BT had finally called for action on internet speed and how they are advertised to the customers, and this brings me to the topic on how to choose your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
For an average person, it sounds pretty straight forward and all you have to do is, choose the one who are cheaper and offers you free equipments. This post is mainly going to be concentrating about DSL connection and not Cable, which I will be covering in the coming days…
When choosing an ISP, in my opinion the lesser the contract period the better, so if you are not happy about their services, you can always move on…
When an ISP offers free equipment, you are pretty much tired to a lengthy contract just like a Mobile phone contract, which could last up to 12 or even 18 months. Think about it, it makes sense… they need to get the equipment money from somewhere…!
Do not go with an ISP by looking at their Adverts, what you should do is to research about the ISP, there are some great websites out there who writes reviews and comparison about ISPs, one of them is called broadbandchoice.co.uk… You can always search around Google and find the ones in your Country!
You have to bear in mind, you won’t normally get the Advertised speed, and for example only 15% of the UK people get the advertised speed of eight megabit per second packages actually got the speed… So if your line can only handle only 4 Mbps, then there is no point paying extra money for an 8 Mbps line which you are not going to get the speed anyways..
The speed depends on a few variables but the main two are, you’re Line and how far away from the Exchange do you live… In a nutshell, you need to live within 1 Mile radius of your exchange to get even close 8 Mbps.
And finally, read the terms and condition and especially contract length, what happens If you decide to cancel the contract, What happens when you want to move house, how much is the cancellation fees etc…
If you are one of those people who are confused about the internet speed and how long it will take to download files over a connection… That’s about 90% of the people… 🙂
These days it is typically measured in Mbps (Mega bits per Second) and some case Kbps (Kilo bits per second). Note, we are talking about Bits and NOT Byte those are totally different things and if you are curious, 1 Byte = 8 Bits
What people get confused is the fact that when an Internet speed is advertised, for example 1 Mbps (1 Mega bit per second) they would automatically think it takes 1 Seconds to send a 1MB file through the internet connection. Please don’t think it will only take you around 4 Seconds to send a typical .mp3 (around 4MB); in fact it will take a longer…
This will show how long it will take to send 1 MB file through a 1 Mbps internet connection…
1 MB = 1 x 1024 KB = 1024 x 1024 bytes
1 KB = 1,048,576 bytes ( x Eight)
= 8,388,608 Bits
So we have a file size of 8,388,608 Bits, and you have a connection speed of 1 Mbps; let’s just assume that your line is fully capable of transferring at the speed of 1 Mbps…
1 Mbps = 1000 Kbps = 1,000,000 Bps
So you have a line which is capable of Carrying 1,000,000 Bits per second and you have a file the size of 8,388,608 Bits… So how long will it take to send it…?
8,388,608 / 1,000,000 = 8.388608 Seconds which is roughly 8 Seconds…
So whenever you see an advert saying 8 Mbps, don’t think it will take you less than a second to send a typical .mp3 file to your friend!
I hope you find post informative for you and thank you for reading!