What home Internet speed do you really need? Mobile Internet: what speed do you need? Rate bits per second

Mobile Internet is not a luxury, but a necessity for a modern person.
Literally every year, mobile operators offer new technologies, new tariffs, higher and higher speeds, because user needs are growing every day: if a few years ago the most that could be done on the phone was checking email, now we are already making video calls and watching movies online. But, studying the information about the tariff, it is very difficult to understand what, say, 5 Mbit/s is? What can I afford at this speed, is it a lot or a little? Let's try to understand this issue, to correlate megabits that are abstract for the user with real possibilities.

Let's start small: to send letters and open not particularly “heavy” pages on the Internet, 100-200 Kbps is enough. Pages with a lot of pictures will be difficult to load. A very low speed is needed for exchanging text messages in applications like Viber, Skype - about 64 Kbps.

For voice communication in such applications, you need a stable speed of 1 Mbit/s. At speeds from 1 to 2.5 Mbit/s, images on websites (for example, maps) are loaded more confidently, and applications are updated. If the speed is stable, a video call can also be made, but still, the speed is too low for comfortable communication (slowdowns are possible). But surfing the Internet, communicating in in social networks, receiving and sending letters - it's all available. At a speed of 1 Mbps, the average mp3 file will download in about 1.5 minutes. So listening to music at such a speed is something that requires endurance.

Already at 3 Mbps, the average audio file will download in 30 seconds. You can download and upload music and photos online without any problems (the latter is important for selfie lovers). You already have access to video communication in HD quality. At speeds from 3 to 5 Mbit/s, streaming video (for example, YouTube) looks great. But a standard movie in average quality (about 1.4 GB) at a speed of 3 Mbit/s will take about an hour to download.

At a speed of 8 Mbit/s, music is instantly downloaded, and streaming video is played without freezing. You can not only make a video call, but also arrange video conferences with several people at the same time. You can also play online games directly from your phone and tablet! It’s true that you should pay attention to ping - the speed of data transfer from your device to the server; the lower it is, the better.

When choosing a tariff, pay attention to whether your provider or mobile operator indicates the maximum possible theoretical speeds. In practice, they will be smaller, and this is not a deception of the consumer, but the reality of the Internet. The Internet is a conglomerate of interacting networks and servers, where data transmission routes and speeds are constantly changing. Added to this are other factors that influence the transmission of information “over the air”: the distance of the subscriber to the base station, the number of subscribers served by one base station, etc. Nobody complains about a car that can move at a speed of 300 km/h, but in a traffic jam the maximum is 15 km/h.

You can measure the actual Internet speed of different providers yourself and make your choice. One of the most popular services in the world for measuring the Internet is an application with the simple name Speedtest from the American company Ookla, which can be downloaded for free in the application store of your smartphone. All measurement results are saved and can be purchased and analyzed. Thus, according to the results of user measurements for 3 months of 2015 in Privolzhsky federal district MTS operator showed the best results. The average network speed is 8.7 Mbit/s for downloading files and 3 Mbit/s for uploading, measurements were carried out in 2G/3G/4G networks.

For more high levels network models, as a rule, a larger unit is used - bytes per second(B/c or Bps, from English b ytes p er s second ) equal to 8 bit/s.

Derived units

To denote higher transmission speeds, larger units are used, formed using the prefixes of the C system kilo-, mega-, giga- etc. getting:

Kilobits per second- kbit/s (kbps)
Megabits per second- Mbit/s (Mbps)
Gigabits per second- Gbit/s (Gbps)

Unfortunately, there is ambiguity regarding the interpretation of prefixes. There are two approaches:

kilobit is treated as 1000 bits (according to SI, as kilo gram or kilo meter), megabit as 1000 kilobits, etc.
A kilobit is interpreted as 1024 bits, incl. 8 kbps = 1 KB/s (not 0.9765625).

To unambiguously designate a prefix divisible by 1024 (and not 1000), the International Electrotechnical Commission came up with the prefixes “ kibi"(abbreviated Ki-, Ki-), « furniture"(abbreviated Mi-, Mi-) etc.

1 byte- 8 bits
1 kibibit- 1024 bits - 128 bytes
1 mebibit- 1048576 bits - 131072 bytes - 128 kbytes
1 Gibibit- 1073741824 bits - 134217728 bytes - 131072 kbytes - 128 MB

The telecommunications industry has adopted the SI system for the prefix kilo. That is, 128 Kbit = 128000 bits.

Common mistakes

Beginners often get confused kilobits c kilobytes, expecting a speed of 256 KB/s from a 256 kbit/s channel (on such a channel the speed will be 256,000 / 8 = 32,000 B/s = 32,000 / 1,000 = 32 KB/s).
Bauds and bits/c are often (wrongly or intentionally) confused.
1 kbaud (as opposed to kbit/s) is always equal to 1000 baud.

Megabits, megabytes and real speeds

Data size is usually measured in bytes. For example, an HD movie weighs from 700 megabytes (megabytes) to 1.4 gigabytes (gigabytes), while a Full HD movie weighs from 4 to 14 gigabytes.

Data transfer rates are usually specified in bits (not bytes!) per second, and sometimes this causes misunderstanding.

Byte ≠ bit.

1 byte = 8 bits.

1 megabyte = 8 megabits.

1 megabyte per second = 8 megabits per second.

If the user does not distinguish between bytes and bits, he can easily confuse them or mistake them for the same thing. In this case, it will calculate the approximate time for downloading an HD movie via torrent something like this:

The film weighs 1,400 "megs".
Internet speed is 30 “megas” per second.
The movie will download in 1,400 / 30 = 46.6 seconds.

In fact, the Internet speed is 30 megabits per second = 3.75 megabytes per second. Accordingly, 1,400 megabytes must be divided not by 30, but by 3.75. In this case, the download time will be 1,400 / 3.75 = 373 seconds.

In practice, the speed will be even lower, because Internet providers indicate the speed “up to”, that is, the maximum possible, and not the working speed. In addition, interference, especially over Wi-Fi transmissions, network congestion, and limitations and characteristics of user equipment and service provider equipment also contribute. You can check your speed using, and increase it using.

Often the bottleneck becomes the resource from which you download something. For example, your Internet speed is 100 megabits per second, and the site sends data at a speed of 10 megabits per second. In this case, the download will occur at a speed of no more than 10 megabits per second, and nothing can be done about it.

What internet speed do you really need?

Obviously, the above table requires clarification.

Questions and answers

What to do if the Internet is used on two or more devices at once?

Let’s say you are watching Full HD streaming video on a smart TV, your wife is surfing YouTube on a laptop with an HD screen, and your child is watching something from a smartphone or tablet, also in HD quality. Does this mean that the numbers from the table need to be summed up?

Yes, that's absolutely right. In this case, you will need about 20 megabits per second.

Why do different sites have different speed requirements for watching videos of the same resolution?

There is such a thing as bitrate - the amount of information with which an image is encoded per unit of time, and, accordingly, a conditional indicator of the quality of picture and sound. The higher the bitrate, the better the image, as a rule. This is why on torrents you can find versions of the same movie with the same resolution, but different sizes.

Additionally, there are super-smooth 60fps videos. They weigh more and require faster internet.

Is it true that online games are so undemanding of Internet speed?

Yes, for most games like CS, Dota 2, WoT, WoW and even GTA 5, just one megabit per second is more than enough for multiplayer, but in this case, ping becomes decisive - the time it takes for the signal to travel from you to the game server and back. The lower the ping, the lower the latency in the game.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to know in advance even the approximate ping in a specific game through a specific provider, since its value is not constant and depends on many factors.

Why during video calls does the picture and sound from my interlocutors go normally to me, but not from me to them?

In this case, not only incoming, but also outgoing Internet speed becomes important. Often, providers do not indicate the outgoing speed in the tariff at all, but you can check it yourself using the same Speedtest.net.

To broadcast via a webcam, an outgoing speed of 1 megabit per second is sufficient. In the case of HD cameras (and especially Full HD), the requirements for outgoing speed increase.

Why do Internet service providers start at 20–30 or more megabits per second in speed tariffs?

Because the higher the speed, the more money they can charge you. Providers could keep the tariffs “from the past” with a speed of 2–10 megabits per second and reduce their cost to 50–100 rubles, but why? It is much more profitable to increase the minimum speeds and prices.

Hello, dear readers of the site!

You were probably interested baud rate over the network (including the Internet), write speed to a flash drive (or hard drive). Today we will understand the speed of information transfer in computer technology and find out how many megabytes are in a megabit?!

The information from the previous lesson will be useful to you; if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to start there.

Let me remind you that in the last IT lesson we dealt with bits, bytes and multiple prefixes K, M, G, T and found out how many bytes are in a kilobyte (here is lesson 15).

Do you remember? Then let's begin!

Baud Rate - Units

The minimum unit of measurement for data transfer speed is taken to be bits per second, (which is not surprising, because a bit is the smallest unit of measurement of the amount of information).

Bits per second or bit/s(in English bits per second or bps) is the basic unit used to measure the speed of information transfer in computing.

Since when measuring the amount of information, not only bits, but also bytes are used, the speed can also be measured in bytes per second. Let me remind you that one byte contains eight bits (1 Byte = 8 bits).

Bytes per second or Bytes/s(in English byte per second or Byte/s) is also a unit that measures the speed of information transfer (1 Byte/s = 8 bits/s).

* I would like to ask you to immediately note that when reducing bits written with a small letter " b» ( bit/s), A bytes written with a capital letter " B"(M B/s).

Copying prohibited

Today, the Internet is needed in every home no less than water or electricity. And in every city there are a lot of companies or small firms that can provide people with access to the Internet.

The user can choose any package for using the Internet from a maximum of 100 Mbit/s to a low speed of, for example, 512 kB/s. How to choose the right speed and the right Internet provider for yourself?

Of course, Internet speed must be chosen based on what you do online and how much you are willing to pay per month for Internet access. From my own experience, I want to say that a speed of 15 Mbit/s quite suits me as a person who works on the network. Working on the Internet, I have 2 browsers turned on, and each has 20-30 tabs open, and the problems arise more on the computer side (to work with a large number of tabs you need a lot random access memory and a powerful processor) rather than in terms of Internet speed. The only time when you have to wait a little is when you first launch the browser, when all the tabs are loaded at the same time, but usually this takes no more than a minute.

1. What do Internet speed values mean?

Many users confuse Internet speed values, thinking that 15Mb/s is 15 megabytes per second. In fact, 15Mb/s is 15 megabits per second, which is 8 times less than megabytes and as a result we will get about 2 megabytes of download speed for files and pages. If you usually download movies for viewing with a size of 1500 MB, then at a speed of 15 Mbps the movie will download in 12-13 minutes.

We look at a lot or a little of your Internet speed

Speed is 512 kbps 512 / 8 = 64 kbps(this speed is not enough for watching online videos);
Speed is 4 Mbps 4 / 8 = 0.5 MB/s or 512 kB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in quality up to 480p);
Speed is 6 Mbps 6 / 8 = 0.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 720p);
Speed is 16 Mbps 16 / 8 = 2 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 2K);
Speed is 30 Mbps 30 / 8 = 3.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in quality up to 4K);
Speed is 60 Mbps 60 / 8 = 7.5 MB/s
Speed is 70 Mbps 60 / 8 = 8.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in any quality);
Speed is 100 Mbps 100 / 8 = 12.5 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in any quality).

Many people who connect to the Internet are worried about the ability to watch online video. Let’s see what kind of traffic is needed for films of different quality.

2. Internet speed required to watch online videos

And here you will find out how much or how little your speed is for watching online videos with different quality formats.

Broadcast type	Video bitrate	Audio bitrate (stereo)	Traffic Mb/s (megabytes per second)
Ultra HD 4K	25-40 Mbit/s	384 kbps	from 2.6
1440p (2K)	10 Mbit/s	384 kbps	1,2935
1080p	8000 kbps	384 kbps	1,0435
720p	5000 kbps	384 kbps	0,6685
480p	2500 kbps	128 kbps	0,3285
360p	1000 kbps	128 kbps	0,141

We see that all the most popular formats are reproduced without problems at an Internet speed of 15 Mbit/s. But to watch video in 2160p (4K) format you need at least 50-60 Mbit/s. but there is one BUT. I don’t think that many servers will be able to distribute videos of this quality while maintaining such a speed, so if you connect to the Internet at 100 Mbit/s, you may not be able to watch online videos in 4K.

3. Internet speed for online games

When connecting home Internet, every gamer wants to be 100% sure that his Internet speed will be sufficient to play his favorite game. But as it turns out, online games are not at all demanding on Internet speed. Let's consider what speed popular online games require:

DOTA 2 – 512 kbps.
World of Warcraft - 512 kbps.
GTA online – 512 kbps.
World of Tanks (WoT) – 256-512 kbit/sec.
Panzar - 512 kbit/sec.
Counter Strike - 256-512 kbps.

Important! The quality of your online game depends less on the speed of the Internet than on the quality of the channel itself. For example, if you (or your provider) receive Internet via satellite, then no matter what package you use, the ping in the game will be significantly higher than that of a wired channel with a lower speed.

4. Why do you need an Internet connection of more than 30 Mbit/s?

IN exceptional cases I might recommend using a faster connection of 50 Mbps or more. Not many providers in Kyiv will be able to provide such a speed in full, the Kyivstar company is not the first year in this market and completely inspires confidence, all the more important is the stability of the connection, and I want to believe that they are at their best here. A high speed Internet connection may be necessary when working with large amounts of data (downloading and uploading it from the network). Perhaps you are a fan of watching movies in excellent quality, or download large games every day, or upload large videos or work files to the Internet. To check the connection speed, you can use various online services, and to optimize the work you need to perform.

By the way, a speed of 3 Mbit/s and lower usually makes working on the network a little unpleasant, not all sites with online video work well, and downloading files is generally not pleasant.

Be that as it may, today there is plenty to choose from in the Internet services market. Sometimes, in addition to global providers, the Internet is offered by small-town companies, and often the level of their service is also excellent. I am served by such a small company. The cost of services in such companies is, of course, much lower than that of large companies, but as a rule, the coverage of such companies is very insignificant, usually within an area or two.

Also on topic

Yeast-free bread: benefits and harms

Pink salmon baked in the oven with sauce Pink salmon in creamy cheese sauce

Crab stick cutlets

Amulet against sudden death

Losing weight with milk tea: consumption patterns and recipes with cinnamon, ginger, honey Milk tea recipes

What home Internet speed do you really need? Mobile Internet: what speed do you need? Rate bits per second

Derived units

Common mistakes

see also

See what “Megabits per second” is in other dictionaries:

Megabits, megabytes and real speeds

What internet speed do you really need?

Questions and answers

What to do if the Internet is used on two or more devices at once?

Why do different sites have different speed requirements for watching videos of the same resolution?

Is it true that online games are so undemanding of Internet speed?

Why during video calls does the picture and sound from my interlocutors go normally to me, but not from me to them?

Why do Internet service providers start at 20–30 or more megabits per second in speed tariffs?

Baud Rate - Units

1. What do Internet speed values mean?

We look at a lot or a little of your Internet speed

2. Internet speed required to watch online videos

3. Internet speed for online games

4. Why do you need an Internet connection of more than 30 Mbit/s?

What home Internet speed do you really need? Mobile Internet: what speed do you need? Rate bits per second

Derived units

Common mistakes

see also

See what “Megabits per second” is in other dictionaries:

Megabits, megabytes and real speeds

What internet speed do you really need?

Questions and answers

What to do if the Internet is used on two or more devices at once?

Why do different sites have different speed requirements for watching videos of the same resolution?

Is it true that online games are so undemanding of Internet speed?

Why during video calls does the picture and sound from my interlocutors go normally to me, but not from me to them?

Why do Internet service providers start at 20–30 or more megabits per second in speed tariffs?

Baud Rate - Units

1. What do Internet speed values ​​mean?

We look at a lot or a little of your Internet speed

2. Internet speed required to watch online videos

3. Internet speed for online games

4. Why do you need an Internet connection of more than 30 Mbit/s?

1. What do Internet speed values mean?