What Mb Speed Do I Need?

[johnk]

I'm not online at home but want to be. I'm confused about the speed I need.
All I do is email and internet for news weather shopping and ebay. I'm not interested in films etc so can anyone advise me what broadband speed I need. I've been told I don't need much but what speed is not much?

[hc4361]

The cheapest you can find will do you, frankly.

[Frank97]

I only get 3.49 Mb/s where I am, which is quite fast enough to do all you describe.

[VHG]

The faster your speed the faster individual web pages will download.

While you can easily get by with 3 or 4 mbps to do what you want, it can get annoying over time if it takes 10 seconds for each web page to load.

If slow download is happening day after day, web page after web page, you will soon get fed up with it.

So go for the fastest you can afford.

p.s. I am on Virgin cable and get 60mbps and next year they are going to upgrade me to 100mbps for free.

[Mattk]

Speed-wise you can't really influence it as you essentially get what you are given but I think your question is aimed more at monthly download limit.
As hc4361 said, for your usage the cheapest package will be just fine.

[johnk]

Thanks everyone, I'll try the cheapest and see how I go

[Alex_Higham]

Hi johnk.....The cheapest may Not be what you want. I believe Talk Talk is one of the cheapest and I think you will find lots of postings in Answerbank about the problems experienced with it.

Personally, I would be looking for a guaranteed download of 5mb/s. However having said that, the uk Government is aiming for everyone to have a minimum of 2mb.

I am with BT and sometimes the speed is in excess of 14 but I am Not saying that it could be the best in your area. Have a click or two on the following informative site. :-

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/packages/?gclid=CI-bx8Tdh7sCFTDMtAodLEwASg#products=sort%3Dbestsellers

[Alex_Higham]

Despite what I have said, this is interesting :-

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2304233/ofcom-suggests-8mbps-as-new-minimum-broadband-speed

[Prudie]

If you live near me you will average 1.5 mbs and never get better than 2 whichever provider you are with . Speeds like VHG's must be from a different planet to me :-) That is however usually enough to watch films etc without too much streaming. Maybe as suggested you mean download limits?

[Alex_Higham]

Perhaps VHG means 6.0 and 10.0.

[Alex_Higham]

^^^^ Or VHG is on Fibre Optics.....No doudt he will claatify matters.

Cheers ..Alex.

[hc4361]

I think VHG is on the same as me - Virgin cable broadband, 60, soon to be upgraded to 100

[Alex_Higham]

Hey..That's fantastic when Global Average is only 16.24.