How Much Bandwidth Do I Need?
Are you thinking of switching Internet service providers? Or perhaps you’re getting frustrated with frequent buffering while streaming music or movies, and you’re wondering if a faster download speed would solve the problem. There are many factors that affect your downloading and uploading speed, including your hardware and your Internet service plan. In many cases, upgrading to a service plan with a higher bandwidth offers dramatic improvements in speed.
Understanding Internet Bandwidth
Internet bandwidth is a measurement of how much data can be transmitted during a set period of time. The higher the bandwidth is, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted simultaneously. It may help to picture an hourglass. When the hourglass is turned over, the sand begins to travel slowly through the chokepoint. If you were to place that sand in a funnel with a wider mouth, the sand would travel much faster.
The measurement of bandwidth is bits per second. There are eight bits in every one byte. One megabyte (MB) is the equivalent of eight megabits. This means that if you have a one Mbps bandwidth speed, a file that is one MB will require eight seconds to download. A five-gigabyte film would require about 11 hours to download using that same bandwidth speed.
Identifying How Much Bandwidth You Need
The amount of bandwidth you need depends on how many people are using your connection and what they are using it for. If it’s just you in the household and you only go online to use email and social media, a low bandwidth speed of one to six Mbps should work fine. If you work from home using your own bandwidth, frequently share files and download movies, or if there are multiple people using your network, you’ll definitely want more bandwidth—about 10 to 20 Mbps.
You can get fast Internet speeds at affordable rates when you make the switch to Valley TeleCom Group. Their other residential and business services include reliable phone services. To inquire about their current promotional offers or bandwidth speeds, you can call a friendly representative at (520) 384-2231.
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