What is the Minimum VoIP Bandwidth Required for Business?

If you are a business, you know very well that running a business in today’s high-paced technological world can be a very daunting task for some, especially if they do not have the proper technology of VoIP system along with the required VoIP bandwidth installed in the phone systems to keep things running smoothly and productively. 

VoIP systems are a popular piece of technology used by millions of small and large companies across the country today because they use IP addresses on the internet and phone systems when operating. Traditional use of phone systems is now a thing of the past. More and more small and large businesses are moving towards using VoIP-hosted services. 

Although VoIP-hosted services have their fair share of pros and cons, the advantages outnumber the disadvantages! Providers are offering many VoIP features, including auto attendants, operators, call forwarding, call transferring, call flipping, and auto dials. Above all, it is cost-effective as well!

As a company grows, more and more people will be accessing the network that a VoIP system operates on, which concerns many business owners regarding the network’s speed and the voice quality it provides. As more and more employees access the web on their phone systems, the rate could slow down, adversely affecting the quality of the phone calls made using the VoIP system. 

To successfully run your business on a VoIP system, a company must look into the services a VoIP provider is giving. Next, a business must look into the required VoIP bandwidth necessary for the smooth transfer of data. Many factors affect the quality of calls over VoIP systems, including VoIP bandwidth. Hence if you are a business, research well on the minimum requirement of VoIP bandwidth for your business. Foremost, check the VoIP bandwidth requirement before shifting to a VoIP system for your business to ensure VoIP phone system reliability.

A guide to the proper VoIP bandwidth for your business:

The term VoIP bandwidth means how fast it takes for data to travel through your network. It is similar to a water pipe. Where the water pipe is your internet, and the water in it is your data. The bigger the water pipe, the faster the data will travel, and vice versa. Your device transfers small packets of data over the network for each activity, including video calls and conference calls. These packets range in size from 1000-1500 bytes. VoIP bandwidth indicates how long it takes to send or receive data.

Business owners interested in using a VoIP system for their office should browse each VoIP company’s website because these companies typically post their utilities. A business owner can download a large file from the VoIP company’s website. The file will then calculate how much space was used to download, how much VoIP bandwidth is left, and how long it took to download.

The second method business owners use to check their VoIP bandwidth and how well a VoIP system operates is to monitor calls in the phone system. If the calls continuously ‘break up’ or are ‘dropped,’ you might not have enough capacity to operate the VoIP system properly.

VoIP bandwidth requirements use three common measurements:

• Megabits per second (Mbps)
• Gigabits per second (Gbps)
• Terabits per second (Tbps)

Internet service provider ISP uses bytes per second. One byte equals eight bits. However, it must be taken into account here that the internet and bandwidth are not the same things. You can have all the requirements of a good bandwidth, but your data transfer can still be slow. The easiest way to measure your VoIP bandwidth speed is to use online speed tests.

Every device has a list of minimum VoIP bandwidth required for maximum performance. Look at how many devices your office uses, check up on the VoIP bandwidth each online activity uses, and then contact your Internet service provider ISP for upgradation of the internet to fit your VoIP bandwidth requirements.

Moreover, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provides a list of average VoIP bandwidth needed to run a smooth business on a VoIP system. A few examples of these guidelines for VoIP bandwidth include:

1. Email and web browsing require having 1 Mbps of downloading speed. 
2. VoIP phone calls take up to 5-25 Mbps of downloading speed.
3. File downloading, on the other hand, takes up 10 Mbps of downloading speed

A high-speed internet connection usually features a minimum of 384kbps (kilobits per second) and a maximum of 7mbps (megabits per second). When you want to make a phone call using a VoIP system with the highest available voice quality, you will need 100 kbps of VoIP bandwidth for this to occur.

When acquiring a VoIP system for your business, make sure you purchase enough VoIP bandwidth to operate the VoIP system and the internet simultaneously. Simply browsing the internet or sending small emails will not affect VoIP bandwidth. Downloading large files and images in your phone system will affect a company’s VoIP bandwidth and how the VoIP system operates. You will need more significant VoIP bandwidth for a VoIP system hosting multiple phone calls.

Cable internet is friendlier to a VoIP system than DSL internet because it is faster and has 600k of upload bandwidth compared to 128k of upload VoIP bandwidth. Your company will have to pay an increased fee for higher amounts of bandwidth should you ask for an increase from your bandwidth provider.

If you are a business looking to invest in a VoIP system with a good VoIP bandwidth for fast data transfer, look well into the minimum requirements of VoIP bandwidth for your devices. Then check with your internet service provider if the internet on your phone system needs to be upgraded or not.

You can browse our phone systems buyer’s guide and compare the top VoIP service providers and their VoIP bandwidth requirements to fit your needs.