Organizations depend on bandwidth, and sufficient bandwidth is crucial to meet the demands of your internet usage. How much bandwidth your organization will need depends on what you plan to do with your internet connection and your organization’s unique needs. 

Calculating Bandwidth

Understanding how much internet speed you need comes down to a simple calculation that considers several factors:

• Total number of Internet users at your office
• Internet dependent activities
• The necessary bandwidth to meet those activities
• Amount of staffers will be conducting those tasks or activities simultaneously

By assessing your current bandwidth requirements, you can estimate the amount of bandwidth your business needs. For example, if you currently have ten light internet users, you’ll need a connection between 2 and 7 Mbps for your office. If you now have 15 power internet users who are consistently hosting video conferences, streaming, or downloading, you’ll need to calculate between 21 and 26 Mbps.

If you rely on cloud computing services to handle your data, it is even more crucial for you to consider your bandwidth requirements, especially if you regularly transfer large amounts of data from one location to another. Most cloud services will be able to provide a recommended per-user bandwidth allotment for their service. Multiply those numbers by your number of users to calculate your requirements but be sure to include overhead for other normal internet usage not directly related to that cloud provider.

Bandwidth and Your Connection

Different connections offer different levels of reliability and affects bandwidth and internet speed. With a dedicated T1 line, you buy exactly the bandwidth you need and add more as your business grows. T1 offers reliable, flexible, and scalable business internet with consistent speeds, though it can be slower than other connections.

DSL connections offer high-speed connectivity and faster download speeds than T1 connections, but have higher latency than T1 circuits, meaning they can experience longer delays. For hardwired connections, having a wireless backup in place means you can roll over to wireless even if your hardwired connection goes down.

Assessing to Save on Costs

While it’s often assumed that bigger is better, that’s not the case for every business. Since different online tasks use up various amounts of data, the assessment should come down to the actual activities in place at your office, the amount of internet required for the tasks, and predicting how much bandwidth will handle them.

Don’t end up paying for more bandwidth than you need! Simply matching your internet to your specific needs can save you money. The best approach is to do periodic reassessments of your internet use and upgrade your bandwidth as necessary to meet your business internet needs.

This article was published in collaboration with Utility Telecom, a telecom company, based in California, provides internet and data services to businesses.