Understanding Broadband Speeds 1 Gigabit against 300 Mbps

Broadband speeds have smashed through the limits of what you can imagine.  We are talking about fibre broadband with speed limits going at 100Mbps being the lowest range.  Not too long ago, a telco MyRepublic released a 1 Gigabit per second broadband which practically kills off all competition totally.  Everyone went for the kill and subscribes to the choice which is obviously better.  However, a lot of them do not know that despite getting such a plan, you won’t be able to utilize the 1 Gigabit speeds even if One Republic is able to give you the full speed that it promised.  A lot of users are impressed by the marketing ploy by MyRepublic, wondering why the other 3 telcos are not able to offer speeds that were close despite being the biggest companies out there.  I feel that there is a need to write this article to let the users know and understand Broadband speeds of 1Gigabit against 300 Mbps.

 

How to calculate broadband speeds?

If you read the definition for Mbps, it means Megabits per second.  The smallest form that data can exist is a bit.  And data does not travel in bits.  It travels in bytes as the smallest readable form for a computer.

1 byte = 8 bits

1Kb = 1000 Bytes

1Meg = 1000 KB

 

Calculate a 1 Gigabps plan 

So a 1 Gigabit per second equals to 1000 Megs per second, which works out to be 1000 plus 6 zeros

1000 000000 bits

Now to divide by 8 bits to get the transfer rate in bytes

1000 000000 / 8 = 125 000 000 bytes

divide by 1000 to get KB

125 000 000 / 1000 = 125 000 KB

Divide by another 1000 to get Megabyte

125 000 / 1000 = 125 Meg

Therefore the 1 Gigabit per second broad band will serve downloads at 125 Megs per second which is blazing fast compared to what we used to have.

 

Now to calculate another plan which is 300 Mbps 

300 000000 bits

300 000000 /8 =  375 00000 bits

Divide by 2 x 1000

37.5 Meg per second

 

The truth about why you won’t get 1 Gbps

1) You will only be able to get 1 Gbps if you connect via Ethernet and provided you have an Ethernet card with 1 Gig transfer rate.  The good news is that such Ethernet ports are very common and chances are you will have one in your computer.

 

 

2) Wireless connections will never hit 1 Gigabit

The speed limits of Wi-Fi are as follows

Wireless – B = 11 Mbps ( This is obsolete and if you are still using this, where are you from?)  1.37 Meg per second

Wireless – G = 54 Mbps ( This is what we use as the minimum standard) 6,75 Meg per second

Wireless N = 150 Mbps to 300 Mbps max ( You need a wireless N router and use a Wireless N adapter card )  18.75 Meg per second to 37.5 Meg per second.

If you look at the calculated speeds, you will realize that it is not possible to utilize 125 Meg per second since Wi-Fi is capped at a technology limit of 37.5 Meg per second maxed out. And why is there a 150 Meg, because it is only possible to achieve 300 Mbps if there is no obstacles like walls that will hinder the data transfer.

 

3) Powerline AV plugs

Unless you intend to pull a LAN cable across from where the Fibre port is to your your room, a Powerline AV Plug seems like the ideal solution.  But the fastest one out there only supports 500 Mbps.  Unless a new one is created, it seems like you will only get half of a 1 Gigabit with a Powerline AV.  Which works out to be 62.5 Meg per second.

 

4) How fast is your hard disk transfer rate?

To find out, all you have to do is copy and past a super big file to another folder in within your drive.  Well, it seems that my HDD is only capable of copying at a max of 75 Meg per second and it starts to drop to an average of 50 Meg per second.  So, if my computer is only capable of copying of up to 75 Meg per second within the drive itself.  How is it able to handle 125 Meg per second from MyRepublic?

 

 

Conclusion

A few points from me if it is really important to sign up for a 1 Gigabit plan?

1) No website will serve you speeds of 1 Gigabit.  Not Youtube, Not Microsoft.  Unless you are a Bittorrent freak.  I wonder if the ISP will throttle your speeds when you use Bittorrent?  A HD Youtube video only streams at a speed of around 1 Meg plus.

2) Ahhh, perhaps, many people in the house can share and add up the usage to 1 Gigabit via Wi-Fi.  Nope, because the sharing will be 37.5 Meg max Wireless N speed divided by how many devices in your house.

3) I will spam Powerline AV Plugs all over my house.  This is going to the probably the most feasible solution, since one expensive powerline AV plugs can serve up to 50 Megs per second.  2 users can max it out and make it worth your buck.

4) You will need to end up building a super bad ass rig to be able to fully utilize the bandwidth.  The money you thought could be saved on that plan will be spent on extra hardware.

 

I do not deny that the 1 Gbps plan is the fastest broadband ever and the price is incredible.  However, the fact is that 1 Gbps broadband is an overkill.  You will never find out if it is really delivering at a speed of 125 Meg per second.  Speed test is never a real benchmark, it is only a calculation based on data sent across within a few seconds.

1 Gigabit broadband is not required for the average user.  To me, if you end up waiting in line for the company to dispatch engineers to set it up for you, you might as well opt for the other choices.