Internet Speed

The speed of the Internet is measured by how quickly your computer can download and upload data, this isn't determined by how fast your computer is (i.e. more memory, faster processor) but by how fast your connection is.

A dial-up connection using a modem to connect the computer to the phone line has not got any faster than 56kb (this was always a theoretical speed but phone line quality and distance from the exchange deteriorates the speed), with the introduction of ISDN the speed was improved but at a high price as this involved having two phone lines to effectively double the speed.

With broadband, the speed has increased by an average of ten times (although faster speeds are available at a higher cost per month) but this is also affected by the line quality and distance from the local exchange if using a phone line to connect to the Internet. With our Wireless BroadBand Services you do not use a phone line and degradation of speed no longer occurs because of the line quality.

The Internet speed is indicated by Kb and Mb, here's what these mean.

Bit : The smallest aspect of data and is either a 0 or a 1.
Byte : Made up of 8 bits and can be used to create any single character.
Kb : Kilobyte (1000 bytes).
Mb : Megabyte (1000 kilobytes).
Gb : Gigabyte (1000 megabytes).

<< Back to previous page