Fast Internet? You May Need Consistency More

Technology Blog

Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have advertisements that speak of their blazing fast speeds, affordable prices, and great tier packages for their internet products. Buying the right plan is hard enough if you don't know how intensive your internet use is or how fast your files download on certain speeds, but are you sure that speed is even an issue? To understand why speed matters, and to figure out if you need more specific details such as consistency or special traffic services, here are a few internet service details.

What Does Fast Internet Mean?

In its most basic form, a fast internet connection promise means that information will get from the internet to your computer quickly, but what does quickly actually mean?

Speed is relative, and the internet is in a constant transformation towards becoming more robust. Fast in the 1990s meant being able to load a basic picture in jpeg format within a minute. The beginning of the broadband age meant being able to download a 4 minute song in a few seconds. Now, with broadband internet being an old and contested term, there are so many other things to download quickly.

If you're a person who just visits basic websites, your experience hasn't changed much. You unfortunately can't get by with just dial-up internet speeds, as most popular and updated websites have upgraded to meet the new average internet speeds to deliver better-looking experiences, but in most cases, you're paying the same old dial-up price for a speed that couldn't be comprehended by early internet users.

If you've ever wondered why your internet suddenly drops in performance, there are multiple reasons. Sometimes it's local network congestion, either because the infrastructure isn't ready to handle so many customers at once, or because a natural disaster or less excusable incident cut down on the available cabling to route internet traffic.

There could also be errors caused by brittle wiring going to your building, in the entire neighborhood, or even at the ISP. This is where consistency comes in.

Consistency Is Where Real Complaints Come In

Although many companies have different tiers of speed, price promises, and bundling options, the biggest problem that customers face is internet consistency. The internet isn't a single, solid, on-or-off thing that can be knocked back into order when a specific machine fails; it's actually quite chaotic.

Internet is controlled electricity that moves in the form of precise data packets. Even more wonderful in modern times is fiber-optic internet that moves in the form of light inside glass tubes. Both of these erratic forms of energy converted into data can be corrupted easily, but their transfer media (wires, cables, and fiber) are usually self-contained to the point of hiding all of the complexity.

Any kind of delay--whether from machine failure or wiring damage--slows everything down. Your internet speed promise is for capacity; the plan says that you can and should be able to receive data at a certain speed, but if your information is delayed for any reason, the net result is slower performance.

A single picture might load slower. If the website is programmed to not show certain things until other things are loaded, it could slow down an entire chain of information that simply looks like slow overall internet to you. Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls and streaming sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll, and Hulu can become choppy.

Speak with an internet service provider to discuss issues you've noticed with local internet, and get a connection that consistently matches your needs.

1 November 2017