Wifi performance
What really affects your broadband speed at home or work?
One of the biggest misconceptions about broadband is that your internet provider controls the speed on every device in your home or business. In reality, they only control the speed delivered to your router. What happens after that is largely down to how your internet is being used.
Many broadband companies advertise an average download speed, often measured when the network is at its quietest, such as in the middle of the night. If you read the small print, many only commit to delivering a little over half of the advertised headline speed.
Hampshire Community Broadband do things differently. We aim to deliver at least the speed you’ve purchased to your router.
But even with the fastest connection, there are factors that affect the speed you experience on your devices.
Think of broadband like water
A simple way to understand broadband is to imagine water flowing through a hosepipe.
Open the tap fully and lots of water flows through. Turn the tap down and less water comes out.
Now imagine adding lots of hoses with splitters. The same amount of water now has to be shared between them, so each hose gets less. Broadband works in much the same way.
The speed coming into your property is shared between every connected device. The more devices using the internet at the same time, the less bandwidth is available to each one.
More devices than you think
Most households now have around 20 connected devices, and many have well over 50.
These might include:
- Phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers
- Smart TVs and streaming devices
- Xbox and PlayStation consoles
- Smart speakers
- Security cameras and alarm systems
- Video doorbells
- Smart thermostats such as Nest
- Electric vehicles
- Robot lawn mowers
- Smart washing machines, fridges and even gate openers
Many of these devices are quietly using your broadband throughout the day, even when you’re not actively using them.
A real-life example
Recently, we spoke to a family who believed their broadband was running slowly.
Three family members were each running speed tests on their phones at exactly the same time. A speed test is designed to use as much of your broadband connection as possible, so each test was competing with the others.
The result? Every phone reported a much lower speed than expected.
When we asked them to repeat the test with just one device connected and no other internet activity in the house, the results showed both the download and upload speeds were actually higher than the package they had purchased.
The broadband wasn’t the problem. It was simply being shared.
Your WiFi performance matters
Even if the speed arriving at your router is perfect, WiFi can slow things down.
Walls, floors, distance from the router and interference from other wireless devices all affect the speed you’ll see on your phone, tablet or laptop. That’s why the connection in your living room may be much faster than the one at the far end of the garden. Improving WiFi coverage can often make a bigger difference than upgrading your broadband package.
The Hampshire Community Broadband promise
Hampshire Community Broadband takes responsibility for the service we provide.
If a computer connected directly to your router with an Ethernet cable isn’t achieving the speed you’ve paid for, we’ll investigate the problem and fix it.
Because while WiFi performance depends on many factors inside your property, the broadband delivered to your router is our responsibility and we’re committed to getting it right.