Internet service is no longer a privilege with purely entertainment or highly academic uses. Many services operate over the internet, and students are expected to use the internet as a vastly more powerful version of encyclopedias and library research. Whatever you use the internet for, what matters most is how you find a good deal, and that requires more than looking for a low price. Here are the important factors to consider when looking for new internet service.

How Much Speed Do You Need?

Before searching for the fastest speed available or the bare minimum, you need to understand what your internet activities require. Many people consider their internet use to be "nothing much," but the problem is that a lot happens behind the scenes that you can't see without at least entry-level network technician or help desk experience.

Web browsing is far different from what it was in the 1980s to even the early 2000s. So many new features have become part of the basic internet experience simply because the average internet speed in the United States--or in most industrialized nations, to be fair--is high enough.

The thing that made websites simple and basic in the past was that the sites were mostly text with a few web-friendly images that didn't require a lot of internet capacity (bandwidth). Now that automatically playing (autoplay) videos are a part of the standard internet experience, visiting different websites requires a minimum speed.

The average internet speed in the United States is a little over 60mbps (megabits per second), although this can change depending on your region. Mobile internet speeds connected to services such as 3G and 4G are around 20mbps. For simple web browsing, 20mbps is usually enough.

If you watch videos, prepare to get something faster.

Real Demand For Maximum Internet Speed

Who actually needs higher internet speeds? Speeds above 50mbps certainly exist, and life is a lot easier when you can handle big internet requests. While basic websites and emails won't get extremely faster by moving from 20mbps to 1gbps (gigabits per second), large file downloads and streaming become much more efficient.

If you or someone in your household downloads games from services such as Stream, GOG, or the many online platforms from different game publishers such as EA (Electronic Arts), you're downloading big files. Multiple gigabytes need to be downloaded, and a difference between 20mbps and 60mbps could mean waiting an hour to download a game versus 20 minutes.

For video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu, faster internet means being able to watch videos without interruptions caused by your internet connection. Interruptions can still happen at the video service, and only those companies can fix that problem.

The biggest benefit of all is that with a big enough internet connection, these heavy downloaders can do what they want while other people continue to use the internet. The beginning of broadband internet (as opposed to dial-up or narrowband internet) involved people taking advantage of previously unfathomable download speeds while not being able to browse the internet during downloads. That can be more easily managed with newer connections.

Contact an internet, TV, and telephone service, like Dalton Utilities, to discuss available plans and how they match up with your internet usage.

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