Incident

Some businesses are located in flood zones or prone to severe weather. Businesses must ensure that they have a disaster preparedness checklist and backup phone system plan. You might need to suddenly evacuate your office and that's no time to say, "Quick, forward the phones!"

Having a disaster preparedness checklist can:

Ensure business continuity.
Allow time for you and your staff to transition to a safe location.
Give your staff time to get over the shock from a sudden disaster, an act of war, or weather-related incident.

Do you have a business continuity plan? Or, a disaster recovery plan? Use this link for Ready.gov. It gives all kinds of business checklists for natural disasters, work incidents, and other events.

VoIP Virtual Call Centers

In addressing VoIP phone outages and backups, the FCC has stated that businesses should have a backup. They want to ensure VoIP phones include features for people to reach emergency services if there's ever a blackout. And, that's why battery backups are important and virtual call centers can help.

8x8 takes a proactive approach to the new VoIP service. They help businesses every day with disaster preparedness and backup phone solutions. This can ensure you have continuous phone coverage 24/7/365.

Boost Business With VoIP

Setting up a new VoIP service can help you find a cost-effective communications solution for your business. If you're unsure about bandwidth calculations, or if you want to leave it to the professions, let 8x8 help.

With 8x8's Virtual Contact Center you get world class technology and everything your domestic or international business needs without the need for multiple disparate systems. Call 1-866-498-2316 or fill out an online form to request a no-obligation quote from an 8x8 product specialist.