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Darren Waters

Speed Diary: Day Two

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 09, 12:31 GMT

"What do we need a 50Mbps broadband connection for?" was the first question asked of me when I had the fast broadband pipe installed in my house.

It's a valid question. With most people in the UK enjoying 3.6Mbps speeds and services like iPlayer, Spotify, Last.fm, Flickr, Xbox Live and PlayStation network working happily for many people, do we need such speeds?

But it's clear that our appetite for on demand content and the ways in which we are getting hold of our content is changing rapidly.

More than 60% of households in the UK now have a broadband connection, and almost one in five people with an internet connection now watch TV programmes online.

In 2008 there were 271 million requests to watch content on the 大象传媒 iPlayer. And more than 14.5 million people in the UK now listen to radio online.

At the moment a 大象传媒 iPlayer high-quality stream is delivered at 800kbps, which means the average broadband connection in the UK should have no problem streaming the video.

But in the future the 大象传媒 will deliver iPlayer streams in HD, and with more and more devices in the home capable of delivering video and rich web applications, more and more burden is being put on our broadband connections.

I may not have the typical home but with two laptops, a desktop, three internet-enabled games consoles, a Slingbox, an iPhone and a PSP there is plenty of competition for bandwidth in my house.

We may not use all of the devices all of the time - think of the electricity bill - but it's not uncommon for two of the laptops to be surfing the net while my desktop is downloading video files.

In an effort to test the bandwidth of my 50Mbps connection I performed some real world tests, which were about the experience, not any particular downstream or upstream speed.

As Forrester analyst Ian Fogg pointed out to me,

In that spirit, watching iPlayer on the highest quality option on two laptops proved to be a very positive experience - no buffering or stutters.

Throw in a couple of background downloads of large files and the streaming continued unaffected. But add a third iPlayer stream on a third machine and at this point the stutters started and the viewing experience became intolerable.

All of this was done via wi-fi on a router that supports the fastest connections, 802.11n, and one could question just how often a household would be streaming three different TV programmes and downloading two 500MB+ files.

But projects like Canvas point to a time in the not too distant future when such tasks will become the norm rather than a rarity.

I also tested using the iPlayer in conjunction with some online gaming on Xbox Live and my wife was perfectly able to catch up on TV, while I shot some gamers on Call of Duty 4.

As commenters on this blog have pointed out, online gaming is more about latency than upload and download speeds but the fact we could share the broadband comfortably was a pleasant change from my experiences on the ADSL connection.

So what other real world, empirical observations do I have about the connection?

1. The faster your broadband connection the more irritating it is when a web page doesn't immediately snap onto the browser

2. Accessing the web over wi-fi on a portable device like an iPhone or PSP with a 50Mbps connection seems no different to using my ADSL 6Mbps connection

3. Speed Tests are useful but no replacement for the actual experience in using a connection

Tonight I'm going to be testing my "hosting" capabilities in online gaming so if you fancy taking part in some real world experiments then add me as a friend on Xbox Live. My gamertag is UNBELIEVER, which, yes, I know is a shocking name.

I'll probably play a mix of Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War 2 - so if you want to party up, feel free to add my gamertag. I'll be online from 2100GMT.

UPDATE I'm afraid I have to postpone the online gaming sesssion tonight. Small family illness!

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I have a 24mbit (21.8 actual) ADSL connection and I get the same experience that you seem to be experiencing with the 50mbit - being able to do several things at once. There's usually at least two computers running at a time (either downloading or streaming video), as well as games consoles taking up some of the bandwidth. I generally find that I'm limited by the server rather than my connection.

    In regards to the portable devices, that'll be down to how fast they can process the data and their own internal radio chips. My iPhone on WiFi won't take more than around 2mbit in download speed, but pages still take a while to render. Hence they'll behave the same on any reasonable speed connection.

    I think my problem lies with the cost of Virgin Media's 50mbit service - I pay 拢18 a month for half the speed, which does the job perfectly.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)

  • Comment number 2.

    These higher download speeds are all well and good - and the discussion is all around future requirements, about content rich experience etc.

    But here is the real rub, especially from a Futorist point of view. The percentage of people working from home (and working away from home rather than an office) is increasing steadily. There is a big demand for higher upload speeds yet this is rarely a topic mentioned.

    When I first jumped on the Broadband Wagon in late 2003 the asynchronous speed was 512/256... then, in 2004 I was offered 1Mb/512k... so far so good.. but now I have 8mb upload and still the download speed remains at 512k - which in reality is only 376k.

    For your typical 'homeworker'/'roadwarrior' (ooh, that's me) the pure frustration in still only achieveing the same upload speed I had 4 years ago is more than a minor irritation. Waiting more than 5 minutes to upload and share a 'content rich' Word or PowerPoing file (10Mb) to colleague or client to review, critic, upload/download all over again.

    Yes, there is always the option of pawning my laptop so I can afford a synchronous line at 2 up 2 down but then I wouldn't need the line!

    I have never understood why the likes of BT etc, themselves with a huge army of homeworkers, don't offer a Homeworker package with a throttled-up upload speed of say, 1.5Mb. Would also be great for my Slingbox for when I turn into SuperHero, I mean, Roadwarrior and stuck in a hotel.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)

  • Comment number 3.

    I agree with chaddon in comment one on the cost. I pay under a tenner for 16mbit ADSL2+ on O2 (as I have an O2 phone), seems like much better value.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)

  • Comment number 4.

    Darren,

    I posted about your post on my own fiber-related blog here (

    The two things that I would find interesting for you to do is to

    1. schedule daily speed tests and record the results over time to see if, as the success of the service increases the quality does not decrease (something that has often been seen in cable broadband)

    2. Test Skype's HD video service

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)

  • Comment number 5.

    Indeed, your hosting capabilities are contstrained most by your upload speed.

    I am pretty sure Halo 3 and COD4 automatically selects the best host? Hence the reason the games very rarely lag?

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)

  • Comment number 6.

    @Fiberguy Thanks for the suggestions. I'm keeping a daily record and will publish figure at the end of the week.
    And I'll give Skype HD a go!

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)

  • Comment number 7.

    I can certainly see a greater availability of high bandwidth services becoming available, HD video streaming services being one of them but I have to say I'm unconvinced that such broadband speeds will be offered without bandwidth shaping (usage throttling) skimming off much of the prime benefits.As others have said synchronous DSL could offer more subjective benefits for many. I'll be interested as to what your tests reveal.

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  • Comment number 8.

    I am not sure where to direct my concern to, hence here.
    Internet security requires an Username and a Secure Password.
    There are software programs that 'remember' all of one's passwords and other data and can automatically access one's secure sites; i.e. bank and other financial sites, government ones like HMRC and etc.
    They have a single access password.
    In the event of mental instability [like Alzheimer's or Parkinsonian syndromes], mental disabilities from physical damage or even just deterioration due to slow or sudden death, how would the surviving carers deal with such effectively lost access to to those important passwords even if they knew about the secure websites of their cared for?
    If there is a protection, how do people trust that it will not be misused by relatives, hackers or even the protectors?
    I think that these concerns show the lag of social side-effects of new technology.
    I heard a radio report regarding payment by 'phone. Someone raised the question, " What if you lose your 'phone or it is stolen?.
    Just a comment,
    N.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)

 

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