aussieant

Just wondered if anyone has experienced problems on using VOIP systems through an ISP in Aus? One concern I have is that nearly all ISP providers in Aus run download limits which obviously if you are a big user of video conferencing or VOIP systems could mean you hitting these limits quite frequently. Back home in England most of the ISP's dont have limits . I was on Blueyonder.co.uk (now Virginmedia) and was able to pretty much download whatever and with no restrictions.

anyone looked into this or had problems?

appreciate any info

Hutch

Got a 40Gb cap - the missus is on Skype for several hours every day to clients in the UK - I download TV shows, mp3s and movies. Have only hit cap once - and then I simply bought another gig for a couple of bucks.

aussieant

Thanks Hutch for the info
what sort of cost are we looking at? the ones ive seen seem to be quite high
for this sort of volume?

kaz101

I went with Bigpond since I could set that up from the UK (we had bought a house out here) and it was for my business.

I'm sure you can get cheaper but here is their website http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/...rs/default.jsp

I started on the 400MB plan but upgraded because I do work online through the internet. I can't see the plan that I have since I pay $99.99 a month for 25GB and 1.5MB speed.

I know that Dodo have been advertising their ISP a lot over here so that may be worth a look too.

I'm on Skype for at least an hour everyday making calls, and more than that chatting with my team.

Beware that there are some ISP plans that will slow you down if you hit your usage limit.

Regards,
Karen

datamile

Or some bigpond plans that charge you an extra $150 per GB if you go over

Most Oz plans don't charge uploads, but some are starting too !!!

http://whirlpool.net.au/ is the plan for broadband chat and plan comparsion in Oz. You may also be limited on exchange equipment etc.

Red_V_Roger

My Optus plan counts data use as uploads and downloads...Therefore if I leave my file sharing open for too long, I end up sending loads 'up the pipe' and so have problems and hit my limit.

hoofie2002

Ok - some calculations. Anecdotal evidence dictates that skype uses approx 30kbps [30k bits per second] for each call. Skype mention 3-16kbps on their web site but you have an overhead on top of that]. Convert it into an hours bandwidth and you are up at about 15MB or so. However, you are talking to someone at the same time they are talking [called full-duplex] so you are uploading and downloading at the same time. So your total quota usage is 30MB.

A similar calculation for one of the more 'standard' voip protocols shows a little bit more at about 35MB for a 1 hour call bi-directional.

I haven't made any allowance for 'silence surpression' which will drop this down. Also this usage applies whilst in the middle of a call. If you are not making a call, the usage will drop to a very small amount as the software just occasionally contacts the other systems. You could drop the voip usage a little by changing to a 'proper' voip phone but the call quality would possibly suffer.

Note that video conferencing will need a bandwidth of about 300kps, so doing that on a capped connection could cost you VERY dearly.

If you REALLY need heavy voip and video conferencing traffic you will have to look at an unmetered high-speed solution which will make your eyes water when you see the cost.

[I fully expect someone to take issue with my calculations - please do!].

harrip

I use VOIP on a regular basis for my business. I've a 20gig plan and rarely come close to reaching the limit where it is automatically shaped (Internode.com.au).

I used Skype for a while but have since switched to mynetphone.com.au - for AUD$4.95 you can get 60 untimed calls a month to the UK and various other countries including Oz. mynetphone.com.au definately has better call quality than Skype which I found quite variable and quite bad for Australia to Australia calls.

aussieant

Thanks to all for the info

I will spend some time testing over the next few weeks and perhaps look at other options its just i have a skype sph101 wireless handset which i want to use, also like the convenience of pc based skype for the missus.

been using skype a lot to call Aus for bank and talking to my cousin and overall its a good system. I have learnt from the comments that if you want decent download limits and bandwidth, its obviously gonna cost ya lots a dosh ?

hoofie2002

Unfortunately yes. Welcome to Australia

stevemich

HOLY CRAP!

I pay (TPG) $59.99 and get 50gb per month on ADSL 2+ (admittedly in central Sydney so this may not be available for the majority)

Time to change ISP I think!

go to www.whirlpool.net.au to see who can provide you with what in your area and how people rate them.

Steve

silver

Your calculations surprise me a little, we have used quite a bit (skype video) ,although not 24/7 of course, and we are on an Optus 20 gb + 40Gb off peak plan and never hit the limits. When I remove some of the other downloading we do, the rest of web use + skype seems nowhere near that high.

hoofie2002

The video calcs are based on a different standard which is normally much higher resolution/speed than skype I would imagine. The latest skype video codec I think is h.264 which requires about 100kps [+ probably about another 20kps for overhead]. I would imagine also they only send image changes so the bandwith will be less in the end. It's very hard to say what a one hour video call would use up in that case.

My comment about caps is still valid - if you have a very low quota, you could easily blow it with heavy skype/video use. People often worry about the stuff they are downloading but forget that skype etc DOES use up part of their download/upload quota.

Also, to cover my backside, all of the material I could find out about this makes no reference to quotas as it's all designed for more commercial environments where you have fast links with fixed bandwidth.

Gjn200

60 gig limit and skype uses about 30Mb per hour (which it does) why would you hit the limit? Thats 2000 hours use.

themerlin

Well everyone knows Bigpond is a rip off!