Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a measure of the amount of data that can be transmitted through a connection over a given amount of time.

Bandwidth, also called data transfer rate, is usually expressed in bits per second (bps).

What is download/upload?

When the information flows from somewhere e.g. a web-page or a site to your PC you are "downloading". On the other hand when you send information e.g. request for a web-page, or you are posting pictures on your facebook, you are "uploading"

How do I consume bandwidth online?

Everything sent or received over the internet consists of bits of data, whether it's a web page, an email, a music track or a video clip. 

The more you use the Internet, the more files you download or upload so the higher your Internet usage or bandwidth consumption becomes. Usage is calculated in kilobytes (KB), Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB) – where 1MB = 1024KB and 1GB =1024MB.

For example, a typical music track is 5MB, and a 2 hour DVD quality film is 1GB.

The total amount of data you send and receive each month is your total monthly usage

How to manage your consumption based tariff.

Turn off broadband when not in use.

Compress file if there will be need for downloading and uploading.

Prevent automatic download and uploads.

Turn off automatic windows update and news feed.

When on a multiple access or wifi enabled device, password the device to prevent unauthorized connection.

What can I do with 1 GB (Giga Byte) download?

      One GB is 1024 Megabyte or 1073741824 bytes. You can do the following with 1 GB download limit:

An average web page is about 50 kilobytes in size - so you could download around 20,000 web pages for 1 gigabyte.

An hour of surfing the web would be around 10 megabytes (200 pages) so you could surf non-stop for about 100 hours for 1 gigabyte.

An hour of streamed radio would use about 15-20 megabytes.

An hour of streamed video uses around 100-150 megabytes.

Playing an online game typically uses about 10-15 megabytes per hour.

Emails are very small - so 100 emails would be just 1 megabyte - or 100,000 emails for 1 gigabyte! (of course the attachments count extra)

A super-high resolution (5-6 megapixel) digital camera JPEG picture or typical MP3 music file is about 2-3 megabytes so you could download 350-500 of these images/music files for 1 gigabyte. Very few users would actually exceed the download limits set.

Which plan will best suit your Internet usage?

The plan you choose will depend on how much Internet data you are likely to use each month.  This is essentially a function of what you do every day online and the number of people who use the internet service. For example, if much of what you do online revolves around emails and facebook, it means your bandwidth usage is low and you have no need for high bandwidth allocations which cost more.  A person who is engaged in a daily transfer (either upload or download) of heavy data such as Multimedia streaming, emails with heavy attachments, music videos and other such heavy files would require a plan with high bandwidth offering to fit with his consumption pattern

What to do if your usage at the end of the month is higher than expected? 
Your usage level depends on what you and other persons who have access to your network in your household or office do online. If your usage has increased a lot in a month, check how your household's or staff surfing habits have changed and what extra things are being done online. Browsing web pages and sending emails are typically low usage, video streaming and downloading music are medium usage, whereas high-definition video streaming, downloading TV programmes and movies or using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications can be very high usage. 

An increased usage will require your upgrading to a plan with a higher usage allowance or if the use is unauthorized, you secure your service using appropriate security pass codes.

Calculating my bandwidth usage

You can calculate your bandwidth usage from your upload/download speed: take the speed of your transfers for example 25kbyte/sec dl and 12kbyte/sec dl (which makes 37kbyte/sec) and multiply it with the time (in sec) you maintained this speed. You will get the data size in kilobyte.

There are a couple of apps online which will require you inputting the activities you carryout online and it calculates your estimated usage.  This will guide your selection of an appropriate tariff plan.

Broadband Speeds

When talking about broadband speeds we are referring to how quickly you can get information from the Internet to your computer. This is known as your download speed. How quickly you can send information from your computer to the Internet is known as your upload speed. We measure broadband speeds in Mbps (Megabits per second) sometimes referred to as "Meg" e.g. 2Mbps or 2Meg.