WiFi- Is 10Mb average speed enough?

[unicorn56]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post so sorry if it's not!!

I'm currently in the process of moving (going to be my first time not in a house share) and am currently looking at broadband deals.

Previously I have been with Virgin, I have sent a request to them to see if I could get a virgin media package there as they are unsure about what services I can receive.

So, in case I can't get them, I've been having a look on compare the meerkat at other deals. The deals for me start at £15pcm with nowtv for 10mb average speed, then the next one larger then 10mb is another nowtv package which is an average of 32mb for £20pcm. And then 60mb average is £30pcm. (These deals are based of a 12 month contract, I can't have 18month contracts as I'm only there a year).

There will be two of us, and it's a two bed flat. My DP does open uni so would require a steady internet connection for his uni work. Would 10mb average be enough? Or will I not be able to stream netflix (or more importantly DPs tutorials!!) without jitters? Or is it worth paying the extra £5 a month for the 32mb average.

We would be able to afford the extra £5, however don't want to spend it if 10mb average would be good enough.

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the very long post!!!

You will not actually get 10 mbps at your device all the time. At peak usage times it may be less. That's why the call it average, not minimum.
If you are getting close to that it will be fine for streaming Netflix or video tutorials, but possibly not both at the same time.

Ask the provider if you can start at 10 and then upgrade at no charge later if you find it's not sufficient. That's never been a problem for me, but I'm in the US.

We recently upgraded from 50 mbps to 200. Heaven! But we have two teenagers.

10Mb is more than enough for two people.

If you are both streaming in HD at the same time you might have a problem, but there is no need to do that as most streaming apps either automatically find the right video quality for your connection or allow you to choose it yourself. Also streaming apps download data in chunks, not continuously, so if two people are watching different things then their connections will "take it in turns" as it were.

Source: my experience as a network engineer plus this useful guide re Netflix:

help.netflix.com/en/node/306

and youtube:

www.quora.com/What-is-the-minimum-speed-required-for-watching-YouTube-videos-in-480p-simultaneously

MissConductUS- Thank you, I'll ask them if I can, it's the same provider so hopefully they will be okay with it!!

chaoticgood- Thank you! That's really useful. Just another quick question, so at the moment we have 200mb average(as a house share), however when we test the speed we only get a result of 55mb (normally in a range of 50-60, so deffo not averaging 200!!). Does this often happen meaning I will only get 2.5mb with a 10mb deal?

If they tell you it's 200mb average and you only get 55 then I would complain.

Usually they say "up to" rather than "average", which allows them to give you far less and claim it is within the terms. Are you sure they are really claiming it's average?

The main thing is whether fibre is available, i,e. if the necessary underground cables have been installed in the area. If you can get fibre, I would definitely choose that over ADSL (the old tech that uses the phone line) even if it is more expensive. Then you can start low and work upwards if required like MissConductUS says. With fibre you tend to get closer to the advertised speed (because it's not affected by the distance from the telephone exchange) and also you can usually upgrade with no fuss. Whereas if you go for ADSL you are likely to be stuck with "up to 10" which could as you say be 2.5, and not be able to upgrade without changing to fibre which might mean a new contract and additional costs.

It depends so much though on which set of money-grubbing bastards internet company you go with and their particular form of fraud method of allocating bandwidth. Good luck!

PS. Your current line is definitely fibre, given that you are getting 55Mb (that would be impossible with ADSL).

I would definitely recommend going for the 32 instead of 10, as 10 is really low.

Hi Guys,

Thank you for all your advice!

I've spoken to nowtv and they have given me the ranges for my area.

The bottom package has a range of 5.3 to 11.4mb
The next one up is 18-29.8mb

So I think I will go for the 20pcm one as 5.3mb would not work for us

Thanks for your help everyone :)

That's great @unicorn56, I'm glad they were honest with you about the ranges so you could make an informed decision.

All the best for your new home! First time not sharing