required bandwidth vor VOIP

I've read something about "1 MB per minute", presumably in both
directions. With ADSL, the bottleneck will be the upstream rate. For
128 kb/s, which is 16 kB/s, one minute would be 960 kB, or almost a MB.
So, 128 kB/s is cutting it pretty close. Even if the 1 MB/s is the
total in both directions, that would mean half of the upstream
bandwidth, i.e. probably not usable of there is more than one phone
conversation or if there is a "normal" internet connection at the same
time. Thus, it looks like 256 kb/s upstream would be a useful minimum,
with 384 or 512 better, especially since one might want more than one
phone conversation at a time and/or a simultaneous "normal" internet
connection.

I'm in Germany. What are the speeds available in the UK? Here for a
long time ADSL was 768/128 (with 384/64 in rural areas occasionally),
but about a year ago this moved to 1024/128. About 6 months ago
2048/256 and 3084/384 became available in addition, with optional
increased upstream speeds of 384 and 512 available as an option. A
couple of months ago, 3084/384 was replaced with 6016/512 (with no
faster upstream available).

What are prices like in the UK? Here, one pays separately for the "DSL
connection" and the "internet connection". The former is EUR 16.99,
19.99 or 24.99 per month depending on speed (these are prices from
Deutsche Telekom, but what little competition exists is roughly the same
price) and the latter can be had for EUR 5--10 per month, depending on
location (NOT from Deutsche Telekom, but from several other companies;
Deutsche Telekom is much more expensive). This is with the connection
over the telephone line.

I've heard of 40 Mb/s ADSL in the Netherlands (not sure what the
upstream speed is) for EUR 40 per month. I'm not sure if that is via a
telephone line or via cable (as in cable TV).

Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply <helbig@astro.multiclothesvax.de> wrote:
> I've read something about "1 MB per minute", presumably in both
> directions. With ADSL, the bottleneck will be the upstream rate. For
> 128 kb/s, which is 16 kB/s, one minute would be 960 kB, or almost a MB.
> So, 128 kB/s is cutting it pretty close. Even if the 1 MB/s is the

> I'm in Germany. What are the speeds available in the UK? Here for a
> long time ADSL was 768/128 (with 384/64 in rural areas occasionally),
> but about a year ago this moved to 1024/128. About 6 months ago
> 2048/256 and 3084/384 became available in addition, with optional
> increased upstream speeds of 384 and 512 available as an option. A
> couple of months ago, 3084/384 was replaced with 6016/512 (with no
> faster upstream available).

I don't think 128K upstream is available.
Commonly available speeds are .5/1/2M down, 256K up.
There are also a comparatively few companies offering higher upstreams.

> What are prices like in the UK? Here, one pays separately for the "DSL
> connection" and the "internet connection". The former is EUR 16.99,
> 19.99 or 24.99 per month depending on speed (these are prices from
> Deutsche Telekom, but what little competition exists is roughly the same
> price) and the latter can be had for EUR 5--10 per month, depending on
> location (NOT from Deutsche Telekom, but from several other companies;
> Deutsche Telekom is much more expensive). This is with the connection
> over the telephone line.

You pay for the BT phone line, as if it was a normal phone line.
On top of this, you pay an ISP of your choice from 15euro up to around
60 euro.

See http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

There is also LLU, Local Loop Unbundled operators, who you pay the line
rental to, and they supply both phone and ADSL service. Bulldog are one of
these.

This means that your ISP can now screw up your phone line, if you choose this
route, but in some cases can give higher speeds than BT will on a given
line.

For non-LLU ISPs, the big cost is bandwidth over BTs 'central pipe' service
from the ISPs NOC to the customers who may be on any BT exchange.

This is rather expensive, a 512K user maxing out their connection
can cost the ISP well over 200 euro/month.
Hence, caps are present in some form on many ISPs.

On 26 Jul 2005 17:57:30 GMT, Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

>I don't think 128K upstream is available.

128k upstream is common on cable.

Darren J Longhorn <me@privacy.net> wrote:
> On 26 Jul 2005 17:57:30 GMT, Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>>I don't think 128K upstream is available.
>
> 128k upstream is common on cable.
>

True, I was talking only of ADSL.

On 27 Jul 2005 12:47:07 GMT, Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

>Darren J Longhorn <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>> On 26 Jul 2005 17:57:30 GMT, Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>I don't think 128K upstream is available.
>>
>> 128k upstream is common on cable.
>>
>
>True, I was talking only of ADSL.

Yes. I wasn't meaning to correct you, sorry if it appeared that way,
just adding a bit of information.

Cheers

Darren