subject: Broadband speeds - should you worry about them? [print this page] Broadband speeds - should you worry about them?
There's always a lot of talk about broadband speeds - the lack of them at certain times, whether they're advertised correctly and what's being done to make them faster in the future.
But what does this mean for your average actual household with an internet connection? Should you worry about it?
There's a certain school of thought that says it doesn't really matter which broadband deals you use, your speeds will be more or less the same doubly so in the evenings.
Broadband is bound to get congested, like all utilities it works in finite amounts but unlike - say - electricity where more capacity can be made available in preparation for the nationwide kettle turn on post EastEnders or Coronation Street it's on the local level.
Think of it like a road that gets congested during the rush hour - it's more or less inevitable. Like roads, too, there's a 'build it and they'll come' aspect to broadband: making more bandwidth available and offering higher speeds is likely to increase internet usage since it'll make internet TV and more gaming platforms a reality for thousands. Broadband congestion is, then, somewhat inevitable.
However, that doesn't mean that the fastest broadband is an impossible dream.
There are several things providers can do to take care of congestion at peak times.
Looking out for broadband providers with fair and good fair use policies - the policy of taking care of the bandwidth hogs, the broadband equivalent of a herd of cows on the road, by slowing them down to open up more bandwidth for everyone else - is a good start.
Some providers also publish their traffic management policies.
Traffic management is making one activity more important than another.
For example, some providers that offer gaming broadband make gaming the most important activity in their policy so it's the last thing to get slowed down when there's some congestion.
While this doesn't technically make broadband faster in actual fact it does increase the speed at which you're actually doing things so the actual effect is an improvement in experience when you're doing the things online that you want to do.
In addition, fast broadband can have advantages even when you're not getting through a period of congestion: a ferrari's no good in a traffic jam after all but it will be useful once you get out onto the open road.
Faster broadband speeds can help you to watch high-quality video content, download files quicker and upload faster too.
In all, then, should you worry about broadband speeds? I'd say yes, but don't panic about getting top speeds just concentrate on getting usability for your everyday activities whether you go to Sky or Virgin or someone else entirely.
