Ready reckoner for modem lovers

Paul McQuarrie, managing director of MUA, gave us this handy table for figuring out your bandwidth needs (in kilobytes per second) if you decide to connect to an ASP over the Internet. The figures are based on how you want your users to feel about the service: low bandwidth if you don't mind some hate mail, high if you want them to love you. Bear in mind that the 48Kbps option will barely be covered by one modem which runs at a nominal speed of 56Kbps - to reach speeds of 64Kbps or over will require the installation of an ISDN line. Alternatively, users with growing businesses who wish to keep using the analogue telephone network can choose to buy devices which aggregate as many as three modems through the one connection, such as the WebRamp which is available from Anabelle Bits. These devices will require multiple phone lines, however.

Number of users 1 2 4 8 16 32

"Love" 32* 48 64 96 128 192

"Tolerate" 24 32 48 64 96 128

"Hate" 16 24 32 48 64 96

* In kilobits per second

Source: MUA