JARGON BUSTER
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SPEED - mBPS
Broadband speed is essentially how quickly you can transfer information from the internet to your computer (download speed) or from your computer to the internet (upload speed). Speed is measured in bits per second. Bits are short for binary digits, the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. You will typically see speed described as megabits per second (Mbps) or kilobits per second (Kbps). A kilobit is 1000 bits, and a megabit is 1,000,000 bits. The higher the number of bits per second, the faster your speed is. As a guide, zoom meetings require 3Mbps, about the same speed as you will need to watch films online and emails will need about 1Mbps. The more devices you want to connect at once, the fast speed you will need. If you have a family of four all with smart phones and laptops accessing films, music or zoom etc then you may need >10Mbps. If you want to upload photos to the internet then the faster your upload speed is, the faster this will happen. Test your speed here: UK Broadband Speed Test | thinkbroadband COPPER WIRE
Also called ADSL, the broadband signal is carried between your nearest telephone exchange and your home using copper cables. When it enters your home, you plug your router (or hub) into the telephone outlet to receiver it. This infrastructure is managed by BT and is the same wire as your landline uses. Other providers can rent the cable which means you can get service provision from other companies. FibreOptic cables
This is an upgrade on the copper wire cable network. With fibreoptic cable the data travels down the cables literally at the speed of light. The upgraded cables stretch from the telephone exchange to the roadside cabinets in your neighbourhood. Usually the cable between homes and the cabinet is copper wire (called Fibre to Cabinet or FFTC), but in some cases the copper cables have also been upgraded into homes (called Fibre to Premises or FFTP). 4g
According to Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator in the UK, 4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone technology and follows on from 2G and 3G. 2G technology was suitable for making calls and sending text messages, while 3G makes it possible to access the internet more effectively through your mobile phone. 4G makes it much quicker to surf the web on your mobile and addresses network congestion, but you can also connect to it with tablets and laptops. 4g mast
All these G’s (G for generation) are cellular, wireless networks that run on masts. 4G masts use radio signals to send and receive data to and from your device. Each mast forms a cell, connecting up to 400 devices like a hub and spoke. Data is then transferred between the mast and the regular telephone network. satellite
Instead of using a telephone exchange to access the internet, satellite broadband is transmitted wirelessly from your home to a satellite using a satellite dish. It works in a similar way to satellite TV, except data is transmitted as well as received by the dish. The dish needs clear line of sight to the southern sky. The satellite is geostationary which means it keeps pace with the Earth’s rotation and maintains line of site with dishes on the ground. The radio signal is received by the satellite and relayed to a ground station which acts as a gateway into the regular telephone network. fixed wireless access
Fixed wireless access (FWA) is the process of providing wireless broadband using radio links between two fixed points. In other words, fixed wireless is an alternate method of providing wireless internet access to homes or businesses. In Sutherland Highland Wireless, Monsternet and Highland Community Broadband use this method. They install antennae to create a local network of stations that have line of sight with each other across a landscape that then connects into a fibre wire somewhere. |