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Top 5 Broadband Deals
| Provider | Package | Speed | Cap/Limit | Contract Length | Monthly Cost | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TalkTalk Broadband | Essentials | 24 | 40 | Free | £6.5 | 0800 049 7863 | ||||
| BT Broadband | Broadband and Evening & Weekend Calls | 20 | 10 | Free | £14 | 0800 328 1522 | ||||
| Virgin Media Broadband | 30MB Unlimited Broadband & Weekend Calls | 30 | Unlimited | Free | £18.5 | 0845 528 0232 | ||||
| Sky Broadband | Unlimited Broadband & Evening / Weekend Calls (Joining without TV) | 20 | Unlimited | £25 | £5 | 0800 840 5344 | ||||
| Plusnet Broadband | Value Broadband with Evening & Weekend Calls | 20 | 10 | Free | £3.24 | 0800 368 0080 |
The Download Low-Down
How long will it take me to download a DVD?
The extended versions of Lord of the Rings will always be substantially larger than Friday the 13th Part III, but the average size of a DVD is about 4.7GB, or a little over 4,800 megabytes.
A DVD this size would take around 14 and a half hours to download over a 768Kbps (kilobits per second) DSL line. This seems very primitive when compared to the 7 minutes and 16.27 seconds offered by a 100Mbps set-up in the home. The latter is capable of sending a massive 100,000,000 bits every second, hence the radical change in download speed!
What about downloading a normal-sized webpage?
The exact figures are open to variation, as web pages can differ greatly in size, but using the example of a DSL line at 768Kbps downloading a webpage, it could be around 3 seconds.
The speed is affected by the number of items that need to be downloaded on one page, so if a website has loads of images and blocks of content then there could be 80 different pieces, or requests, to download, and each one could be between 150KB and 250KB in size. In this case, it would take longer for the DSL line.
Using a 20Mbps connection will have a significant effect on the speed of webpage download. The BBC homepage www.bbc.co.uk contains 98 separate requests for download, each coming in at around 155KB in size, but with the 20Mbps connection speed the download can take as little as 1 second.
What is the speed for a song from iTunes?
Once again, the size can vary; Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin dwarfs Song 2 by Blur, but let’s say the average song is around 8MB. According to 123myip.co.uk a DSL line at 768Kbps would download in just under a minute and a half.
Alternatively, a 2Mbps connection would get the speed down to 30 seconds, whilst anything above 25Mbps would see the speed drop to 2 seconds or lower.
And what about streaming HD video content?
You would need to have a broadband connection before you even consider streaming high quality video from sites such as iPlayer and YouTube! Anything upwards of 8Mbps will give you full HD (1080p) video streaming, which is an impressive watch.
This is obviously the most desirable, but with 5-8Mbps you will still have the capacity for some high definition streaming at 1080p. Once you drop down to 2.5-5Mbps, then the HD is at 720p, whilst 1-2.5Mbps is suited for standard definition viewing.
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