How much data are you using working from home in South Africa?

Just a few months ago, working from home was something we did when we had a sick child, or if we wanted some peace and quiet to get a project finished. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s become our daily norm, with most knowledge workers – and even some in customer service industries – setting up shop at home.

This “new normal” has turned into an endless stream of video calls, with tools like Zoom, Teams, Skype and WhatsApp becoming the primary way we stay in touch will colleagues and even family. However, as convenient as this is, most people have found that they are now using much more data on a daily basis than they ever imagined when they were choosing their connectivity solutions at home.

While fibre coverage across the country has steadily improved over the past few years, the reality is that most people have to work off mobile data or ADSL/VDSL lines. Mobile data costs far more than a fixed-line service, but even those that are using xDSL connections may have chosen a capped or shaped package – either because of budget constraints or because they hadn’t needed greater bandwidth until now.

What’s in a name?

From e-mail clients to collaboration solutions, companies have specific tools that are mandated by the business. This applies equally to video conferencing tools, many of which are also collaboration solutions. However, while many of these applications have slightly different functionalities and features, most people assume that a video call is a video call.

This is not strictly true. Different platforms have different bandwidth requirements, which means that internet speed will affect the quality of the call. Also, the more people who are on the call, the higher that bandwidth requirement gets. The same goes for the number of devices linked to the WiFi at any given time. On top of that, the surge in internet traffic as a result of people working from home has resulted in a degradation in speeds since the lockdown began.

Zoom has emerged as the most popular video conferencing solution in South Africa, according to data from app tracking website SensorTower. Zoom went from 148th to become the top-ranking app in South Africa in a matter of days. Other conference call apps like Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, and Skype are also making their way up the rankings. However, if bandwidth is a problem, which app should people use?

Both download and upload speeds are a necessary consideration. Download speeds affect what you can see, and upload speeds affect how other people on the call can see you. The higher your upload speeds, the smoother you’ll broadcast yourself to other people on the call. The higher the download speeds, the more clearly you’ll be able to see and hear everyone else on the call.

Here's how the different apps stack up in terms of data use.

Zoom

According to Zoom’s website, at its minimum, the app should function with a person-to-person video stream at 0.6Mbps both up and down. It’s recommended speed for a low-quality HD video at a screen size of 720 pixels (p) is twice that at 1.2Mbps up/ 1.2Mbps down. A group chat goes up to a minimum of 0.8Mbps up/ 1Mbps down with a recommended stream of 1.5Mbps up/1.5Mbps down. Larger groups hit 2.5Mbps up/3Mbs down for a high-quality HD stream at 1080p. Zoom has slightly lower bandwidth requirements when using the app on your phone.

Zoom data usage jumps up with more people on the call. Group Zoom meetings take up between 810 MB and 2.4 GB per hour, or between 13.5 MB and 40 MB per minute. To put those numbers in context, sending an email without an attachment uses 20KB per email. Zoom streaming is fairly comparable to normal video streaming, but since upload speeds are part of the equation, a Zoom stream does take up more data than streaming Netflix.

Skype

Skype is probably one of the most famous applications for video conferencing. A Skype video call requires a minimum of 0.4Mbps/0.4Mbps. A person to person call in HD is recommended to stream at 1.5Mbps (up and down). Group videos get more data intensive with more people on the line, with teams of five or more recommended to stream at 4Mbps / 0.5Mbps, and with more than ten it's around 8Mbps / 0.5 Mbps.

If you are using peer-to-peer video calling on Skype, it will consume up to 135 MB for one hour. If a user is opting for high-quality video calling, Skype will consume 225MB. If you are group calling for up to 3 people then Skype will consume up to 900MB, while for up to 5 people it is 1.8GB and for 7 people it is 3.6GB.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has been advertised as providing the best audio, video and content sharing experience regardless of the network conditions. Microsoft claims it brings conservative bandwidth utilisation and can deliver HD video quality under 1.2Mbps. Where bandwidth is insufficient, Teams prioritises audio quality over video quality. Where bandwidth isn't limited, Teams optimises media quality, including up to 1080p video resolution, up to 30 frames per second for video.

The actual bandwidth consumption in each audio/video call or meeting will vary based on several factors, such as video layout, video resolution, and video frames per second. At a minimum, Microsoft says you should be able to stream a person to person call at 0.5Mbps (up and down). For group calling the minimum recommendation is lower than Zoom at 0.5Mbps/1Mbps.

For one hour of video calling, here’s what Teams actually consumes:

• 225MB of data Peer-to-peer quality video calling 360p at 30fps
• 540MB of data for peer-to-peer HD quality video calling with a resolution of HD 720p at 30fps
• 675MB of data for peer-to-peer HD quality video calling with a resolution of HD 1080p at 30fps
• 225MB of data for Group Video calling
• 450MB of data for HD Group video calling 540p videos on 1080p screen

Google Hangouts Meet

Google Hangouts is fully integrated with G Suite, so users can join meetings directly from a Calendar event or email invite. Meet lowers the video definition to fit network constraints. If the bandwidth is insufficient to transfer video, an audio-only mode is used. The minimum bandwidth requirement is 0.3Mbps (up and down).

If your organisation live streams video meetings, Google says the ideal bandwidth for each person on a group chat is 3.2Mbps (up and down). If your bandwidth is struggling, Google allows you to manually change the screen resolution to 720p which will stream at 2.6Mbps (down) and even lower at 360p at 1Mbps.

If you are using HD peer-to-peer video calling, it will consume up to 1.4GB for an outbound participant and up to 810MB for an inbound participant for one hour. For group video calls, it consumes up to 1.4GB for outbound and inbound participants. 

While some companies have contributed to additional data costs while their employees have been working from home, just as many haven’t. Whether staff are getting reimbursed for their connectivity costs or not, though, they have had to make sure that they have enough bandwidth to do their jobs. In some cases, this has meant changing their package with their ISP, in others, buying bigger data bundles than usual, but in most cases it’s meant spending more money to ensure they can continue working.

To find a good Internet provider for your work from home (WFH) or business needs, be sure to check out our Directory or compare provider offers on our website, https://whichvoip.co.za