Skype is designed to make free video and audio calls to all cities and countries, instant messaging and data transfer between users. To work with the application, you must fulfill several conditions: install the program on a PC, smartphone or tablet, register your own account and connect the device to the Internet.
To find out what Internet speed is needed for Skype, you need to figure out the preferred type of connection. You can compare the minimum and optimal indicators using a special table - we will try to explain these parameters in more detail.
What Internet speed is needed for Skype
As mentioned above, the requirements for the speed of the connection directly depend on the main purpose of the program. So, to make an audio call, 30 Kbps will be enough, but the developers recommend increasing the connection to 100 Kbps. In other words, a voice call transmits 24-128 Kbps, so the higher the connection speed, the clearer you will hear your interlocutor.
For communication via video communication, you should adhere to 300 Kbps, although 128 Kbps will be enough for communication of rather mediocre quality. The clearer you want to see the picture, the faster the connection should be.
Making calls in HD format will be possible with the Internet at least 1.5 Mbit / s, and for conferences it will be required from 2 Mbit / s (the more participants, the higher the requirement).
If it is important for you to always be online, you should take into account that even in the background Skype consumes 4 Kbps and it is better for users with a bandwidth limit to turn off the application when there is no need for it.
The picture below shows the ratio of services and minimum / recommended speed more clearly!
How to find out the Internet speed for Skype
If you do not know if the speed provided by your Internet provider is sufficient for communicating in Skype, you need to follow a few simple steps:
- Click with the mouse on the subscriber you want to call.
- In the window that appears, you will see an icon in the form of a "ladder", if you move the cursor over it, you can see the inscription "Data on the quality of communication".
- Click the "Connection" tab.
- Click on the "Check" icon.
After the actions taken, you will see a small report on the connection speed and if the indicators are low, then it is better to postpone the call or try to artificially increase these parameters. To do this, you should cancel all downloads in browsers, torrent and in the program directly, as well as disable other applications that can use the Internet for their work!
Modern communication is not only telephony and communication using different messengers. It is also working in chats, negotiations with colleagues, friends and family using Internet technologies.
Fortunately, it is not necessary to use all types of communication at once, which is not very convenient. There is a program that combines all possible types of communication and types of communication. We are talking, of course, about Skype. Skype works in the presence of the Internet and the transmission speed for the implementation of its capabilities requires different. Read on to find out what speed you need for Skype.
How Skype works
Through the Skype program, you can easily, and for someone a free basis for negotiations will be an excellent bonus, you can enjoy communicating with any other users of the system, even if you are at the North Pole, and your interlocutor is chilling somewhere in Cambodia. With all this, as already mentioned above, you do not pay anything to the program itself and its developers, but only pay with the Internet service provider. And if your tariff is also unlimited, feel free to consider Skype as an absolutely free pleasure.
Now let's talk about what Internet speed is the most comfortable for Skype.
Comfortable internet speed for Skype
Internet speed for Skype will be quite tolerable, starting from the border of 100 Kbps. If you want to use a video call in Skype, the speed of the Internet that is comfortable for this action will depend on the quality, in other words, the resolution of the video you are transmitting.
Initially, Skype will check your internet speed before connecting to the interlocutor. Based on the received data, the program determines the quality of voice transmission and video transmission. If the speed of the Internet connection for you and your interlocutor is acceptable, then the program will transmit sound and video of the highest quality, or the quality of the connection will decrease to a level that will allow you to simply transfer information. If your webcam shoots video in high definition format, then for comfortable communication in Skype you need a speed of 1.5 Mbps. In the question, what is the minimum speed for Skype, it is important to understand that the use of group calls requires an even higher Internet speed.
In general, regarding the latest trends, it should be noted that the Skype program works at medium and low Internet speeds. Even the most economical tariffs allow you to use this program without any special restrictions. And any more or less comfortable Internet connection speed that supports non-stop streaming video will not take you an extra minute, even when working with video messages.
The internet connection speed that Skype needs depends on the type of calls you make on it. Below are the minimum and recommended speeds for optimal performance.
The table below lists the minimum required upload and download speeds and the recommended speeds for optimal performance.
| Call type | Minimum speed reception / transmission | Recommended speed reception / transmission |
|---|---|---|
| Calls | 30 kbps / 30 kbps | 100 kbps / 100 kbps |
| Video calls / screen demonstration | 128 kbps / 128 kbps | 300 kbps / 300 kbps |
| Video calls (high quality) | 400 kbps / 400 kbps | 500 kbps / 500 kbps |
| Video calls (HD resolution) | 1.2 Mbps / 1.2 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps / 1.5 Mbps |
| Group video calls (3 participants) | 512 Kbps / 128 Kbps | 2 Mbps / 512 Kbps |
| Group video calls (5 members) | 2 Mbps / 128 Kbps | 4 Mbps / 512 Kbps |
| Group video calls (more than 7 participants) | 4 Mbps / 128 Kbps | 8 Mbps / 512 Kbps |
If you're signed in to Skype but don't call anyone, Skype will use an average of 0-4 Kbps. When you call, Skype uses an average of 24–128 Kbps.
- Close other applications using the Internet, especially those playing music and videos.
- Cancel ongoing file transfers.
If that doesn't fix the problem, you may need a faster connection. For more information on upload and download speeds, contact your internet service provider.
The connection speed required for Skype Connect depends on the following factors:
- How much do you use your internet connection for email, web browsing, and other data transfers.
- How many calls can be made at the same time in your company.
Depending on how many calls you need, you may need a separate internet connection exclusively for Skype Connect. We recommend that you consult with experts to determine the exact needs of your company.
The following table shows the approximate number of concurrent calls using the G.729 standard that can be made with typical types of Internet connections.
Today I faced the following question: What speed of the Internet is needed for normal communication on Skype. I decided to study the Internet a little, but I quickly found the answer to the question. Although there were many answers and sources too, I will write approximate average data and recommendations from the Skype developers themselves.
So, for normal communication on Skype only through voice transmission (only a microphone is needed), about 100 kilobits per second is needed, for communication on a video camera, a 4 times larger communication channel is required 0 400 kilobits per second. In fact, I have not checked the speed data yet and will try to unsubscribe as soon as I try the slow Internet 🙂 And finally, I will write off the official recommendations from the Skype manufacturer: Conversation: For Skype-to-Skype voice calls we recommend: 10 Kbits to 64 Kbits speed. Continuing the post: the recommended Internet speed for communicating on a webcam and impressions of paid Skype calls to a landline phone.
Video: For Skype-to-Skype video (both normal and high quality) we recommend: 384 kbps. I think everything is clear here, I hope this information will help someone, because everyone may be faced with the question: what Internet speed is needed to communicate on Skype.
PS: Well, at the end of the post I will share my impression of ip telephony, a paid service Skype, which allows you to call various countries to landlines and mobile phones. Just a few days ago, I had to call a landline phone in a city in the Far East. Since I was too lazy to come up with something with long-distance calls, I began to think of how it could be done differently. Here I was pleased with my quick launch panel, where I found the Skype icon and it was decided to check the quality of the Skype conversation.
I started reading where you can get or how you can pay for access to such calls. It turned out that it is possible to replenish the internal wallet directly from the official website of this software, which is tied to the user's account. We go to the site, enter the control panel, select the payment method and the number of credits required (I chose 5 credits) and pay for the connection using webmoney. Everything is fast - it took about 2 minutes 🙂 And now I can dial a phone number directly from the internal dialogue of the program.
7-code city phone number
I hear beeps and at the other end of the "wire" pick up the phone. As it turned out, I can be heard just fine (can an ordinary IP telephony boast of such a thing?), And I can hear everything just fine. Plus, the tariff is very cheap, I looked at a couple of sites for tariffs, Skype turned out to be the lowest. I think that if you need to call another city, while you have a computer connected to the Internet, a laptop or netbook, or a Skype Phone, then this is the most optimal method. The only thing you need is to put a few euros in your account so that the connection is always at hand.
The bandwidth of the Internet is usually called "speed". It is calculated in bits that pass through the channel per second. Bits are denoted by a small letter "b". The amount of data is in bytes, which means a big "B". The difference is not only in the spelling of the letter, but also in the size - a byte consists of 8 bits.
To calculate the download time for a movie (1400 MB), you need to divide the network connection speed (for example, 80 Mbps) by 8. Then we calculate and get that it will take 14 minutes to download the movie. If you do not pay attention to the spelling of the letter, the number will be completely different - 18 seconds.
In practice, this figure will be lower. There are two reasons. The first is that the site owner can limit the speed from which you download or upload the file. If he sets a limit, for example, 10 Mbps, then download something faster - it just won't work.
The second is that some providers indicate the maximum allowable speed, not the real one... The real one may deteriorate due to the congestion of the provider's network, weather or outdated user equipment. This is similar to how the navigator calculates the travel time without taking into account the traffic jams or holes in the road, which force you to slow down.
The same thing happens with data. The speed is influenced not only by the time of day, the distance to the server and the number of gadgets connected to one router, but also what networks are laid to your apartment. Possible options are a cable through which information is transmitted at a speed of up to 100 Mb / s, fiber-optic or GPon at a speed of up to 1 Gb / s. This will be enough for online games from two devices simultaneously along with streams, and for watching a movie online from a third gadget.
Andrey Popov, director of the Yekaterinburg branch of PJSC Rostelecom:
The most advanced technology is GPon. It provides for the possibility of conducting an optical communication line directly to the subscriber's apartment. In addition to high speeds, GPon offers a number of other advantages. For example, connection reliability - failure of one or several subscriber nodes will not affect the work of the rest in any way, since a redundancy system is provided. Moreover, this technology makes it possible to increase network nodes and their bandwidth, depending on the present and future needs of subscribers.
Different Internet activities require different speeds. If several devices work from the router, from one of which they download movies, play online games from the other, and browse social media pages from the third, all the numbers must be summed up to calculate the required speed. Here are some rough estimates:
Surfing... If you want to crawl through the pages of friends and acquaintances on VKontakte, read the news, monitor the Facebook feed or learn about school events from the chat in WhatsApp, a speed of 2 Mbps will suffice.
Video communication... Those who like to chat with a grandmother from Krasnodar or with a girlfriend from Israel via a Skype video call will need a speed of at least 5 Mbps.
Films... It all depends on their quality. To watch videos in HD quality, 30 Mbps is enough, for Full HD - 60 Mbps. If you have the opportunity to watch 4K video, then the speed should be at least 100 Mbps.
Games... For popular games like Dota, GTA and World of Tanks, a speed of 512 kbps (0.5 Mbps) is enough, if you use voice chat - twice as much. Not so much. Because ping is more important for online games - the time it takes for a signal to travel from you to the game server and back. The lower the ping, the lower the latency in the game.
Andrey Popov:
To select a tariff, compare the actions that you perform on the Internet with the speed that is required for this. Perhaps 50 Mbps is enough for you, and perhaps 120 Mbps is not enough. Just do not forget to summarize the Internet activity of all household members from all gadgets connected to the same local network.