Now is a good time to check your broadband speeds and make sure you really need what you are paying for.
BT, Sky, Virgin Media and many other Internet Service Providers are all now offering faster and faster broadband with millions of homes now able to access the web at speeds in excess of 900Mbps. At that rapid rate, you’d be able to download a full HD movie in under 40 seconds which is over 10 times quicker than the UK average.
It’s impressive stuff but that ludicrously fast internet access doesn’t come cheap with some Gigabit plans costing well over £40 per month.
For example, BT charges £44.99 per month for its 900Mbps option which is more than £15 more than slower 150Mbps speeds. Although faster is clearly better, millions of us might be paying a high price for rapid downloads we don’t actually need.
In fact, according to a new report from Go.Compare around 9.5 million households in the UK are paying for top-notch broadband access that’s probably far too fast.
The comparison site reckons that stat is costing consumers £53 million on unused speeds each month – that’s a whopping £637 million a year.
According to the findings, the majority of Brits pay for some of the fastest broadband speeds. Around a third (34%) have speeds of over 150 megabits per second (Mbps), but it’s estimated that just a fifth (21%) of internet users actually need broadband as fast as this.
Speaking about the findings, Matt Sanders, broadband expert at Go.Compare, says: “Our latest research suggests that a large chunk of the country is spending more than it needs to on broadband, which is a real kick in the teeth when times are so tight.
“Everyone’s broadband needs are different, so it can be difficult to know what speeds you actually need. The key factors to keep in mind are the number of people in your household and what you tend to use your broadband for. Certain activities like online gaming and streaming 4K videos need faster speeds to run smoothly, and these speeds will be diluted if multiple devices are using the internet at once.
“So, if you live alone and only use the internet for general browsing like emails and shopping, you should be able to manage on relatively slow speeds. But, if your household is a family of four with multiple devices on the go, you might need to get faster speeds so that everyone can use the internet at once without being slowed down.”
So what speeds do you really need?
If you live alone and simply send a few emails, surf the web and watch the off HD movies on Netflix then you should find 36-50Mbps is perfectly adequate.
Start adding more people, connected gadgets, watching films in 4K and working from home and you’ll need to boost things to around 100Mbps.
Gamers are probably the people that need faster speeds the most with many top titles weighing in at over 50GB in size.
One top tip is to think of your broadband a little like a motorway, the more traffic running along it the slower it gets. That’s why those downloading lots of files need more bandwidth – a bit like 4 lanes on the M25.
If you’re unsure how fast your Wi-Fi is, run a speed test and then look at your usage. If you don’t need really fast speeds it’s worth speaking to your provider as dropping things down will save you money.
