How To Decide On Your Broadband Download Allowance

Deciding on how big your broadband download allowance should be is a vexed question amongst those comparing broadband deals

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Not only does it require you to estimate just how much your household is using the internet and what you're up to - no mean feat if you're a family or even if you're just not particularly attentive about your day to day activities - it's becoming more and more important no matter who you are as broadband providers reduce prices for smaller download allowances and introduce fair use policies.

Let's unpick that last comment a little more.

Those that download a lot are likely to be caught out by broadband deals that purport to be unlimited but are actually restricted 'in the small print' with a fair use policy that puts a limit on the amount they can do online and that will punish those that go over the (sometimes not concretely set out) limit with either severely slowing the connection or by cutting them off altogether.

So, big downloaders need to estimate their usage.

On the other hand, those that don't download much are likely to find that the best value deals are those with a small download limit. However, many people are so worried about their download limits that they'll go for a unlimited deal - spending far more than they need to - in order to avoid the question entirely.

So, small downloaders need to estimate their usage too.

It used to be the case the broadband providers would provide useful information on downloads but now even the big guns such as Sky or Virgin seem to have given up on this.

To estimate usage start by breaking down your time online into different activities (for example, browsing simple webpages or streaming video content) and then work out (roughly) how many MBs you've used.

Looking at webpages won't have used many at all while streaming video would have used more.

Remember that usage allowance is written out in GBs and that there are 1024 MBs to every 1GB.

Also bear in mind that some broadband providers are unlimited at some times and have a download allowance at other.

Ask anyone 'Is Plusnet Any Good?' for example, and you'll get an overview of the service whereby the provider doesn't include off-peak downloads in the allowance 'count'.

This can be useful if, for example, you have a large software download to do now and again. You don't want to be paying for an eighteen or twenty four month contract just on the offchance that that'll happen and you'll be left in the internet lurch.

by: Julia Cook

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