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Fixed line Broadband vs Mobile

  • 23-06-2010 3:07pm
    #1
    Quin_Dub
    Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,818 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Hi,

    Question for you all...

    Eircom have just "upgraded" my local exchange to enable broadband, however the fastest they can give me is 2MB!!! - Having checked a few numbers in the area , it seems like that's the max on the exchange , not just me... Which sucks in a big way..

    Up to now I've been using Mobile BB via O2 , which has been working pretty well - At best I get ~4Mb down , at worst I'm getting around 1Mb but with an average Ping of about 140ms at all times

    Due to the 10gb download limit , I have kinda tailored my usage - If I have any large d/l's to do I do them in the office... I don't stream media etc etc.

    so.. my question is - @2MB is it worth moving to fixed line to get a lower ping and increased download limit??

    e.g. Is 2Mb with ping of 40-50ms going to be faster/better than 4Mb with 140ms ping?

    Also - The fixed line combo would be about €15/month cheaper - That'd be nice , but not worth it if the service is worse..

    So - Thoughts and input please!

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    Knasher
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,370 ✭✭✭Knasher


    Interesting question. Honestly I would have to say that you would be better off on fixed regardless.

    Firstly the main benefit of bandwidth is when you are downloading large files, which you can feasibly do with such a small cap. Obviously there will be occasions when you miss the extra bandwidth, but to be honest they will probably be far and few in between. When you don't have to worry as much you should find you are getting much more use out of the web.

    Next the lower latency should result in a noticeably better browsing experience, as in general webpages are quite light on you bandwidth but if you have a slow round trip time they feel slow to load. If you take this to ridicules proportions browsing the web on satellite broadband feels almost like dial up, simply because you have a huge latency. If you were downloading however you could be getting 4Mb/sec (which was very impressive back in the ISDN days).

    Lastly its cheaper, which is always advantage. And €15 a month is a reasonably large amount.


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