Virtualization and the adoption of advanced technology in offices around the country have made business faster, easier and more flexible. However, nothing brings progress on projects to a halt faster than spotty service, interrupted downloads and frozen screens. More often than not the reason for all these issues has nothing to do with hardware or software involved.

No, the culprit in many cases is a lack of proper bandwidth. The amount of bandwidth your office has makes all the difference between a smooth video teleconference training session and one with frozen screens, choppy audio or video, or dropped sessions altogether; and these are just some of the examples. In today’s business environment, bandwidth is becoming an ever increasing important part of a business’s connectivity to the outside world and in many ways, has replaced the importance of local phone connectivity.

To state it simply, bandwidth is how you measure your internet connectivity, which is most commonly used for web browsing, email, connectivity to remote office sites via a VPN network and more recently, Voice over IP. So how much bandwidth does your office need to stop the interruptions?

Why Bandwidth Matters

Ask any veteran IT professional and they will tell you that in all of their years, not one customer has approached them complaining about having too much bandwidth. Quite the contrary, many business customers are likely to complain routinely about the effects of insufficient bandwidth. But why does bandwidth matter?

In an age where everything businesses do relies upon the Internet, networks, servers and the cloud, bandwidth is the determining factor that allows all of these to work effectively. Everything from email, inter-office chat systems and phones, to network-wide software access, file transfers and video teleconferencing, rely upon bandwidth. And, many businesses face the struggle of scaling bandwidth to keep pace with the growing needs of the business.

With so many every day operations reliant upon plentiful bandwidth, it’s clear why it is so important to have enough. Now the question becomes, how much is enough?

Bandwidth Demands

Internet service providers will have a variety of bandwidth levels available. The following guidelines offer a starting point for determining how much bandwidth is needed for typical business operations:

• 1 MB/sec: This tends to be sufficient for basic operations such as providing email access, web browsing, instant messaging and basic phone services. It’s important to point out that each simultaneous voice call requires 100 kilobytes/sec.
• 2 MB/sec: This amount of bandwidth is required for some more advanced operations such as standard definition video calls, online gaming and social media activities.
• 5 MB/sec: This level will be necessary to conduct high definition video chats, complete medium file transfers and low-level cloud computing and backup services.
• 10 MB/sec: This upgrade is needed for network-wide software roll outs, large file transfers, and multiple high definition video conferencing.

There are a few additional considerations. When choosing the service provider that will be providing your business with bandwidth, it is important to select a provider that can easily and affordably scale bandwidth as your business grows.

Secondly, you’ll need to understand the difference between download and upload speeds and which will be more important to your business. Download speeds impacts web browsing, email and software downloads, for example. Businesses that host a lot of services or conduct multiple high definition video conferencing sessions for training or meetings need higher upload speeds.

As more and more businesses transfer crucial services to the cloud, both download and upload speeds become critical to success and smooth operations.

How Much Bandwidth do I Need?

At the end of the day, how much bandwidth you need for productive day-to-day operations without interruptions will be determined by the operational requirements, not by the number of users. Businesses with simple IT services and programs (email, small file transfers, etc.) can get by with less bandwidth. But if your business relies upon virtual face-to-face meetings, hosts services or conducts large and frequent file transfers, you’ll need much larger bandwidth capabilities.

Review your bandwidth utilization reports (provided by your carrier or service provider) to determine traffic patterns and security requirements. This analysis can help you determine how you are currently using your bandwidth or identify additional bandwidth needs. Talk to a Telecom Service Specialist for assistance reviewing this report, or to discuss your business’s bandwidth requirements.