Any idea how much internet "usage" is used by online gaming?

My brother is thinking about getting broadband installed, but just for online PS3 gaming (and possibly for downloading DLC).

He's looking at a broadband and calls option which allows for 10GB "monthly usage". Putting the DLC aside (it's pretty obvious what that uses), is there a way of having a rough idea of how much usage is used by online gaming? I'm guessing that he might play, say a couple of hours each evening, and maybe more on a weekend.

I know there is the option of paying more and having unlimited usage, but it costs a lot more.

I'm in the UK and it's BT. I'm with Virgin Media myself, I don't play games online much, but I use the internet a lot on the computer, and I have unlimited usage.

Not as much as you migh think.... Some games can run comfortably on as little as 56kbps connections but then you get FPS games which probably require 100kb download speeds to be lag free. Note that some people here will blow it out of proportion and say you need 8Mb Broadband to join a lagfest but its not the case. Ping and Latency judge these things not the speed of download.

Just found this:

At 20 KB, if you played 24 hours a day, all day every day:
20 * 60 = 1200 KB /minute
1200 * 60 = 72000 KB /hour
72000 * 24 = 1728000 KB /day
1728000 * 30 = 51840000 KB/month
51840000 / 1024 = 50625 MB/month
50625 / 1024 = 49.4384765625 GB /month

4 hours per day is 4 /24 = 16% of this.
Therefore, your gaming theoretical maximum would be
49.438 * .16 = 7.91 GB per month.

Google FTW.

Thanks, seems like 10GB would be enough then. They only charge £1 for each 1GB you go over by anyway, so it's not too bad.

Having said that, I just found what is basically the same phone and broadband deal from PlusNet with a 60GB limit. Never heard of PlusNet before now though. Anyone (in UK) know if they are any good?

but Patches

Demos

Downloadable Games

Firmware Updates

True. I think it's a shame that most companies impose usage limits

I use 20Gb Broadband but my area only realistically gets 5Gb... We only pay for the 20Gb to get unlimited usage and no never heard of PlusNet but i'm with Sky Broadband... See if your brother has Sky he might get a good deal if he buys Broadband too. If you go to Here, you might find a much better deal.

On this site PlusNet has the best review score... sounds good to me.

Not as much as you migh think.... Some games can run comfortably on as little as 56kbps connections but then you get FPS games which probably require 100kb download speeds to be lag free. Note that some people here will blow it out of proportion and say you need 8Mb Broadband to join a lagfest but its not the case. Ping and Latency judge these things not the speed of download.

Just found this:

At 20 KB, if you played 24 hours a day, all day every day:
20 * 60 = 1200 KB /minute
1200 * 60 = 72000 KB /hour
72000 * 24 = 1728000 KB /day
1728000 * 30 = 51840000 KB/month
51840000 / 1024 = 50625 MB/month
50625 / 1024 = 49.4384765625 GB /month

4 hours per day is 4 /24 = 16% of this.
Therefore, your gaming theoretical maximum would be
49.438 * .16 = 7.91 GB per month.

Google FTW.

JohnF111

Seems like PlusNet is the way to go. He has a BT line, and he lives in one of the "cheap" areas, so they are cheapest, and with a nice big 60GB usage limit. Turns out I'm in a "cheap" area too. If PlusNet did TV as well then I'd switch over myself! Anyway, thanks for the help eveyone.

I think he'll be downloading a lot of DLC and demos, so it seems like a bigger allowance would be worth going for. At least there wouldn't be any extra charges to worry about