Everything to Know About Bandwidth: Calculate What You Need

When we talk about internet connection, we often hear one technical jargon which we think we know but we don’t. The term is “Internet Bandwidth” and yes I am right, it is the most misunderstood concept of the internet. You must be wondering what possibly be wrong with the meaning of term bandwidth, isn’t it is the speed of the internet. Well, sorry to break the shackles but it is not the speed of the internet.

That’s a bummer!!!

Then what is Internet bandwidth? It is the concept I will address in this post. You will not only get to know the real meaning of bandwidth but understand the entire concept behind it. I will address some common myths and debunk them so that you’ll have a proper understanding of every tenet under the term bandwidth. I will also clear out the elementary differences between some of the terms such as Mbps and MBps.

So, without further ado, let’s get you started,

Bandwidth is more like Plumbing

Before I build upon the term I mentioned above let’s understand what bandwidth is.

The term bandwidth is generally referred to the amount of information per unit of time i.e., second, your transmission medium can handle. Bandwidth is expressed in bits per second. For instance, a fine example will be 72mbps which denotes your internet connection has the data transfer rate of 72 million bits each second.

The analogy of bandwidth is quite similar to plumbing. Fascinating right?

Allow me to support the above statement!!!

Data to Bandwidth is same as water to the size of pipe

Imagine a pipeline which allows water to flow. The maximum amount of water flow through the pipe is somewhat related to the diameter of the pipe. It defines the maximum amount of water to be flown through the pipe.

The same concept is with the bandwidth. The bandwidth is just like the diameter of the pipe through which your data will flow.

Let’s discuss some more soliloquy of plumbing to understand the working of bandwidth.

Assume that the size of the pipe (the bandwidth) stays of the same size when connected to your home, the faucets and the showers (devices using the data) will have access to the water in the system. The water pressure at each and every point (assume it to be the perceived speed for each device) will condense. Why condense? Because there will be only that amount of water available to your house.

In a layman’s language, bandwidth is the amount which is fixed as per you paid for. One can stream a video online but as soon as someone starts a download, the data flow will adjust as per the allocated bandwidth.

Myth Buster: Difference between Mbps & MBps

It is paramount to understand all tenets of bandwidth. They will help you in understanding the concept and avoid any future confusion when you are selecting Connect Broadband in Chandigarh. Your device use one term for the bandwidth, your ISP uses another and the video streaming services use yet another term.

Contrary to popular belief, MBps is not as same as Mbps. The first term is Megabytes per second and the other term is Megabits. Both the factors are different from each other by the factor of 8 (as there are 8 Bits in one Byte).

So, if your broadband connection is showing you a speed of 15Mbps then in terms of MBps, the speed will be 1.875MBps.

Major Difference between Bandwidth & Speed of Internet

One of the most common confusion we all face is, is bandwidth and the download speed are same?

When you are browsing the internet, you can use the term bandwidth in place of the speed of internet as it wouldn’t make any difference. However, in the case of higher bandwidth such as 72Mbps (or so!!!), there is a minor difference which you must know. Suppose you are downloading a video. The bandwidth allocated to you is 72Mbps. But when you start the download, you get a maximum speed of only 18Mbps.

There are many physical barriers which may have affected the speed of your internet because as per the quota you must get a speed of 72Mbps. So, we can sum it up as the bandwidth of the internet is the maximum amount of data you can use and the speed of internet is how fast you can use that allocated data for downloading or uploading.

In a Nutshell

So, at last, I would like to conclude the post. The speed of internet is very crucial in this digitized world. Knowing about these elementary tenets will help you to understand and choose better broadband services.

I hope that this post clears out the foggy thoughts you always had for bandwidth and speed of the internet. Do you agree with the information or not? Let me know via comments and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Adios for now!!!