Having a speedy internet connection is more important than it has ever been. From our jobs to schoolwork to entertainment, we do more things online than we ever have before. If your internet connection can’t keep up with all your activities, it’s time to start looking for other providers. Fiber will soon surpass broadband internet as the fastest option available, so a Nashua Fios connection will be your best bet if the infrastructure exists in your area.
Do you need to upgrade your internet connection? Here’s what you can expect from a Nashua Fios internet connection.
More Bandwidth
“Bandwidth” is a term that we throw around a lot when we talk about internet connections. Sometimes, it’s used to refer to internet speed, but that’s not quite accurate. Bandwidth is connected to speed, but it’s not the same thing. The speed is how fast information travels from its source to its destination, while bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can be transferred per second.
We measure both speed and bandwidth in megabits per second (Mbps), which is where the confusion comes in. The key difference is that speed is variable while bandwidth is a fixed amount. Bandwidth is your maximum speed, while your current speed is how fast your internet connection actually is at any given moment.
Faster Speeds
How fast you need your internet connection to be depends on what you do online and how many people are using it at the same time. For example, to stream video in 4K, you need an internet speed of at least 25 Mbps. Online gaming needs about the same. According to Speedtest.net, the average download speed in the US is just under 250 Mbps, which is sufficient for multiple people to use the internet with reliably fast speeds at the same time.
The problem comes with upload speeds. The upload speed is how fast you can send data, while the download speed is how fast you can receive it. Something like streaming video requires you to send very little data, but something like a video call is different. If your job or online schooling requires you to be in video calls a lot, you need reliably fast upload speed. With broadband, upload speeds are much slower; the average is about 34 Mbps. Fiber, on the other hand, is much faster. Upload and download speeds are virtually the same, so you can have clean, crisp video calls with virtually no lag.
