What the call apps say they need
| Call type | 720p video | 1080p video |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | 1.2 / 1.2 Mbps | 3.8 / 3.0 Mbps |
| Group | 2.6 / 1.8 Mbps | 3.8 / 3.0 Mbps |
| Screen sharing only | 50–75 kbps | |
| Type | Minimum | Recommended | Best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | 10 / 10 kbps | 58 / 58 kbps | 76 / 76 kbps |
| Video, one-to-one | 150 / 150 kbps | 1.5 / 1.5 Mbps | 4 / 4 Mbps |
| Video, meetings | 150 / 200 kbps | 2.5 / 4 Mbps | 4 / 4 Mbps |
These figures come from Zoom’s and Microsoft’s support documentation. Google Meet, Webex and FaceTime publish their own; they are in a similar range.
Why stability matters more than speed
Calls are live. There is no time to resend late or missing packets, so call quality depends heavily on the three “quality” numbers. Microsoft’s guidance for Teams sets these targets for the path from your device to its network:
- Round-trip latency under 100 ms (what ping means)
- Jitter under 30 ms (what jitter means)
- Packet loss under 1% over any 15 seconds (what packet loss means)
When these slip, apps react in a predictable order: video quality drops first, then video freezes, then audio becomes robotic or cuts out.
Several calls at once
Two people working from home, each on a 1080p group call, need roughly 8 Mbps of upload just for the calls. A student on a class call makes it three. On a cable plan with 10 Mbps upload, that leaves almost nothing for anything else, and a single cloud backup can tip it over.
When planning, count the calls that overlap, multiply by about 4 Mbps upload and 4 Mbps download each, then add headroom.
Fixing frozen video and choppy audio
- Run a speed test on the device you call from, in the same spot. Check upload, jitter and packet loss.
- Plug in with a cable if you can. This is the single biggest fix for unstable calls.
- Pause uploads and syncing on every device: cloud backups, photo libraries, file sync apps.
- Turn off your video or lower its quality when the connection is weak. Audio needs a tiny fraction of the bandwidth.
- Check your VPN. Ask IT whether call traffic is routed directly; extra distance adds delay.
- Enable smart queue management on your router so other traffic does not crowd out the call. See the bufferbloat test.