1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
3 <html xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir=
"ltr">
5 <meta http-equiv=
"Content-Type" content=
"text/html;charset=utf-8" />
6 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?
</title>
7 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
8 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
15 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen
</a>
23 <div class=
"title">What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?
</div>
24 <div class=
"date"> 1st May
2015</div>
25 <div class=
"body"><p>Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost
26 to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the
27 cost of around
20 million NOK for all the calls in a year. I got
28 curious and wondered what the same calculation would look like today.
29 To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is needed for each
30 minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in Norway sums up to,
31 and the cost of data storage.
</p>
33 <p>The
2005 numbers are from
34 <a href=
"http://www.digi.no/analyser/2005/10/04/vi-prater-stadig-mindre-i-roret">digi.no
</a>,
35 the
2012 numbers are from
36 <a href=
"http://www.nkom.no/aktuelt/nyheter/fortsatt-vekst-i-det-norske-ekommarkedet">a
37 NKOM report
</a>, and I got the
2013 numbers after asking NKOM via
38 email. I was told the numbers for
2014 will be presented May
20th,
39 and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very
40 different from the numbers from
2013.
</p>
42 <p>The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted
43 quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that
8 Kbit/s is
44 enough. See for example a
45 <a href=
"http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/voice/voice-quality/7934-bwidth-consume.html#topic1">summary
46 on voice quality from Cisco
</a> for some alternatives.
8 Kbit/s is
60
47 Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes
48 to get the storage requirements.
</p>
50 <p>Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies,
51 availability requirements etc. But a simple way to calculate can be
52 to use the price of a TiB-disk (around
1000 NOK) and double it to take
53 space, power and redundancy. It could be much higher with high speed
54 and good redundancy requirements.
</p>
56 <p>But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone
57 calls in Norway? Not much. Here is a small table showing the
58 estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium
59 and large organisations:
</p>
62 <tr><th>Year
</th><th>Call minutes
</th><th>Size
</th><th>Price in NOK
</th></tr>
63 <tr><td>2005</td><td align=
"right">24 000 000 000</td><td align=
"right">1.3 PiB
</td><td align=
"right">3 mill
</td></tr>
64 <tr><td>2012</td><td align=
"right">18 000 000 000</td><td align=
"right">1.0 PiB
</td><td align=
"right">2.2 mill
</td></tr>
65 <tr><td>2013</td><td align=
"right">17 000 000 000</td><td align=
"right">950 TiB
</td><td align=
"right">2.1 mill
</td></tr>
68 <p>This is the cost of buying the storage. Maintenance need to be
69 taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise
70 for the reader. But it is obvious to me from those numbers that
71 recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be
72 stopped because it is too expensive. I wonder if someone already is
73 collecting the data?
</p>
76 <div class=
"tags">Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance
</a>.
</div>
94 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (
7)
</a></li>
96 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (
6)
</a></li>
98 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (
1)
</a></li>
100 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (
4)
</a></li>
102 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (
1)
</a></li>
109 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (
2)
</a></li>
111 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (
3)
</a></li>
113 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (
8)
</a></li>
115 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (
7)
</a></li>
117 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (
1)
</a></li>
119 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (
2)
</a></li>
121 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (
2)
</a></li>
123 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (
2)
</a></li>
125 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (
5)
</a></li>
127 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (
6)
</a></li>
129 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
131 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (
5)
</a></li>
138 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (
11)
</a></li>
140 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (
9)
</a></li>
142 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (
9)
</a></li>
144 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (
6)
</a></li>
146 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
148 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (
10)
</a></li>
150 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (
7)
</a></li>
152 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (
3)
</a></li>
154 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (
5)
</a></li>
156 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (
7)
</a></li>
158 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (
9)
</a></li>
160 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
167 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (
7)
</a></li>
169 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (
10)
</a></li>
171 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (
17)
</a></li>
173 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (
12)
</a></li>
175 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (
12)
</a></li>
177 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (
20)
</a></li>
179 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (
17)
</a></li>
181 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
183 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (
9)
</a></li>
185 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (
17)
</a></li>
187 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (
10)
</a></li>
189 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
196 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (
16)
</a></li>
198 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (
6)
</a></li>
200 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (
6)
</a></li>
202 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (
7)
</a></li>
204 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (
3)
</a></li>
206 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (
2)
</a></li>
208 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (
7)
</a></li>
210 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
212 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (
4)
</a></li>
214 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
216 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
218 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (
1)
</a></li>
225 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (
2)
</a></li>
227 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (
1)
</a></li>
229 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (
3)
</a></li>
231 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (
3)
</a></li>
233 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
235 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (
14)
</a></li>
237 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (
12)
</a></li>
239 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (
13)
</a></li>
241 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (
7)
</a></li>
243 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (
9)
</a></li>
245 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (
13)
</a></li>
247 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (
12)
</a></li>
254 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (
8)
</a></li>
256 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (
8)
</a></li>
258 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (
12)
</a></li>
260 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (
10)
</a></li>
262 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
264 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (
3)
</a></li>
266 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (
4)
</a></li>
268 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (
3)
</a></li>
270 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (
1)
</a></li>
272 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
274 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
276 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
283 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (
5)
</a></li>
285 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
296 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (
13)
</a></li>
298 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (
1)
</a></li>
300 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (
1)
</a></li>
302 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (
4)
</a></li>
304 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (
8)
</a></li>
306 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (
15)
</a></li>
308 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (
2)
</a></li>
310 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (
2)
</a></li>
312 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (
109)
</a></li>
314 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (
153)
</a></li>
316 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (
10)
</a></li>
318 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (
15)
</a></li>
320 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (
13)
</a></li>
322 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (
4)
</a></li>
324 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (
276)
</a></li>
326 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (
23)
</a></li>
328 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (
12)
</a></li>
330 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (
15)
</a></li>
332 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (
9)
</a></li>
334 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (
14)
</a></li>
336 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (
42)
</a></li>
338 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (
10)
</a></li>
340 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (
19)
</a></li>
342 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (
9)
</a></li>
344 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (
8)
</a></li>
346 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (
2)
</a></li>
348 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (
1)
</a></li>
350 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (
8)
</a></li>
352 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (
32)
</a></li>
354 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (
260)
</a></li>
356 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (
176)
</a></li>
358 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (
16)
</a></li>
360 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (
2)
</a></li>
362 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (
51)
</a></li>
364 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (
84)
</a></li>
366 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (
1)
</a></li>
368 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (
1)
</a></li>
370 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (
11)
</a></li>
372 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (
3)
</a></li>
374 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (
9)
</a></li>
376 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (
1)
</a></li>
378 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (
4)
</a></li>
380 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (
2)
</a></li>
382 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (
41)
</a></li>
384 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (
4)
</a></li>
386 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (
4)
</a></li>
388 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (
46)
</a></li>
390 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (
3)
</a></li>
392 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (
9)
</a></li>
394 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (
31)
</a></li>
396 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (
2)
</a></li>
398 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (
2)
</a></li>
400 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (
8)
</a></li>
402 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (
50)
</a></li>
404 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (
4)
</a></li>
406 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (
35)
</a></li>
412 <p style=
"text-align: right">
413 Created by
<a href=
"http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6
</a>