To find a reliable and high-speed internet connection, you need to do a fair bit of research. When you begin, you will notice a variety of factors that have to be considered, so that you may find the best connection for your household. There are different types of connections, various download and upload speeds offered, and a number of internet service providers that you can consider. Let’s find out how you can make the right choice!

The Four Types of Broadband

We have come a long way from the slow dial-up connections that took a long while to just load an image. Not only was the connection very slow, but it also tied up your landline and prevented you from making any calls. Loads of American households still use a dial-up connection but things are steadily progressing, and today internet services are offered through coaxial cables, fiber optic cables, and satellites too in majority of places. Let’s have a look at some of the most popular technologies available in the market.!

Cable Internet

One of the most commonly available internet connections is offered through cables. The internet connections are offered to households through the same coaxial cables that deliver TV connections. The speeds can vary based on your location but in some places, people can enjoy speeds as high as 1000 Mbps. 

 With cable internet, you can enjoy several benefits. 

• It is very easy to install, particularly if you already have cable TV. 
• You can save money by bundling the services together.
• You can enjoy high-speed connections in a number of locations.

Direct Subscriber Line (DSL)

DSL connections offer internet services through telephone lines and a modem. This may sound like a dial-up connection, but it isn’t. Unlike dial-up, DSL connections offer considerably higher download speeds that are still slower than cable internet. There are two types of DSL connections:

• ADSL – Asymmetrical DSL
• SDSL – Symmetric DSL

DSL connections are usually some of the most affordable connections in the market. It is also widely available throughout the country, allowing households all over to stream movies and easily surf the internet. However, the speed of DSL connections is greatly affected by your distance from the service provider’s hub. So, the farther away you are from the provider, the slower your internet connection would be. 

Satellite Internet

Satellite internet connections don’t need any cables to connect to the internet, which makes it easily accessible all over the country. The satellite in space beams the internet to the dish attached to the roof of your house. Satellite connections offer very limited data allowance and slow speeds. 

Satellite internet may be offered in places where other providers don’t reach. However, if you want to connect to the internet, the service may be much more expensive than other connections. 

Fiber Optic Internet

By making use of light-speed technology, fiber optic connections offer you the fastest internet speeds in the market. The connection makes use of fiber-optic cables that are as thin as hair strands and sends data in the form of pulses of light. The pulses travel at 70% the speed of light, which are converted to electrical pulses to be read by your device. 

Fiber-optic internet offers high-speed internet connections as fast as 300Mbps to 1Gbps. It also offers symmetrical speeds, which means you can enjoy the same download and upload speeds. Have a look at one of the ATT Fiber Internet plans that offer symmetrical speeds to users. And if you want to remain connected on the go, check out AT&T Wireless service too!

How to Choose an Internet Plan?

If you are looking for the quickest and most dependable internet service, fiber optic service may be perfect for you. While this may seem like the answer to everyone’s problems, fiber-optic internet is not widely available throughout the country. This brings us to a major issue because all types of connections are not available everywhere. 

Fiber optic internet seems like the best answer for everyone unless you don’t use the internet connection for streaming videos or downloading large files. If you don’t require an unlimited data allowance, you may be able to find a much more reasonable option. 

Additionally, if fiber-optic isn’t available in your location, there are other reliable options for you to choose from. In short, your location will dictate the type of connection that you can choose from. 

Selecting the Plan

So, the first step is to look around what’s available in your area. Once you have narrowed down the list to the providers in your area, you can move on to other factors that are important when deciding on a suitable plan. 

Internet Speeds

Internet speeds will dictate the speeds at which you can download and upload data to and from the internet. Download speeds are important because these speeds indicate how fast you can download files, stream movies and shows, and play online games. If your download speeds are insufficient, your videos will lag and your games will freeze, and downloads may fail. 

You also need to focus on the upload speeds when choosing a plan. The upload speeds will indicate the speed at which you can send data from your device to anywhere online. These speeds can help if you need to regularly back up your data to cloud-based storage. 

Data Limits

Earlier, internet plans had a limited data allowance and any additional data would cost you a lot. Providers would attempt to throttle speeds so that users would not use more data quickly.

Today, as speeds have become faster, the data allowances have increased as well. A large number of providers offer unlimited data with their monthly packages. With this option, you can stream as many movies as you want, download as many files as you need, and avoid paying for any additional requirements. 

Zombie Devices

Zombie devices refer to the devices that are constantly working in the background, eating up the data at all times. These devices may not be offering you notifications constantly, but because of the internet connection, are constantly updating themselves. 

Devices such as security cameras, smartwatches, and smart home appliances are some of the common zombie devices. In short, anything that connects to the internet may be using up data constantly. If you have a limited data allowance, it can be used up quickly if you are not aware of how things work.

Ultra High Definition videos

The quality of video that you stream can use up different amounts of data. 4K videos are of really high quality and can significantly impact the amount of data that you consume. You can stream the videos in lower quality to control the data that you use up. 

For instance, if you stream a video on Netflix in HD, you can consume almost 3GB every hour. For a UHD video on Netflix, the video can consume 7GB in a single hour. 

Final Thoughts

Not all internet plans offer the same services. Different plans offer internet through various means, offer different speeds, and different data allowances. Once you have checked out which providers are available in your area, you can make an informed choice.