Cloud PBX Office Telephone – Internet Requirements

We read it everywhere that for any VoIP service to work brilliantly a good and reliable internet connection should be in place. Well that is true, however the question is what is considered a good and reliable internet connection and how do you determine what bandwidth you should be getting to accommodate a cloud PBX office telephone system for your business.

Before we dig ahead you need to remember that internet speed is not everything and the sole key in the proper deployment of a cloud PBX office telephone system. Speed should e combined with stability. This means a 1 megabit stable connection will be better that a fluctuating 5 megabit connection. And unlike any other bandwidth using devices a cloud PBX office telephone system is a two way user. This means that both download and upload streams are important and should be considered in fairly equal manner.

An idle IP phone just uses about 50 megabit of bandwidth per month that is a phone is on standby and not doing anything. A phone that is in use uses about 0.25 MB per hour. However the figure may vary depending on the audio codec that you are using. The ideal audio codec for VoIP phone is mainly the G729 or the G711, the G729 is the compressed version that uses less bandwidth whilst the latter uses more bandwidth ratio. Both audio codec are ideal deepening on what internet connection you have in place. If you have a dedicated connection for the phones then you can use the G711 as you won’t be affected by computer usage but if you are sharing with a computer then you are better off with the G729.

TO simplify it, the ideal speed for a single IP phone to work without interference and or jitters is about 256 KB so if you are looking to have at least 4 phones for your office then you need to secure at least more than 1 MB to give some allowance setting aside your computer usage, which is fairly easy because most ISP today are offering business grade plans at a very cheap price. 

There are many VoIP test tools and DSL tools available in the internet today that will give you an idea about upload and download speed of your internet, stability and latency so you should be able to determine easily if what you currently have is sufficient or ideal for VoIP use.

Apart from that other considerations should also be taken into to account like the distance of your office from the exchanges, the quality of your modem, your router and how traffic is being prioritized on your modem.