The small-signal amplitude modulation, threshold, and spectral characteristics of microdisk lasers with InGaAs/GaAs quantum well-dots active region were studied jointly with the spectral and threshold parameters of edge-emitting lasers made from the same epitaxial heterostructure. Using the obtained material parameters, the relative intensity noise of the microdisk lasers was calculated as a function of the bias current and side-mode suppression ratio. It is shown that the integral noise is low enough for error-free optical data transmission with the maximum possible bitrate limited by the microdisk modulation bandwidth, if the bias current is above 1.7× threshold current (for side mode suppression ratio > 20 dB).