When shopping for a broadband package, you’ll see a lot of jargon related to internet speed, which can be confusing. This article will help you to understand what these words mean, and how they impact your browsing experience.
What is bandwidth?
Internet bandwidth is essentially the carrying capacity of your internet connection, how much data it can move at one time. During peak usage times, when more data is transmitted and therefore bandwidth is restricted, your home broadband can be affected, and you may notice slower speeds
What is Mbps?
You’ll often see home broadband measured in Mbps, which stands for megabits per second. The higher the Mbps, the faster data can move from one point to another. Higher Mbps means no buffering when streaming movies or TV shows, and it takes less time to download games.
Comparing Mbps for downloads vs uploads
Internet speeds are divided into download and upload. Download speed determines how fast data is transferred to your device, such as when loading webpage content or streaming videos or music. Upload speed determines how fast you can transfer data from your device to somewhere else, like when sending an email attachment or sharing videos or photos. Broadband packages usually have a download speed that is higher than the upload speed. However, using fibre broadband it’s now possible to have the same speed for download and upload – this is known as symmetrical speeds.
What impacts broadband speeds?
While an ISP (Internet Service Provider) may advertise a maximum download speed of 60 Mbps, you may not always experience those full speeds. Factors like lots of people on the broadband network at the same time, distance to your nearest exchange, or number of connected devices in your home can slow your broadband speed. So, you’ll usually experience speeds below the advertised rate.
What is latency?
While Mbps refers to data transfer speeds, another important metric is latency. Latency measures the time it takes data packets to be sent and received across the network. It’s measured in milliseconds (ms). Low latency connections are better as they have faster response times and high latency connections experience noticeable lag. Latency becomes very important for time-sensitive applications like video conferencing, online gaming, or even just web browsing. Most broadband providers have an average latency of around 20-60ms. Look for latency rates under 75ms for best performance.
