Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Skype Mobile over GPRS?

Someone asked on a mailing list about Skype Mobile running over a GPRS connection (cellular data connections, but not 3g). From checking a bit, here's what I found:

Skype in general is reported to require 25-130 KBPS depending on circumstance. GPRS gives more than that in some implementations, but is usually assumed to give 40 kbps reliably. That means that Skype may sometimes be able to work over GPRS but it's borderline.

I read an article saying that someone had run Skype reliably over a 51KBPS dialup connection, but that Skype only worked half the time over GPRS. This implies that it does sometimes work, depending on circumstance, but not reliably.

I also read that Skype is considered to use less bandwidth than other VoIP solutions, so if anything VoIP will work, Skype will.

But all this is based on my understanding, which may be wrong, clarifications welcome. My experience so far with Skype Mobile has been over Wi-Fi.

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