Internet Speed & Bandwidth

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J

jshhndsd

Commendable
Sep 12, 2016
57
0
1,630
Hi,

Can someone explain how ISP's determine download & upload speeds for different plans.

Can bandwidth and speed be used interchangeably or do they mean different things?

Thanks.
 
Solution
Barty1884
They are different, although related.

A bit of light reading: http://www.starhub.com/personal/support/broadband/things-to-know-about-broadband/bandwidth-vs-speed.html

To quote the basic analogy from the site:
Imagine that you're driving on a road with 4 lanes in a car that can go at a maximum of 300km/hr. No matter the amount of lanes on the road, your car can only go at a maximum of 300km/hr and no faster. However, this same road with four lanes comes in handy when your family members having their own cars share the same road and reach the same destination at a shorter time as opposed to having a single lane road where they will have to queue up.
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How they determine speeds on a per plan basis takes into account the...
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740
They are different, although related.

A bit of light reading: http://www.starhub.com/personal/support/broadband/things-to-know-about-broadband/bandwidth-vs-speed.html

To quote the basic analogy from the site:
Imagine that you're driving on a road with 4 lanes in a car that can go at a maximum of 300km/hr. No matter the amount of lanes on the road, your car can only go at a maximum of 300km/hr and no faster. However, this same road with four lanes comes in handy when your family members having their own cars share the same road and reach the same destination at a shorter time as opposed to having a single lane road where they will have to queue up.
Click to expand...

How they determine speeds on a per plan basis takes into account the infrastructure they have in place, the equipment they're providing for a specific plan, and which 'switch' they'll 'turn on'.
 
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Solution
N

nigelivey

Splendid
Dec 6, 2011
2,648
50
29,540
There is a difference between raw Speed which you could equate to latency and bandwidth. Speed is how fast something travels and bandwidth which is how much can travel. Think of the water analogy. High pressure / low pressure and bore of the pipe. Common usage of the term Internet Speed makes these interchangeable but in reality a drastically high latency (low speed) is as detrimental as small bandwidth for certain applications.
 
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