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What Internet Download Speed Do I Need

What Is Gig-Speed Internet?

Gig speed. No, it'due south not roady slang for how rapidly a stone show tin be gear up up; it's the next big thing in home cyberspace. Gigabit-speed internet, also called ultra-high-speed cyberspace, is leaps and bounds better than traditional cable internet, and information technology may even exist cheaper, depending on which services are bachelor about you.

Credit: Shutterstock

(Epitome credit: Shutterstock)

Read on to acquire why you should find out if gigabit-speed internet is available in your boondocks.

What is gig-speed internet?

Gig-speed internet is shorthand for broadband service with up to gigabit-per-second download speeds. It'due south been effectually for but a few years, and in only a scattering of cities, simply information technology's the future of cyberspace connectivity in the home.

The biggest clogging in dwelling house connectivity is shortly the internet connectedness, and as we add more uses for it — like Netflix streaming, gaming and myriad of the best smart dwelling devices — nosotros'll need faster connections with more than information.

It's too likely that as gigabit speeds go mainstream, the price of connectivity will come downwards too. In areas where gigabit speeds accept been introduced, prices drop for internet admission across the board, even for lower-tier plans.

  • Maximize your connection with a fast VPN

Who offers Gigabit net, and what does it cost?

While ultra-loftier-speed internet is becoming more widely available across the U.S., the rollout is yet in its early days. If yous live in a major city, chances are good that some people in your surface area have gigabit speeds available to them, but it's all the same pretty much a neighborhood-past-neighborhood thing. All major internet service providers offer some course of gigabit service, though the locations where information technology'due south available vary greatly from one company to the next.

Gigabit Internet services compared

Smaller cities and towns aren't completely out of luck, however. Many communities have proactively invested in local fiber networks, providing ready-made infrastructure for any service provider that wants to offer ultra-high-speed internet. Cheque your local options when because internet providers, as many smaller companies are using the shift to gigabit every bit an opportunity to compete against the big boys, offer blazing speeds in places where the major companies aren't.

Pricing is as well varied, but the overall trend is articulate: Cyberspace providers are charging prices similar to those for broadband, merely delivering gigabit speeds. While this may change over time, right at present, you lot tin go the fastest internet around for the toll of a adept cablevision internet subscription.

Now, bear in heed that this is net service pricing we're talking virtually, and that comes with a lot of caveats. Finding actual pricing data is difficult, and many of these prices are introductory rates that apply for the first twelvemonth or two with a long-term understanding. You may be able to get a amend deal when bundling your cyberspace with TV service, or you may be charged an additional monthly fee for the unique hardware that gigabit speeds require. As ever, you'll want to await into what options are bachelor in your area, and you volition definitely desire to research pricing.

How does Gigabit internet work?

While gigabit internet is notwithstanding rolling out across different parts of the U.S., internet service providers are offering gigabit speeds using two technologies.

Credit: CenturyLink

(Image credit: CenturyLink)

The first is over fiber-optic networks. The data capacity of fiber-optic lines and the lack of interference (a mutual event on standard copper lines) makes the lite-driven data technology perfect for delivering blistering gigabit speeds. Until recently, gigabit speeds were offered but by providers with fiber infrastructure, like Verizon Fios and Google Cobweb.

But a second thespian has entered the game, in the form of the DOCSIS 3.i standard, which enables gigabit speeds over the aforementioned coaxial cables used for standard cable internet. But it's non quite the same, since the new format boasts 1-Gbps download speeds but only 35-Mbps upload speeds.

How does gigabit compare to current broadband speeds?

Compared to standard cable-based broadband packages, which offer download speeds of 20 to 100 Mbps, gigabit speeds are an exponential increase. We're talking i,000 Mbps, or 1 million $.25 per second.

The other major do good of gigabit (in most current implementations) is that download speeds are matched with similar upload speeds. Traditionally, yous'll get a much smaller pipage for uploading, which is part of the reason you can watch a 5-minute YouTube video in roughly 5 minutes, only uploading the same corporeality of footage can accept over an hour.

Faster upload speeds are likewise a boon for activities such every bit streaming your gameplay with services like Twitch.

What can I do with gigabit speeds?

All that data — a 1000000 bits per second — means that you tin do everything you already do online, but a lot more of it, and faster. All of your usual web browsing and streaming will be supported, merely with higher speeds and less congestion on your habitation network. That said, there are several specific uses that do good dramatically from the new fat pipage of information that gigabit connectivity offers.

  • Streaming video: All that bandwidth means lag-free Netflix, even when you're watching different shows on different devices at in one case. But the real improvement is that 4K streaming which uses four to five times as much data as a 1080p stream,will be merely as fast, without the interminable loading and buffer times y'all may experience on standard broadband.
  • Online gaming: Anyone who has always lost a match due to a laggy connection volition appreciate the switch to gigabit speeds. With matching upwards/down speeds, you lot'll never once more need to worry nigh irksome ping rates and spotty connections.
  • Immersive media: Ultra Hd streaming is just the tip of the iceberg, every bit faster upload and download speeds make more than immersive media, like 360-caste video and VR, more attainable. Every bit higher data capacity goes mainstream, yous can expect new media formats to have advantage of this, just as streaming video exploded when broadband became mainstream.
  • Data backup: Traditionally, backing up data has been centered effectually local storage, like external difficult drives, especially for data-heavy uses like videos. With the move to gigabit speeds, expect more than cloud adequacy and backups that you lot tin can access anywhere, anytime. See our guide to the all-time deject fill-in services.
  • Multiple users: Finally, the biggest reason to switch to gigabit speed isn't to satisfy ane prolific data pig, but rather several users. A family unit of four tin max out a broadband connectedness quite hands with little more than a moving-picture show marathon and a round of Grand Theft Machine online, merely gigabit speeds promise to back up far more data simultaneously, making information technology possible to stream music in the kitchen, 4K video in the living room and a game in the kids' rooms without a hiccup.

Can my electric current modem handle gigabit speeds?

The short answer is maybe. Without equipment to support either high-speed fiber-optic or the DOCSIS 3.ane standard for gigabit over coax, you might be out of luck with your current networking gear. The good news is that existing fiber and cable cyberspace users may be able to upgrade simply by swapping out their old router for a newer gigabit-capable one.

The products found on our best cable modems page primarily employ the older DOCsis iii.0 standard, but there are all the same dandy options out there, like the Netgear CM1000, the Motorola MB8600 or the Arris Surfboard SB8200, which are all approved for use with cable-base of operations internet from providers like Cox, Spectrum and Comcast Xfinity.

Fiber-based services, like Google Fiber and Verizon Fios, actually require a different modem-like piece of networking hardware, called an optical network concluding, that converts cobweb-optic signal to electronic ethernet. Without the right hardware, there is no mode to get gigabit speeds.

The stickier issue is that like upgrades need to exist made throughout an net provider's infrastructure. As long as some areas are beingness serviced with old equipment, there will exist parts of the country where gigabit speeds just aren't available. Along those same lines, if you lot're nonetheless using dial-up or DSL, you're fresh out of luck.

Tin my Wi-Fi router handle Gigabit speeds?

The best Wi-Fi routers can, in some instances, handle gigabit speeds — 802.11ac Wi-Fi, running on the 5-GHz band, with a MU-MIMO router using two or more antennae, you can get speeds up to and slightly faster than 1Gbps. And the newer 802.11ax (likewise called Wi-Fi half dozen) standard is found in many on new routers that can handle gigabit speeds with ease.

MORE: The Best Wi-Fi Routers Bachelor Right At present

Older wireless standards, like 802.11g and n, cannot offer the same sort of throughput. If you oasis't upgraded your router to 802.11ac or the newer Wi-Fi 6, you'll definitely want to do then when switching to gigabit internet, or your old router will be a major bottleneck that kills all the benefits of your zippy new gigabit speeds.

Can my reckoner or phone handle gigabit speeds?

Maybe, simply maybe not. Most modern ethernet connections are capable of handling gigabit speeds, and you lot'll observe those on plenty of laptops and about all desktops today. If you lot want the best speeds possible on your PC, ethernet is the way to go. The bad news is that ethernet ports are getting harder to discover on laptops. And phones have no options for wired connectivity; Wi-Fi is all you've got.

If you're upward to speed with the latest Wi-Fi standards, you tin can get a full gigabit connection to your telephone or laptop, simply it's highly unlikely that you lot'll ever hitting that total capacity during normal apply. Just does information technology thing? In practical terms, any device that can connect to the cyberspace volition work with gigabit cyberspace, since it dictates only the speeds coming to and from your home. And all of your connected devices benefit in some way, because a gigabit connexion is like a multilane motorway, with enough of data for every device to use at one time.

Credit: Tom's Guide

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Brian Westover is an Editor at Tom's Guide, covering everything from TVs to the latest PCs. Prior to joining Tom'due south Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/gig-speed-internet,review-5134.html

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