How do I see how much bandwidth my VoIP phone takes?

Question

I have a VoIP Phone with Vonage where highspeed internet service with rogers. More recently my internet bandwith usage has gone up even though I am not suring internet that much (2.5 - 3 GB per day). I am just wondering how much bandwith VoIP takes. Does the VoIP phone uses bandwith only when I am talking on phone?

Answer 1

The stock figures for a VoIP connection using a plain vanilla G.711 CODEC and well-compressed G.729 are:

• G.711 is approx 76.6MB per hour full duplex
• G.729 is approx 27.4MB per hour full duplex

Which, I am told, means using your VoIP phone with a G.711 CODEC for one hour a day is about 2.3GB per month.

More info at: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12190

Answer 2

Yes, usually VoIP will make some call to server for gathering some infos, but it's a few KB per day, not GB.

Answer 3

Voip phones use about 100 kbps up and down during a call and they will use some bandwidth when first plugged in for registration purposes. Also, they will re-register every so often as well, but this is minimal communication.