When renting Wi-Fi, most people choose from plans based on the amount of data they want to use. However, we often hear comments such as "I don't remember how many gigabytes I usually use in an hour" or "I don't know how much I can do with one gigabyte.
So this time, we will introduce the smartphone usage and data capacities used by Mr. A, an overseas business traveler visiting a local factory, and Mr. B, an overseas traveler who likes to visit world heritage sites! We hope you will find this information useful in deciding which data capacity plan to choose.
Table of Contents
- Approximate data capacity of Mr. A, an overseas business traveler who goes to visit a local factory
- Approximate data capacity for overseas traveler B who likes to visit world heritage sites
- Beware of overuse of data capacity, what is FUP limit?
- Summary
Approximate data capacity for overseas business traveler A who goes to inspect a local factory
Mr. A is on an overseas business trip for 7 days and 6 nights to inspect a local factory. He uses Teams and Skype chat to communicate with the head office, and participates in online meetings via video calls. The Internet is indispensable for him to read the world news every morning. Let's see how many gigabytes of data space Mr. A will need for this overseas business trip.
Estimated data capacity for Zoom, Skype, and other video calls
Mr. A often holds meetings online while on overseas business trips.
A video call on Zoom is estimated to consume about 600 MB in one hour. However, if he uses only voice calls, the data capacity is much smaller, consuming about 40MB per hour.
Mr. A, who participates in online meetings via Zoom for three hours a day, would need more than 5GB of data communication volume just for video calls during his overseas business trip.
On the other hand, a video call on Skype would use about 250 MB of data per hour, and a voice call alone would use about 40 MB.
Estimated data volume for sending and receiving chats on Teams and Skype
Chat exchanges consume about 30MB per hour.
Furthermore, when accessing the company's file server to send documents, it is important to note that both accessing and sending can consume a large amount of data space, depending on the size of the file.
In the case of Mr. A, a total of 500 MB was used during his overseas business trip, as he chatted with the company for a total of 2 hours a day.
Approximate data capacity when browsing pages on the Internet
Mr. A's daily routine is to gather meeting topics and the latest news on the Internet.
Depending on the site, the amount of data traffic required from loading to displaying a page varies depending on the number of images, the amount of text, and the number of pages. If she reads 10 articles with 4 pages in total in one hour, she is said to consume 10MB.
Mr. A used approximately 140MB for Internet browsing during his overseas business trip, because he read about 20 news articles with about 4 pages every day.
| Data Usage | Data consumption per hour |
|---|---|
| Zoom video call | 600MB |
| Zoom voice call | 40MB |
| Skype video call | 250MB |
| Skype voice call | 40MB |
| Chat on Teams and Skype | 30MB |
| Internet browsing | 10MB |
Approximate data capacity of Mr. B, an international traveler who likes to visit world heritage sites
Mr. A loves to visit world heritage sites alone. This time, he is going on another overseas trip for 7 days and 6 nights. He uses his smartphone as a necessity to share his travel memories on SNS and to search for stores he is visiting for the first time using a map application. I also enjoy watching movies and anime on video streaming services, so I am wondering how much data capacity plan I should prepare.
Approximate data capacity for SNS (LINE, Twitter, Instagram) use
Mr. B is someone who communicates more with LINE than with e-mail.
LINE uses about 300 MB of data space for video calls andabout 20 MB for voice calls in one hour. In addition, if chatting only by text, it consumes about 20 MB in an hour.
In addition, Mr. B uses Twitter and Instagram to share his travel memories and to research food and souvenirs in his destination country/region.
In the case of Twitter, data capacity varies depending on the tweets being viewed, as many people post photos and videos as well as text tweets. However, since the limit on the number of characters is 140 double-byte characters and the limit on video time is 140 seconds, it is said that it does not consume a huge amount of data space.
On the other hand, Instagram is said to consume more data space than Twitter because it is mainly used for posting and viewing photos and videos. Although it depends on the content of the postings, it is safe to assume that about 60 MB is used in an hour.
Approximate data capacity when viewing videos
Mr. B's hobby is watching movies and animations on video sites. In recent years, various video distribution services have become widespread, increasing the demand for large-capacity data communications. So, how much data capacity is required for video viewing?
If you watch videos in HD quality (high definition), you will use up about 3 GB in one hour. For this reason, if you watch videos while traveling abroad, we recommend renting Wi-Fi with a high-capacity or unlimited plan while reducing the picture quality.
Approximate data capacity when searching for maps using GPS maps
Mr. B uses a map application when heading to a restaurant he wants to visit on his overseas trip.
The map application consumes about 5 MB of data space per hour. Please note, however, that data communication is still taking place while reaching the destination from the starting point, so the farther away the destination is, the faster the data capacity will be consumed.
| Data Usage | Data Consumption per Hour |
|---|---|
| LINE video call | 300MB |
| LINE voice call | 20MB |
| LINE chatting | 20MB |
| 60MB | |
| Watching videos in HD quality | 3GB |
| Map application use | 5MB |
Beware of overuse of data space, what is FUP limit?
FUP stands for Fair Usage Policy. This means that local telecommunication companies may impose a speed limit or temporarily disable Internet access for users who use the Internet excessively, in order to ensure fair Internet access for everyone. Please be careful not to overuse the Internet.
Conclusion
In this article, we introduced the data capacity consumed by each type of smartphone usage. Frequently used video calls and video viewing require a lot of data capacity. In addition, with the spread of social networking services, the amount of data used per person is increasing. When renting Wi-Fi for overseas use, choose a plan with unlimited data capacity and prepare a communication environment that allows you to use your smartphone overseas with peace of mind.
