Measuring broadband

There’s internet speed and internet speed. We see it and read it on the commercials, put it seldom translate. Mbps ? What’s that ? 

Another acronym we can do without, probably, more gobbledygook we know what to do with… At the end it’s often meaningless, unless we bring in the key question: “In comparison to what?” 

To get started, let’s define what “Mbps” stands for. It means “megabits per second” as a measure of internet bandwidth, or the capacity or bandwidth of the download, or upload rate of an internet connection. So the larger number, the better, okay? 

This brings me to two rankings found on Wikipedia, first the mobile download speed, collected in late 2020 by Opensignal. The second is for the list of top 100 fastest fixed broadband internet connection speed in April 2021, according to Speedtest.net. In my opinion, these results are rather optimistic. 

Not so long ago, before I switched to the new 5G home internet, I was getting internet speed in the 5-7 Mbps range, and this still is the case with my mobile phone that isn’t 5G compatible. 

Yesterday, I checked my son’s “fast” Xfinity internet and found it to be half of what I now get from T-Mobile. Speed delivery widely varies with the kind of device used too; from mobile phone to tablets and to personal computers. 

Then there is Google Fiber, that is offered in 17 US cities claim download and upload speeds around 1,000 Mbps, but actual speed measured by Oakla Speedtest claim that early on, Google Fiber’s average actual speeds were 235.67 Mbps for download and 223.31 Mbps for upload. 

So actual numbers are often a small percentage of what’s promised because the actual speed varies all the time. I suggest you download Oakla Speedtest or some equivalent and test all your internet speeds on phones, desktop and laptop computers. 

Just like me, you might end up being very surprised!