Tag Archives: 4g

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Apr 5 2012

How Much Data Do You Need To Make Your Smartphone Really Awesome?

A 1GB Data Plan will give you around 4,100+ minutes of voice or about 266 minutes of video using George Mobile. Is that awesome, or would you like more?

How much data does Voice use?

Consuming expensive data is one of the biggest concerns for people when they are thinking about choosing a Mobile Voice-Over-IP (“mVOIP”) application. Most VOIP applications are optimized to only use a small amount of data when making calls.

For example, when making a voice call, you consume around 0.24 MB per minute1 giving you 4,100+ total talk minutes for 1 GB of data. Most carriers offer 1 GB of data per month with their wireless packages. This allows for virtually unlimited talk with a mVOIP service like George. And, George Mobile includes a variety of options for voice call quality including 32Bit HD.

What about Video?

When you make a video call, it’s compressed using a video encoder. A minute of video uses around 3.75MB, which translates to about 266 minutes of video time for 1 GB of data.

To compare, 1 GB of monthly data can get you:

  • 4,166 minutes of talk time on George
  • 266 minutes of video calling on George
  • 67 minutes of HD Youtube Video
  • 429 minutes of streaming HD music
  • 2000 HD Pictures
  • 5000 Webpages

Are you ready to make the switch to MVoIP?

As David Pogue said “More and more people avoid using up their cellular minutes by relying on the Internet to carry their voices, using apps”. While your carrier’s voice plans may not be improving, competition is heating up around data packages and network speeds. George Mobile uses significantly less data than many people expect, it can easily replace your voice plan while saving you money each month.

1Math for nerds:

  • Audio: George uses a variety of codecs, but by default it uses G.729so I used that codec.
    • 31.2 KbpsA (includes headers) = 4KBps * 60 seconds = 240KB = 1000 MB / .24 MB = 4,166 total minutes
    • G.711 is used for higher quality calls
  • Video: George uses H.264for video compression
    • 500kbpsB for 320×240 resolution = 62.5KBps * 60 seconds = 3,750KBps = 1000 MB / 3.75MB = 266 total minutes
  • HD video on YouTube – 720P @ 625KBps
  • HD Streaming music – 192KBps
  • HD pictures – 1024×768 = 500KB
  • Webpages – with images ~200KB

Justin Laberge is the Community Manager at George Mobile

He can be reached through @getgeorgemobile