[whispersystems] How much data is used?

[a***@tuta.io]

If I'm on LTE / 4G, how much data does a Signal phone call use up? Is there a
basic rate, or does it depend on how far away the contacts are or any other
variables? I'm receiving some resistance to using Signal from friends and
family because they don't want to use up their data, so it'd be nice to know
how much is being used per minute.

[a***@tuta.io]

I just ran a test between two adjacent Android phones. I had the phones call
each other and let them sit there without anyone talking for 3 minutes. The
phone using LTE went from .9 megs prior to the call to 1.77 after. That means
that Signal used roughly 1/3 of a meg per minute. One resisting friend gets 2
gig per month. So, if all 2 gigs were used on Signal calls, he'd have 6,000
minutes, or 100 hours, per month.

If he only allocates 1/10 of his plan to Signal calls, that allows him 10
hours per month. And that's presuming he uses data for every call and no
WIFI.

I wonder: if two people are talking during the call instead of it being
silent, does more data get transferred? Or, are the above numbers
representative of all Signal calls?

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Post by a***@tuta.io
If I'm on LTE / 4G, how much data does a Signal phone call use up? Is
there a basic rate, or does it depend on how far away the contacts are or
any other variables? I'm receiving some resistance to using Signal from
friends and family because they don't want to use up their data, so it'd be
nice to know how much is being used per minute.

[Shankar Kulumani]

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago. There was some mention of
adding a "data usage" feature to Signal to measure this kind of information.

The closest thing I could get was to look up the data usage for
Whatsapp/Hangouts etc

http://www.androidauthority.com/voice-call-data-comparison-598541/

My guess is that Signal will fall within the family of all these other apps.

Post by a***@tuta.io
I just ran a test between two adjacent Android phones. I had the phones
call each other and let them sit there without anyone talking for 3
minutes. The phone using LTE went from .9 megs prior to the call to 1.77
after. That means that Signal used roughly 1/3 of a meg per minute. One
resisting friend gets 2 gig per month. So, if all 2 gigs were used on
Signal calls, he'd have 6,000 minutes, or 100 hours, per month.
If he only allocates 1/10 of his plan to Signal calls, that allows him 10
hours per month. And that's presuming he uses data for every call and no
WIFI.
I wonder: if two people are talking during the call instead of it being
silent, does more data get transferred? Or, are the above numbers
representative of all Signal calls?
--
Securely sent with Tutanota. Claim your encrypted mailbox today!
https://tutanota.com
If I'm on LTE / 4G, how much data does a Signal phone call use up? Is
there a basic rate, or does it depend on how far away the contacts are or
any other variables? I'm receiving some resistance to using Signal from
friends and family because they don't want to use up their data, so it'd be
nice to know how much is being used per minute.

[Max Spliethöver]

The calculation is very nice but not really applicable in real world usage.
If the phone feature is implemented right into the app the data usage would
be way higher if actually someone would speak. Modern voice transmission
system are coded in a way to only transfer a specific range of audio
signals that fall into the one that is used for human voices (that's also
the reason why music doesn't sound that nice over a voice call). In the
case above if there is no sound at all, nearly no audio is transmitted.
All said above is only a theory because I don't actually know how the
feature is implemented (haven't looked into the code yet) but this is
normally the way to go, even for carriers.

Post by Shankar Kulumani
I asked a similar question a few weeks ago. There was some mention of
adding a "data usage" feature to Signal to measure this kind of information.
The closest thing I could get was to look up the data usage for
Whatsapp/Hangouts etc
http://www.androidauthority.com/voice-call-data-comparison-598541/
My guess is that Signal will fall within the family of all these other apps.

Post by a***@tuta.io
I just ran a test between two adjacent Android phones. I had the phones
call each other and let them sit there without anyone talking for 3
minutes. The phone using LTE went from .9 megs prior to the call to 1.77
after. That means that Signal used roughly 1/3 of a meg per minute. One
resisting friend gets 2 gig per month. So, if all 2 gigs were used on
Signal calls, he'd have 6,000 minutes, or 100 hours, per month.
If he only allocates 1/10 of his plan to Signal calls, that allows him 10
hours per month. And that's presuming he uses data for every call and no
WIFI.
I wonder: if two people are talking during the call instead of it being
silent, does more data get transferred? Or, are the above numbers
representative of all Signal calls?
--
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If I'm on LTE / 4G, how much data does a Signal phone call use up? Is
there a basic rate, or does it depend on how far away the contacts are or
any other variables? I'm receiving some resistance to using Signal from
friends and family because they don't want to use up their data, so it'd be
nice to know how much is being used per minute.

[[e-mail]]

afaik, Signal uses a constant bitrate, so actually always the same
data is trasmitted. With a variable bitrate some information would be
leaked to a potential attacker.

Post by Max Spliethöver
The calculation is very nice but not really applicable in real world usage.
If the phone feature is implemented right into the app the data usage would
be way higher if actually someone would speak. Modern voice transmission
system are coded in a way to only transfer a specific range of audio signals
that fall into the one that is used for human voices (that's also the reason
why music doesn't sound that nice over a voice call). In the case above if
there is no sound at all, nearly no audio is transmitted.
All said above is only a theory because I don't actually know how the
feature is implemented (haven't looked into the code yet) but this is
normally the way to go, even for carriers.

Post by Shankar Kulumani
I asked a similar question a few weeks ago. There was some mention of
adding a "data usage" feature to Signal to measure this kind of information.
The closest thing I could get was to look up the data usage for
Whatsapp/Hangouts etc
http://www.androidauthority.com/voice-call-data-comparison-598541/
My guess is that Signal will fall within the family of all these other apps.

Post by a***@tuta.io
I just ran a test between two adjacent Android phones. I had the phones
call each other and let them sit there without anyone talking for 3 minutes.
The phone using LTE went from .9 megs prior to the call to 1.77 after. That
means that Signal used roughly 1/3 of a meg per minute. One resisting friend
gets 2 gig per month. So, if all 2 gigs were used on Signal calls, he'd have
6,000 minutes, or 100 hours, per month.
If he only allocates 1/10 of his plan to Signal calls, that allows him 10
hours per month. And that's presuming he uses data for every call and no
WIFI.
I wonder: if two people are talking during the call instead of it being
silent, does more data get transferred? Or, are the above numbers
representative of all Signal calls?
--
Securely sent with Tutanota. Claim your encrypted mailbox today!
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If I'm on LTE / 4G, how much data does a Signal phone call use up? Is
there a basic rate, or does it depend on how far away the contacts are or
any other variables? I'm receiving some resistance to using Signal from
friends and family because they don't want to use up their data, so it'd be
nice to know how much is being used per minute.

--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Maximilian Spliethöver
P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

[Mark Senior]

Post by ***@googlemail.com
afaik, Signal uses a constant bitrate, so actually always the same
data is trasmitted. With a variable bitrate some information would be
leaked to a potential attacker.

For example
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/03/detecting_words.html