wireless broadband (dongle) suitable for Skype?

Question

I am an "oldie" (but goodie) ... new to computers ... have been asked to use Skype by the family . I am windows 7 32 bit ... 2 gig machine Asus Laptop... I did a speed test . Ping ..99ms ... Download speed .. 2.27Mbps .. Upload ... 0.35Mbps . I have mobile wireless internet (dongle) ... 4g .. with Optus . My plan costs me $49 month for 13 gig ... both downloads and uploads counted . Two questions, please ... is my machine and connection fast enough for good quality video ? . And if so, roughly, what would a half hour video call to America eat out my internet ?

Answer 1

1) As you've mentioned your download speeds and mostly everything. I think this much speed should be enough for a standard Skype video call, If signals are Okay.

2) As an approximate guide Skype says the following are examples of typical data usage.

• Skype-to-Skype calls: 50kbps or around 375KB for one minute of calling
• Calls to mobile numbers or landlines: 6-20 kbps or around 150KB for one minute of calling
• Video calls between two mobile phone devices: 500 kbps
• Video calls between a mobile phone and a computer: 600 kbps
• For HD calling the speed should be at least 1.5 mbps. which you have :-)

These values are approximate as they can differ with the video quality

So, as for the internet usage for half an hour as the Skype says (Non HD) is 1080000 Kilo Bits and above (not kilobytes) = 1080 MegaBits = 135 Mega Bytes(or simple MB's) As per the units of digital storage units.

Requirements

• Bandwidth (internet speed requirements) here
• System Requirements here

And just for knowledge, Kbps = Kilobits per second and KBps or KB = Kilo Bytes The BYTES are generally used for storage and BITS are generally used for data transfer speeds. Also, I have not specified the need of bandwidth for high quality calling here but you can find it in the link.