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What Broadband Speed do I need?
| Broadband Users | Recommended Speed | Type of usage |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 people | 10 - 11Mbps | Surfing the web, checking email, social media, music and SD video (720p) streaming. |
| 3-5 people | 30 – 60Mbps | Multiple moderate users, music and HD (1080) & 4K video streaming, video calling - Skype, Zoom, Facetime, Microsoft Teams, etc, Online multiplayer gaming and downloading large files. |
| 6+ people | 60 - 1000+ Mbps | Multiple heavy users performing all of the above plus frequently downloading/uploading large files, peer-to-peer file sharing, Avid online gamers and live streaming video. |
Broadband & Speed Checker Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are Megabits per second (Mbps)?
Internet speed is measured by how much data the broadband/internet connection can download or upload per second and the speed is shown as bits per second (bps).
Broadband connections transfer thousands of bits per second (bps). We use the prefixes k, M and G to show the thousands of bits that have been transferred.
k = 1,000
M = 1,000k (1,000,000)
G = 1,000M (1,000,000,000)
Connection speeds are displayed Mbps or Gbps as this is the simplest why to display and allow people to compare broadband speed. Display broadband speed in Kbps would result is several unnecessary zeros e.g 30Mbps = 30000Kbps.
What is an acceptable ping (latency) for online gaming?
Online gamers know the importance of a stable broadband internet connection. For a lag free gaming experience, your latency should be under 59ms:
- Good: 0-59 ms
- Okay: 60-129 ms
- Not so good: 130-199 ms
- Poor: 200+ ms
What is download speed?
Download speed is the time it takes to pull data from the internet to your device. The Faster your download speed, the quicker you can access online content without buffering. Download speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
What is Jitter?
Jitter is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Jitter is the time delay from when data is transmitted from one device and when it’s received at the other end.
The longer it takes data to travel to its destination the worse the experience becomes especially on real-time applications such as video conferencing, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, streaming music and online gaming. Voice calls drop or become distorted and video lags and frames skip when jitter is too high.
Network jitter happens due to network congestion, faulty devices or route changes that cause the data to cue somewhere on the circuit (connection) and arrive our of order.
What is an acceptable level of Jitter?
Ideally, jitter should be less than 30 ms or there will be a noticeable degradation in real-time applications. The acceptable levels are:
- Jitter below 30ms
- Network latency less than 150ms
- Packet loss less than 1% of data transfer
What is Latency?
Latency is usually measured in milliseconds (ms) and is a measurement of delay and measures the time it takes for data to get to its destination.
Latency is usually measured as a round trip delay in the time it takes the information for your device (like clicking on a link) to get to its destination and back again. During broadband speed tests, it’s referred to as a the ping rate.
When delays in transmission are small, it is referred to as a low-latency network (good) and longer delays are called a high-latency network (not so good).
A good ping (latency) is 60ms or lower but latency is also dependant on how far the destination is from the source. For example, latency (Ping) for a connection from London to France will be less than London to India because of the distance the information has to travel.
What is Ping?
Ping is the time it takes between sending a request and receiving a response, measured in milliseconds (ms). It is also referred to as Latency.
What is upload speed?
The upload speed is the speed by which your connection transfers data from your device to the internet (e.g to websites or social media sites or apps).
Whenever you view or interact with a internet based application or website, there is a two way conversation taking place between the application/website and your device (PC, laptop, phone, etc).
To display the content from a website on your device, download speed is used. When you navigate a website and click on different links, your upload speed is used to send your clicks to the website so that the content behind the link can be displayed.