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Internet speeds explained
Everybody wants everything yesterday in today’s world. That’s why your business needs fast internet speeds to sharpen its competitive edge.
Let’s quickly break down what internet speeds are, the difference between uploads and downloads, as well as take a look at which internet speeds are required for various business activities.
What is internet speed?
Internet speed measures how fast information or data is transferred in a set amount of time and it’s calculated in megabits per second (Mbps). So when you send an email, your internet speed will determine how quickly it pings into the recipient’s inbox or how long it takes for a page to load and most of us are used to this happening blazingly fast.
And did you know that internet speed is not the same as bandwidth? That’s what dictates the maximum amount of data transmitted over an internet connection in a given amount of time and the higher the bandwidth, the faster your internet speed.
Upload and Download speeds
To upload is to transfer data from your computer to the internet while downloading transfers data from the internet to your computer. Many next-generation gigabit broadband packages are what’s called symmetrical, meaning that download and upload speeds are the same.
But some high-speed Internet connections, including cable modems and DSL are asymmetric and this means that they’re designed to provide much better speed for downloading rather than uploading. Upload speed is crucial for uploading large files without interrupting interactive services like VoIP.
How much internet speed does your business need?
Because internet speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps) and a Megabit is 1/8 as big as a Megabyte, to download a 1MB file in 1 second you would need a connection of 8 Mbps.
The more employees you have, the greater your internet speed requirements and two people downloading data cuts the download speed in half and you’ll need a higher download speed for every employee you add. Tens of employees could require up to 1 Gbps, or 1,000 Mbps, whereas 75 Mbps will probably do the trick for a handful of employees.
Which tasks require which speeds?
The average web page uses about 2 MB (megabytes) of data. That’s 16 Mb (megabits) and browsing the internet doesn’t use all that much data unless the pages are heavy with uncompressed images or video content. It requires about 5 Mbps of download speed per person for heavy web browsing and jumping between sites.
For employees working from home, at least 10 Mbps download speed per person, that’s 1 Mbps upload speed per person is recommended.
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