Suppose you went to the supermarket to buy a pound of steak for dinner and when you got home you noticed that the package seemed very light. So you went back and complained to the manager, only to be told that the label says “up to 1 pound,” and you’re stuck with it.
You’d be furious, of course. But that seemingly ridiculous stratagem is used every day by broadband providers across the country. Don’t believe me? Check your agreement. In my case, AT&T tells me that I’m entitled to upload speeds of “up to” 3 Mbps and download speeds of “up to” 384 kbps. What do I have? Download speeds that average about 15 percent slower depending on the time of day, and upload speeds that are more or less as promised.
You can do the math as well I can. A big file, such as a backup or a photo album that takes 120 minutes to download at 3 Mbps, takes an extra 17 minutes at 2.5 Mbps, my actual download speed.
Read more here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/192128/the_real_truth_about_broadband_speeds.html
Suppose you went to the supermarket to buy a pound of steak for dinner and when you got home you noticed that the package seemed very light. So you went back and complained to the manager, only to be told that the label says “up to 1 pound,” and you’re stuck with it.
You’d be furious, of course. But that seemingly ridiculous stratagem is used every day by broadband providers across the country. Don’t believe me? Check your agreement. In my case, AT&T tells me that I’m entitled to upload speeds of “up to” 3 Mbps and download speeds of “up to” 384 kbps. What do I have? Download speeds that average about 15 percent slower depending on the time of day, and upload speeds that are more or less as promised.
You can do the math as well I can. A big file, such as a backup or a photo album that takes 120 minutes to download at 3 Mbps, takes an extra 17 minutes at 2.5 Mbps, my actual download speed.
Read more here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/192128/the_real_truth_about_broadband_speeds.html
