Using OnLive downloads around 3GB of data per hour

Estimates from a number of online sources claim that playing games via new streaming service OnLive consumes between 2GB and 3GB every hour.

Tech blogs Techbeast.net and The Perils of Parallel estimate hourly usage at 2.9GB and 3GB respectively, while UK’s biggest ISP BT has a slightly lower estimate of 2B per hour.

This, of course, poses a problem to any internet users on either a capped monthly broadband service or an ISP that employs traffic management policies.

So, for instance, a consumer on Virgin Media’s 20GB broadband service will have to be careful about the time of day they choose to play.

Virgin enforces a fair usage policy where anyone who downloads more than 7GB between 10am and 3pm or 3.5GB between 4pm or 9pm sees their broadband speed cut by 75 per cent to 5GB for five hours.

That means they Virgin users on that particular tariff will only be able to play between one and two hours in the evening without being penalised. 50GB customers are not subject to traffic management.

BT offers an Unlimited OnLive option for many of its UK customers.