When it comes to home internet, many of us take the approach that if it ain’t broke, we don’t fix it. While this does have advantages in making our lives simple, it can also leave a lot of potential speed and savings on the table. Even if you’re not an especially tech-inclined person, there are some basic ideas and steps you can follow to improve your home internet experience, so let’s get started.
Why Reexamine What You Have?
There are two main reasons why checking your internet plan for upgrades is something everybody should do once in a while. Both of these tie into the same core truth: prices of plans tend to decrease over time, and the speed of plans tends to increase over time. The kicker is that, if you’re already paying for an older, slower, and more expensive plan, your internet service provider will rarely inform you that you could upgrade to a faster and cheaper one.
Thus, if you look at an upgrade, you could find a plan as fast as the one you have now, or even much faster, for the same monthly cost, or even less. New connections can also be more reliable and can come with free router upgrades, which improve general home network interconnectivity.
The Right Upgrade for You
To find which kind of plan and speed you should look for, we first need to explore your use case and what you experience already. In general, downloading large files in a home where a connection is shared by many users will place a larger drain on internet requirements. On the other hand, just one or two users who stick to simple functionality means only light requirements. To calculate this directly, let’s use a couple of examples.
The total amount of internet speed available is typically measured in Mbps. Each user and connected system will use a set amount of Mbps. If these go over the limits of your connections, slowdowns, buffering, and even disconnections can occur. Knowing this, you can run some quick calculations on what your home needs.
On the light end, consider if you’re a player of iGaming on online UK websites. These titles, like Fisherman’s Luck and Atlantis Sacred Stones, are highly data-efficient, able to run well even on humble 5 Mbps connections. If you share a home with another person, and this is the most demanding use you have for your internet connection, then two of these connections would add up to the requirements of 10 Mbps.
More extreme examples come from larger homes with several users who engage in uses like ultra-HD video streams. Netflix notes that these can weigh in at 15 Mbps each, but the actual requirement for smooth 4K video streams can run much higher, up to 50 Mbps. If there is a possibility that four people in the same home will be watching four of these UHD streams at once, then a 200 Mbps connection would be required.
With all this information in mind, you’re well on your way to finding a home internet upgrade that suits you better. If you’ve forgotten your speed, it should be included on your monthly bill, or you can find it by talking to your ISP with your account number handle. Also, remember that listed ISP speeds tend to be theoretical maximums, so giving yourself a little leeway by going over what you predict you’ll need can be the best approach. Calculate you predicted usage, look at what’s available, and you’ll be set for at least a couple of years to come.
