Broadband Internet Speed test

Bright House Networks is increasing the speed of its high-speed Internet service, which will allow faster downloading of music and movies, as well as smoother online gaming.

Company officials said the higher speeds will not add any costs to current or future customers. In fact, the company said it is dropping the price of its fastest connection, Road Runner Premium, by $25 a month.

“We are increasing speed so customers can have access to very rich content: photos, high-speed gaming, movies and music,” company spokesman Brian Craven said Tuesday. “Streaming audio and video are two of the hottest areas.”

Maximum speeds will increase by 25 percent for the high-end Road Runner Premium service; will increase by 40 percent for standard Road Runner high-speed Internet, which most of its customers have; and will double for the lower-end, “entry-level” Road Runner Lite. The changes take effect March 1.

Increasing the connection speed is a “huge plus . . . for anyone downloading movies, songs or live-feed streaming
video,” said Matt Phelps, owner of Gamer HQ in Palm Bay. “The more bandwidth, the better.”

A fast connection also could give a gamer an edge when battling online opponents because it gives the player a “better response time,” Phelps said, so that person could more quickly dodge incoming attacks and hit enemies.

Bright House officials say their fiber-optic network — a $350 million investment finished in 2000 — has the capacity to have even faster downloads. But they say they won’t raise the speed higher until content gets even more data-heavy.

The company won’t say exactly how high download speeds can go in the future.

The latest “speed enhancement” from Bright House is its third in three years.

Bright House has more than 800,000 high-speed Internet, cable television and digital phone customers in nine Central Florida counties, including Brevard. The company does not disclose customer counts by individual county or service.

Published in Florida Today, Business section.

You’re at home. You want information fast. The internet will have it. You fire up your modem.

You yawn; make coffee; tap your fingers; imagine tumbleweed rolling across the screen while you wait for your connection to Google.

An all-too familiar scenario? You might consider going broadband. But what the hell is it? And what are ADSL, 3G, wireless, and capping?

In a nutshell, broadband is a “broad bandwidth” high-capacity permanent link to the internet which, in theory at least, provides high speed access — for normal web surfing, streaming audio or video, downloading large files or playing online games.

ADSL, despite standing for the tongue-twisting Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, simply means high-speed internet access using a telephone line. And it’s currently the most popular of the broadband options available in South Africa.

Starting block

To get started you’ll need an ADSL modem, which range in price from around R600 to R2000, although some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are giving them away for less if you sign a broadband contract.

You’ll also need a phone line from Telkom, which involves both line and ADSL installation (once-off fee of R400) and a monthly rental for both the line and digital line (the price of which depends on the bandwidth or speed of your connection).

Then you still have to decide which ISP to go with.

There are plenty of choices out there, but bear in mind that no matter what service provider you opt for, Telkom still controls the majority of ADSL infrastructure.

IT journalist James Francis points out two important rules to stick to when choosing an ISP: “Firstly, do not sign a contract that disallows month-to-month patronship — the ability to switch from one ISP to another is important in the turbulent local market.”

“And secondly, invest in an email address that isn’t ISP-bound, as this will make navigating through the ADSL market for the best deal much easier.”

You need to choose a bandwidth option — effectively the diameter of the “pipe” connecting you to the internet, so the higher the bandwidth, the faster your connection. These range in speed — and price — from 192Kb per second (compared to the 56Kbps of a standard modem) to 1024, theoretically 20 times faster than your old (un)faithful dialup connection.

And then you have to consider the amount of surfing — or file uploading and downloading — you do. Certain ISPs offer a fixed “cap”, limiting the amount of traffic (or information you transfer) in a month.

So, for example, if the package you choose comes with a one gigabyte cap, you’ll find your connection speed slow to an unbearable crawl once you’ve transferred more than 1GB of data in that month.

Other options, such as Imaginet’s, are more flexible. Operating like a cellphone contract you pay for a base amount of traffic (for example 2GB) that best suits your needs, although you’re not limited to the base. If you use more than the base, you’re only billed for the amount of extra traffic you use in predetermined increments.

Making the choice

Depending on how much time you spend on the net, your bandwidth and capping limit plays an essential part.

For beginners, Francis advises users to start with a small line and a basic flexible package, so that you can add bandwidth as you need it, instead of the hard-capping system.

For example, if you simply want to use internet to surf or check mail, you can pick a line under the 512Kbps mark.

But for serious time on downloads and constant Windows updates, for example, he recommends the DSL 1024 line.

“Unfortunately, there are no premium service for heavy users, unless you try ISPs that offer bandwidth at good rates”, says Francis.

And what will you end up paying the ISP?

Prices vary from operator to operator, so it’s worth shopping around using a site like myADSL.co.za. Telkom’s least expensive option comes in at around R500 per month, you’ll get a 3GB usage limit, while on the upper end, you can expect to pay around R900 a month for a DSL 1024 connection.

But if you can’t see the reason in spending close to a thousand rand a month for internet services, there are less expensive choices. You can pick up a 1GB 192 service for R145 per month with M-Web, while a 2GB deal can go for between R200 to R300 a month with lesser-known ISPs, but be aware that some of these deals involve signing on for a minimum contract period.

Expanding your choice

Another broadband option is wireless — a digital, satellite based connection provided by Sentech.

The service comes with a free modem at about R850 a month, but reception is restricted to urban areas — limiting the spirit of free wireless roaming — and comes with a potentially restrictive 25-month contract capped at 20GB.

Alternatively, MTN and Vodacom have devised their own 3G cellphone-based services. These essentially allow you to access the Net from your laptop anywhere you have cellphone reception, with 256Kbs download speed — the same as wireless.

The costs, ranging from R1 per megabyte, are added to your monthly itemised phone bills, but the modems aren’t interchangeable between the two networks.

By Marchelle Hermanus, published on iafrica.com.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has an article on how broadband operators screw their customers by not delivering the rated speed.

Like tens of thousands of others, Claud Zacharias signed up with Telia for their fastest broadband, 24 Mbps.
-The service I had before was too slow, especially when the children and I were online at the same time, he says.
When he tested his new broadband connection he only got 11 Mbps at the most. He called up his broadband provider Telia, who responded that that’s as fast as he can get. And that his service agreement only guarantees up to 24 Mbps.
-I was mad. Not getting even half the speed you’re paying for is just fraud.

You can test your speed of your Internet connection with the Internet Speed test, and see if your ISP deliver what you pay for.

High-income households are likely to adopt “triple play” and converged services, but many have reservations about the need for broadband, according to a new study.

The study was carried out by BMI-TechKnowledge to examine telecoms usage and buying behaviour of high-income residential customers.
It looked at around 360 respondents with a household income of more than R8 000 per month. BMI-T analyst Tertia Smit, giving ITWeb a preview of the full report last week, said mobile phones account for half the telecoms budget among high-end residential users.

In releasing the full report this week, BMI-T said close to 85% of all the high-end households have DVD players, while 69% have a pay-TV subscription. These households have an average of two PCs and three active cellphone numbers - a substantial proportion of which are on postpaid contracts, said BMI-T.

The Internet accounts for only 12% of the average high-income household telecoms spending, says analyst Tertia Smit.

About one-quarter of respondents were aware they could have a PC bundled with an Internet subscription. However, only a small portion had such a subscription although the interest in such a service was high.

High-end households make up the biggest part of the market for pay-TV services. In future, this type of entertainment functionality could be combined with that of telecommunications in the so-called “triple-play” (phone, broadband Internet and subscription TV) service.

Smit said over a third of respondents without a broadband Internet service said they “had no need of one”. Another third expressed reservations about the costs associated with fast Internet access, and this is affecting broadband adoption.

However, Smit said: “South Africans are not generally known for having a strong ‘consumerism culture’, and this may rub off onto their technology services purchasing behaviour.”

The satisfaction level was above 88% for all aspects of Internet service providers’ service offerings confirming Telkom’s assertion that customers are generally happy with their services, the report said. At the same time, the survey revealed that Telkom dominated the growth in the Internet space in the last year.

Smit noted that while the high cost of broadband Internet services garnered the most media attention last year, the reality is that the Internet accounts for only 12% of the average high-income household telecoms spending. A much larger amount is consumed by cellphone bills and voice calls.

Despite the amount of advertising surrounding technologies like GPRS and 3G, awareness and adoption of these and other cellular technologies are still in an “early adopter” phase - albeit growing rapidly. Around half of the respondents replied they did not intend to use these services, while most of the remainder had not yet given it any serious consideration.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) adoption is still low, in respect of regular usage, although 14% have already tried it at least once. Most who have tried VOIP did so using Skype or another similar application - with most calls costing next to nothing. Over time, accelerating the rate of penetration of residential broadband could also help to unlock the possibilities of VOIP services in this customer base, which BMI-T believes will remain relatively low for the foreseeable future.

From MyBroadband.

Internet giant AOL has become the latest firm to announce plans to install its own kit in telephone exchanges around Britain.
The company’s £50m move into local loop unbundling will increase its firepower in the battle to win broadband customers and enter the race to deliver television and video through people’s phonelines.

AOL has said it will invest £50m in the first half of the year into putting its equipment in 300 exchanges in major British cities and towns - and the decision will allow it to cut prices and improve service by no longer having to rent equipment from BT.

High speed broadband services are seen as the key to the next stage in home media, with companies competing to deliver packages incorporating internet access, telephone and television.

Increased competition in the market is expected to bring prices down substantially, as consumers faced with more choice put pressure on companies to deliver top quality service at low costs.

The installation will allow AOL to offer superfast broadband at speeds of up to 8Mbps and go head-to-head with BT, which owns the exchanges, and high-speed players Bulldog and Wanadoo which have embarked on their own unbundling programmes.

AOL chief executive Karen Thompson said: ‘The opportunity to compete on a level playing field with the incumbent will encourage substantial investment in digital services and content in the UK to catch up with leading European countries, where unbundling is already delivering higher value services to consumers.

‘We look forward to working with Ofcom and BT to bring these benefits to British homes.’

If the first stages in its unbundling are successful, AOL will invest a further £70m to reach its target of 1,000 unbundled exchanges. But the firm said it would not cover 100% of Britain, just exchanges where it was economically viable.

AOL’s move comes in the wake of Tesco’s announcement last week that it would start offering a broadband internet telephone service giving users cut-price calls. Landline calls in the UK and 20 foreign destinations including America, Canada and Australia will cost 2p a minute. Calls to UK mobiles will be charged at 10p a minute.

Tesco became the biggest consumer name to launch the technology known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), BT and Dixons already offer a VoIP package and globally the best known provider is American company, Skype – bought last year by eBay.

From ThisIsMoney.