How Fast Does My Internet Need To Be?

With the multitude of internet plans available to the average consumer, an important question to consider is – How fast does my internet need to be? It is all well and fine to think you should go for the plan that has the highest speed or data allowance, but is it necessary? This needs to be answered in case you end up paying too much for data or speed that you don’t quite need, or prioritizing speed and bandwidth over data allowance when the truth is that perhaps your needs are the other way around.

For a typical consumer, if they are just browsing the internet, downloading, using email and going on YouTube, normal 4G or ADSL plans should suffice, with the obvious exceptions where if you watch a lot of HD video, then you need to have a bigger data cap.
A business on the other hand has a far wider number of options and variables to consider when choosing a plan. Primarily, these are:

• The number of staff at a particular office that are using the internet connection simultaneously.

The more staff you have the more bandwidth you will require. This is because as more people use a single internet connection at the same time, the more the average users speed experience deteriorates. For example, a 2MBps connection used by two people generally means they both will only be able to access 1MBps if using the internet connection at full load simultaneously. The more users, the more this problem compounds itself. In this case your plan chosen needs to reflect your bandwidth requirements.

• Do you have multiple offices connected to each other and working in a coordinated manner?

Since the amount of traffic involved over the internet is likely to be high due to the volume of work material such as emails with documents and other relevant attachments, it is vital that you have a big data allowance or go for an unlimited data plan such as an enterprise and corporate plan. A company that sends a lot of photos or videos to each other will need more data than one that deals primarily with Word documents.

• How much of your work is done online via cloud based environment or apps?

As a lot of businesses nowadays are shifting to a cloud based environment which not only requires a decent speed and data cap, but also an internet connection that is dependable in terms of connectivity. Since you may not be able to do a lot of work offline because your apps are in the cloud, constant and stable connectivity are important. In such cases a corporate or enterprise solution based on Ethernet over copper or Ethernet over fiber connectivity would be ideal.

In other words, the important factors to note in an internet plan are the speed, the data cap and the stability. Another thing to note is that your upload speed is not neglected since it will affect things like your attachments and uploading material for others to use. As we move towards a more cloud based and collaboration service based workplace, your internet speed is as vital as any other component of your business. No longer a luxury or perk, Internet is the backbone of modern business and communication.