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In the last decade, the UK has undergone a broadband revolution. While early internet access was provided through slow and unwieldy dial-up connections, the advent of affordable broadband since the early 2000s has made fast web speeds and easy access a possibility for many households. Indeed, it's hard to believe that popular social media sites - like YouTube and Facebook - would be as successful as they are without the widespread availability of fast broadband.
Nevertheless, the popularity of such sites - which may require a high bandwidth - can slow down a broadband connection, particularly if there are several people within one house that access the same line. As a result, many families or other large households have opted to upgrade their broadband connection in recent years as broadband speeds have improved. High-speed broadband, however, can be expensive so it's important to know exactly what speed is right for you and avoid being misled by broadband salesmen.
For starters, it's important to know how broadband speed is measured. Most broadband providers advertise their products in megabits per second, Mbps, while others may measure in kilobits per second (1 Mbps is equal to 1024 Kbps). For example, a basic UK broadband package today may offer up to 8 or 10Mbps in speed, which lets you download a music track in just a few seconds at optimum performance.
However, there are many factors that can affect the actual speed of the broadband you receive so, even though your provider may offer speeds of up to 10Mbps, this is unlikely to be the speed you will always - or ever - receive. One factor that affects the speed of your broadband service is the quality of your phone line. For example, if your telephone line is old or faulty, or if there are several miles between your home and the local exchange, you may find that your broadband speed is slower than expected. Bad weather may also affect broadband speeds, as will the position of your router if you have a wireless connection.
It's crucial to bear in mind, then, that advertised broadband speeds are not usually the actual speed you will experience, so downloading a music track on a 10Mbps connection may well take several minutes, rather than seconds. And while a 10Mbps connection is usually adequate for a small household with one or two computing devices that are used for general internet browsing, it's unlikely to be sufficient in a house where several machines simultaneously access rich content - like BBC iPlayer or Spotify - on a regular basis.
It's in households like this that an upgrade to 20Mbps broadband or greater is likely to be necessary to enjoy reliable internet speeds that facilitate such services. And with many providers in fierce competition to attract new customers and retain their existing ones, cheap broadband internet deals on high-speed connections are usually easy to find.
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