FIOS – An interesting discovery!
So here I was downloading a file from an associate that was quite large in size. When we started the ftp transfer the speeds were about 580kbps up and down. I have cable modem service and usually get about 10-15mbps down and the fios user gets about 6-7mbps up….which is in line with our transfer speeds of 580kbps. The transfer was of a rather large file and thus we decided to make a call to each other when the transfer was about 80% complete. What was the interesting discovery you say? Simple…the upload speed dropped in half and has yet to recover to 580kbps even after the call has ended. Basically it would seem that once the bandwidth is used for a phone call over fiber, Fios does not give it back for a long time…..10 minutes in now and we are still at half the upload speed. My download is not the issue since I have plenty of bandwidth to spare…. An interesting factoid that I wanted to share. Anyone having similar experiences?
Wow – that is surprising, especially considering that a voice channel should use at a maximum 64 kb of bandwith. (T-1 circuits were originally designed to handle 24 simultaneous voice calls at 64 kb each, thus the 1536 kb speed)
I can’t imagine that Verizon would even be using G711 as the codec for voice calls unless they detect a fax on the line, in which case a typical voice call should take somewhere between 20 and 30 kb, or less.
I know at the office here I don’t see any differences in speeds while on a call – granted, this is not FiOS, but still a fiber connection with data and voice on the same glass…