Fast broadband explained

Technology is improving all the time and broadband is no different. The internet is totally changing the way in which we, the consumer, are interacting with the world. We can now stream television, download films and music and, in order to keep up, broadband is speeding up.

Who is the fastest?

See who won the fastest broadband award in our Top 10 Broadband Awards >> Fastest broadband

But what is broadband speed?

The speed of your broadband signifies the speed at which information can transfer from the internet to your computer. So a connection speed at 8Mbps, which is now the speed most packages provide, can transfer 8 megabytes of information per second. That's roughly 160 times faster than a 56k speed dial up connection.

It is worth noting that the speed of your connection only refers to your download speed, your upload speed tends to be slower. Currently, the fastest broadband available in the UK is 24Mbps, a speed that allows consumers to download songs in a matter of seconds and movies in minutes.

What speed is my current connection?

Test the speed of your current connection on our state-of-the-art speedtest.

Bear in mind that your broadband speed is defined by where you live and depends on a number of factors, including the distance of your house from the nearest telephone exchange. Even if you live just a few miles from a built up area your broadband speed may drop down as low as 0.5Mb.

Currently, the best way of providing fast broadband is with fibre-optic cables, as provided by Virgin Media. With fibre-optic cables in place, we could see broadband speeds shoot up to 100Mbps putting to an end the days of waiting for movies, songs and attachments to download.