Broadband Speed Tests

Broadband internet is going to be in every home in the UK by 2012, and currently over 60% of the population have a broadband connection of at least 2Mbps. However, broadband speeds can and will be much higher than this for most people, with ADSL broadband offering up to 8Mbps speeds for the average consumer via their existing copper land line connection, but speeds of up to 24Mbps available in certain areas. Cable Broadband is available to over 50% of UK home owners and thanks to fibre optic technology can currently reach speeds of 50Mbps, but this speed increase will cost more per month than slower options. Mobile broadband which uses 3G mobile telephone networks rather than relying on a fixed land line offers between 3.6Mbps and 7.2Mbps depending on the performance on the network and your hardware, but in future years 4G will allow 100Mbps downloads for mobile users, though this is a little way off.

Because many people will already have broadband provider but may be looking to move off to greener pastures as the end of their contracts loom, the importance of broadband speed tests becomes more obvious. A broadband speed test is a simple online experiment you can perform in your own home whether you have a broadband or dial up connection of any type, and there are many different sites which will offer a free speed test to help you make a decision about your next broadband provider. A broadband speed test works like this. You`ll click a button to start the test, and then the site will download a small file from their servers to your PC and record the speed at which this occurs, usually representing it on screen in real time so that you can see the speed. Then a small file will be uploaded from your PC all the way back to the speed test servers and again this will be recorded. The idea is that you can then compare the speed that your line operates at with the advertised speed that your broadband provider told you would be available. If there is a large discrepancy then you may have cause to contact technical support or look for a different provider.

When performing a broadband speed test make sure that you haven`t got any other programs open and using your broadband connection as this will distort the results. Also check that no one else is using the internet to download or surf so that you get unbiased results. It`s also important that you choose a broadband speed test which operates from the country or area in which your connection is based, as using a foreign broadband speed test site will give you inaccurate results as the data it sends to and from your PC will have a lot further to travel. With the broadband speed test results in hand you are armed and ready to choose a new provider based on speed, and using price comparison websites to check which services are available in your area is advisable.