How Bandwidth Affects Internet Usage

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Imagine you're on a video call with a friend, family, or work, and your connection cuts out. You're frustrated and frantic, trying to reconnect while figuring out what's causing the slow connection in the first place. If your videos are constantly buffering or web pages take ages to load, chances are you're dealing with low bandwidth.

What Is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth is the fastest rate at which your Internet connection can transfer data and how much data can be sent over your connection in a certain amount of time.

How Bandwidth Affects Network Performance

Let’s say your Internet has a bandwidth of 1,000 Mbps and your cable Internet connection provides around 25 Mbps of bandwidth. When thinking about bandwidth, imagine the network connection is a tube and every piece of data as a grain of sand. If a large quantity of sand tries to move through a small tube, it will take a long time for the sand to pass. If you take the same volume of sand and try to push it through a wider tube, the sand will seamlessly flow. Translate this into data speak and it means that downloading will finish much faster with a high bandwidth connection rather than a low bandwidth connection.