Leeds Migration Partnership has written a useful piecee on considering the costs of video calls.

As we all get used to new ways of working, video calls are the obvious solution. They’re fun accessible and immediate. They can really help people feel connected.

However, we should also be aware that for volunteers and clients and those who don’t have broadband, this isn’t “free” – even if we are not paying to use the apps themselves.

Video calls use more data than you might think

Video calls will use up more data than just about any other app on a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. Group video calls will use even more than 1:1 calls.

And there’s no big difference between the amount of data used by Skype, Zoom, Hangouts/Duo or Whatsapp.

To give you an idea of how much data we’re talking about, a standard 1:1 video call on Zoom uses just over 0.5 Gigabytes an hour, (1 Gigabyte in 111 minutes). A group video can uses about 0.8 Gigabytes an hour (1 Gigabyte in about 75 minutes) (Source for Zoom, Source for Skype)

Put simply, a half hour video call each week will easily use up someone’s 2GB monthly allowance.

If you are working with those on low or no incomes, you should consider what life with limited data looks like and act accordingly.

Read the full article from Leeds Migration Partnership here.