Broadband ADSL help

What is 'Bandwidth'? 

Simply put, it is the amount of data that can be transferred through a digital connection in a given time period (i.e., the connection's bit rate), usually measured in bits or bytes per second. Therefore the bandwidth of the Enterprise 2000 Account is 2048kbps.

What is a 'Bandwidth Allowance'?

Our less expensive broadband accounts have a limited amount of transfer usage or 'Bandwidth Allowance' - ie. the total amount of traffic (uploads and downloads) that take place on your line in a specific amount of time (eg. a month). For example, if you download an artwork file of 17mb and send 2 emails each with a picture attachment of 1.2mb, your total bandwidth usage for that session will be 19.4mb. 

• Web browsing averaging out at around 10Mb/hour
• A high-quality photo is around 1.5Mb, a low-quality one is around 150k
• A music track is about 4Mb
• A single streamed broadband music video is around 13Mb
• Playing an online game like Counterstrike is around 10-12Mb/hour
• Listening to one hour of online radio is around 18Mb/hour
• Watching a streamed broadband video for one hour is around 150Mb/hour
• Email is generally very small, 300 emails use around 2Mb, but if you add spam and emails with virus attachments this can rise to say 6Mb for 300 emails, if you use email for business communications with large file attachments this can rise to tens or even hundreds of megabytes

Try the Bandwidth Calculator to see how much you might use in a month

What if I go over the Bandwidth Allowance for my account?

Don't panic! There is a small charge per Gb that you go over your Bandwidth Allowance in a month - please see the Broadband Order Form for pricing. There is a free utility recommended by ADSLguide.org.uk that can be used to measure bandwidth on individual computers called NetMeter - download here - so you can keep an eye on your bandwidth usage.