[SOLVED] How much Mobile Data will I consume for a Laptop Video Call over a Smartphone Hotspot?

[LoizosAristides]

Hello everyone!

So this is the deal: I plan on staying at a house in the village for 2-3 days. The thing is, one of those days I've got an online class meeting (unsure if Skype or Zoom will be utilized) to present my work, and I can't miss it. The meeting won't take longer than 3 hours...it should be a 2 - 2.5 hour class. With that in mind, I thought to myself, since the mobile data coverage is actually fairly good at that area, I could just open a hotspot from my smartphone, and then connect to it from my laptop. I've done it before, but never for video calling purposes.

I've got a 4GB mobile data plan and an LTE smartphone. After doing some research, most forum answers claim that each hour of video calling that passes, 300 - 400MB of data is used. However, these topics revolved around video calls directly from the phone using the mobile data.

In my case, as I mentioned, I have to use my laptop, and I believe there's a slight difference in data usage when it comes to opening a hotspot from my phone to my laptop, as opposed to just using the phone. With that being said, if anyone could give me an estimate of how much mobile data will be consumed from the whole hotspot situation in a video call, I would be forever grateful! 😊

Thank you in advance!

 

[Math Geek]

not sure, but the lower the resolution the better to keep it to a minimum.

if its possible to not stream your own video, that will cut it in half as well. i know i have streamed high quality video before on accident and hit 2 gb in about an hour!!! and that was only streaming a live game. you'll probably be ok if you cut resolution to minimum and possibly only do voice for yourself. most plans let you add extra data if needed. i know mine is like $5 for an extra few gb if i need it. might need to have that looked into and ready just in case. can usually be done on the companies app and is instant from when i did it once.

 

[LoizosAristides]

not sure, but the lower the resolution the better to keep it to a minimum.

if its possible to not stream your own video, that will cut it in half as well. i know i have streamed high quality video before on accident and hit 2 gb in about an hour!!! and that was only streaming a live game. you'll probably be ok if you cut resolution to minimum and possibly only do voice for yourself. most plans let you add extra data if needed. i know mine is like $5 for an extra few gb if i need it. might need to have that looked into and ready just in case. can usually be done on the companies app and is instant from when i did it once.

Thank you for the immediate answer, and sorry for the late reply!

Even though it makes total sense, I honestly didn't even consider the option to disable the video streaming on my behalf. I could try only streaming video when I'm the one presenting my work, rather than for the full duration of the class.

Regarding the option to add extra data, I've looked into that as well. When my data plan is maxed out, there's an option to buy 256MB for 2.5 Euros, which in my opinion is completely stupid 😉

Thanks again!

 

[Math Geek]

yah that's a little bit too much for such low add on.

from my experience it all comes down to stream quality. i can watch hours of youtube and only use a few hundred mb. but then slip up and grab a 1080 stream and it'll eat a gb an hour or more.

so turn it down, avoid your video until needed and hopefully it'll work out well for your class.

 

[LoizosAristides]

yah that's a little bit too much for such low add on.

from my experience it all comes down to stream quality. i can watch hours of youtube and only use a few hundred mb. but then slip up and grab a 1080 stream and it'll eat a gb an hour or more.

so turn it down, avoid your video until needed and hopefully it'll work out well for your class.

Will keep that in mind, thank you very much for your time!