Playbook Video Chat Data Usage

Hi, I find the video chat application for the playbook to be pretty neat. I got my friend a playbook and we want to video chat but I was wondering..

Can the video chat run off her blackberry phone's data when bridged? She has 1GB monthly data with her plan.

If so, approximately how much phone data will video chat use? Say for around 10 minutes of video + audio conversation.

Unfortunately she doesn't have wireless in her home so was wondering if using her bridged blackberry's data is a good alternative.

Thanks!

Its unlikely since the bluetooth could slow things down. No way to know unless you try. Post a followup here if you can, and time yourself, then you can check the data usage on your phone. I expect your friend will have to put a robe and slippers on and get to Starbucks to use their WiFi. Even that could be iffy depending on how may folks are already on.

Originally Posted by srslyhappy

Hi, I find the video chat application for the playbook to be pretty neat. I got my friend a playbook and we want to video chat but I was wondering..

Can the video chat run off her blackberry phone's data when bridged? She has 1GB monthly data with her plan.

If so, approximately how much phone data will video chat use? Say for around 10 minutes of video + audio conversation.

Unfortunately she doesn't have wireless in her home so was wondering if using her bridged blackberry's data is a good alternative.

Thanks!

To the best of my knowledge, Video Chat required WiFi but even if it does, it would blow through a 1GB data plan in no time flat.I sSuggest you get your fried an inexpensive WiFi router. She won't be able to use App World without one and money saved on the data plan would pay for the router with just a few uses.

Video chat needs wifi for sure. If the phone could be a wifi hotspot you'd be away to the races but as has already been stated, the data usage will be immense. Not recommended without unlimited data.

wich webcam app is that ??

It's the Video Chat application, probably found under the Media section. It comes pre-installed on the PB.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

At a wild-as*-guess ballpark figure of say 512Kbps, you would be using about 4MB/minute. (250 minutes per 1GB).
At lower quality, say 256Kbps, that's 500 minutes per GB.
At a higher quality, say 1Mbps, that's 125 minutes per GB.

Keep in mind that most home internet connections can download much faster than they can upload (say 3Mbps download vs 512Kbps upload), so that's always going to be a limiting factor.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that it would be usable via bridge eventually, however I believe it is disallowed today for just this reason. People may not realize that it could chew through their data plan rather quickly.