Stream becomes a flood
How much broadband do you need? In the last month, more of us than ever have flirted with streaming TV services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, yet the regulator Ofcom says more than a million homes are still unable to get what it considers a decent internet signal.
Exactly what constitutes “decent” is a movable feast, and is likely to rise exponentially the moment you buy a new TV or other video device. That’s because you’ll want to try out the smart apps that likely came with it, and in ultra-high definition, if possible.
Streaming TV pictures in standard definition eats up around a gigabyte of data every hour – around 40GB a month for an average user. Once you move up to HD, you increase that threefold, and when you try to stream UHD, you’re looking at 7GB an hour and 120GB a month.
The monthly figures are important only if you pay for a capped broadband service, because your allowance could be gone in a week, if you’re not careful. But the hourly usage is down to the quality of your connection.
Bear in mind that if you have a house full of children or teenagers, your own internet use will likely be the tip of a rather large iceberg, and if your connection has to contend with their visits to YouTube, Facebook and goodness knows where else while you try to watch Netflix, you’re going to spend half your evening watching a spinning “buffering” symbol.
Streaming lots of video really needs a fibre-optic connection, and if there’s still time to make a new year’s resolution, you could do worse than making this the year you re-evaluate the way you get online.
Broadband is measured in megabits per second, and fibre offers you up to
52Mb or 76Mb, depending how much you pay. Either way, it’s much faster than any standard deal. Virgin’s cable broadband is speedier still, at up to 200Mb on the most expensive contracts, but you have to live on a street passed by one of their cables.
It’s a myth that fibre broadband is available only in built-up areas, but it does help if your house is within a few hundred yards of one of the BT roadside cabinets that join the wider network to the local telegraph poles and underground ducts.
Perhaps its time to embrace fibre-optic broadband, writes David Behrens.