That’s because back then all I was working with was text and even that was limited to 25 lines with 80 columns per line. It’s a different story now. Today, I do video conferencing, watch 4K TV shows and movies, and pour gigabytes of data across the net. I really can use a Gbps connection. But what about you? Ready to look for another, better ISP or at least a better connection? I wish you luck. Me? I’m trying to find my way to a 10Gbps home-office connection. So, here’s a good list of what you’re probably doing on the net and how much bandwidth you need to do the tasks without wanting to tear your hair out. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it’s not enough. For example, even if you only have one or two people in your home, there are more than 10 internet-connected devices in the average US home. Besides the ones you first think of – computers, streaming devices, and gaming consoles – there are also smartwatches, Internet of Things gadgets, and even pet-tracking devices. If you’re using these devices all the time, then you’ll want to have enough bandwidth to power all of them. For example, in my computer-happy home office I have over 30 internet-connected devices. If you’re a regular ZDNet reader, chances are you too have a house filled with net-connected devices. In my experience, this is all too common. According to AllConnect, a company that helps users find the best telecommunication deals, “15% of internet users, or 45 million people, are getting less than their advertised speeds.” Of those, “Fiber and cable internet have the biggest gap – with most people getting, on average, about 55% of the speeds they pay for.” Now if you could simply shop for an ISP that wouldn’t be so annoying. You’d just go with the ISP that actually delivers the broadband goods. Unfortunately, as the non-profit Institute for Local Self Reliance points out, “83.3 million Americans can only access broadband through a single provider.” Finally, if you really aren’t getting enough bandwidth with your current plan and you have no other options, I hate to say it, but you can always pay for a higher-level plan to get the speed you really need. Then, there are the connections I can’t recommend, but if you have no other choice in the matter, well then you have no other choice. DSL, when you can still get it, is decent with real-world speeds in the double-digit Mbps down and single-digit Mbps up. But AT&T is getting out of the DSL business so you can no longer get it. If your DSL connection goes out, I’ve had AT&T customers tell me Ma Bell won’t fix it. Traditional satellite internet companies, HughesNet and Viasat are better than nothing if you live out in the country. But their download speeds max out, in my experience, at 30Mbps. Upload speeds are stuck around 3Mbps. The real killer though is the latency. With 300 to 500 milliseconds between pressing a key and seeing a result, video gaming and conferencing are next to impossible to pull off. Both services have data caps that will slow your down speeds to about 3Mbps if you use too much data. Finally, if you’ve got nothing else, believe it or not, dial-up modem ISP services still exist. These are cheap but at a top speed of 56 Kilobits per second (Kbps) no one will want to use these today unless they literally have no other choice.
