It is not new today that Internet connectivity is questioned, which is fundamental for much of what we do both in private and professional life. The issue is the speed of the connections that we have available.
Good speed – or excellent, preferably – of access and that since the commercial expansion of the Web, used to be called broadband, is a requirement basic to take advantage of all that the world wide web offers.
But do you know how to explain what broadband is? Do you know if your ISP gives you what you hired? How to test your internet speed? How to interpret the results of the many tests available? Which are the best and most reliable?
To answer these and other important questions, we are going to talk a little about the issue.
What is Banda Broad?
When the term was popularized in Brazil, broadband was defined as connections with speeds of 128 Kbps (kilobits per second) or higher, being so called because the bandwidth of bandwidth allowed to travel a good volume of data for the time.
Bandwidth, in turn, is the measure that determines the volume of data in kilobits – or its multiples, such as megabits or gigabits – that are trafficked between two points on the network over the course of a second.
In many countries there are very clear regulations that technically determine the values for Internet access connections that can be classified as broadband .
Unfortunately in Brazil, Anatel – the body responsible for regulating the matter – does not have a clear rule that delimits these same terms, what is broadband.
It is necessary to say that there are parameters or indicators that serve to measure the quality of broadband service, but not the values that determine what is considered broadband .
Generically and by exclusion, the contents classify this connection class, as being all forms of access that are not through dial-up access, which at the time it was created, consisted of of the predominant type of access and whose speed was up to 56 Kbps, that is, in one second it was possible to download up to 56 kilobits of data.
The first Brazilian service at the time to market broadband access, promised to deliver a speed of 128 Kbps. But we are talking about the distant year of 1999!
It is unthinkable that more than two decades later, this is used as a parameter.
Without having clear and expressed information in In terms of regulation or standard, it is also not accurate to assume that broadband is the speed that allows browsing with a certain speed and stability of connectivity, since there is subjectivity in these aspects, since how fast a connection is, is something that can vary from one person to another and the use made of the service.
If we consider that a 3G connection, technically corresponds to a speed of 1Mbps (one megabit per second) for download and about 10% of that for upload, it would qualify for broadband. However, anyone who has tried to watch a video on YouTube or even access certain sites through this type of connection, knows the exercise of patience it represents.
It’s surprising, it’s regrettable, but it’s reality!
In short, depending on the type of content, this speed will be insufficient for fluent browsing, without interruptions and with a good experience in the consumption of the content and resources present on the website accessed or in the app used.
Connection speed measurement parameters
The most popular Internet connection speed tests in Brazil use different parameters to determine how good – or bad – is your connection at the time of measurement.
Although when thinking about speed, most people only imagine a value, such as the speed of your car, there are other numbers and measures that should be considered to define whether the service is capable of delivering good performance in many access situations.
1. Download speed
It is natural that the first of these parameters to be observed is the one that most people are concerned about and that is even the most used as an indicator in the commercialization of Internet plans when we talk about speed.
Download speed refers to how fast the different files are downloaded when browsing the web through the pages of the sites, when watching a video or listening to streaming music, or accessing a document in the cloud.
Bear in mind that the values are always presented in the unit megabit per second (Mbps) and here it is worth noting that many people can confuse it with megabyte, which is an important error.
Although the size of everything is given in bytes and their multiples, i.e. kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB), speed uses bits, remembering that one byte is equivalent to 8 bits. Therefore, 800 Mbps corresponds to 100 MBps.
2. Upload speed
This is another very important value, but often overlooked or left in the background.
We upload, or send from, our device, data and files too, whether when we send something to a cloud storage service, or when sending an email with or without an attachment, or even an entire website to a web server, using FTP.
But even when it seems not, we upload when we access a website, sending requests to the web server, which responds with the contents of the pages, or when filling out a form, through HTTPS.
Although there are already many services where the download and upload speeds are the same (symmetrical), there are still some important and popular services where the upload speed is not only lower (asymmetrical), as it is significantly lower. And that is why many people purposely do not distinguish between the two, which at the very least is a lack of transparency with the consumer.
3. PING
Ping is a bidirectional latency indicator, which means that it measures the time it takes for a data packet to travel to a certain IP address.
Consists of a command or a utility present in most operating systems and that, through an Internet protocol (ICMP), sends packets normally of 32 bytes and waits for a response from the destination IP address.
The time between sending and receiving the response is measured in milliseconds (ms) and the higher the value, the higher the latency, which is especially bad in real-time applications such as online games or VOIP applications, such as VoLTE, for example.
4. Jitter
Jitter is one of the parameters that is not reported in many speed measurement tools, but it is as important as Ping, because it measures the eventual variation in Ping.
When you run a standard Ping command on Windows, for example, 4 packets are sent and the times of the 4 respective responses are informed. Suppose two took 30 ms and two took 31 ms. These are considered normal times, even if slightly different.
However, if the differences occur in all four shipments and are very different percentages, in practice it means an oscillation or non-stability and that can negatively impact in delay or inconsistency in the web application.
5. Loss
The loss parameter relates to the loss of data packets during traffic.
Depending on the Internet protocol, packet loss is acceptable and can occur without great harm to the user, as in video streaming, in which UDP is used as a priority, privileging speed to the detriment of information integrity, as one or another packet that is eventually lost does not interfere with the transmission
However, when the loss exceeds certain levels and in the cases of some protocols, it means network congestion and can affect certain applications.
Usually from 3% loss, the effects start to be noticed and there is degradation in functioning and performance.
6. IPv4 vs IPv6
In Brazil, the vast majority of users still access the Internet through a version 4 IP address (IPv4), which, due to the exhaustion of available addresses, makes with providers to use resources (eg CGNAT) to circumvent the problem of scarcity, but which translates into worse performance.
When available, IPv6 is an alternative to this and other problems.
Some of the measurement tools are capable of measuring speeds and parameters in both versions.
Most common types of Internet access in Brazil
In Brazil, there are different types of technologies adopted by different access providers. Generally, some types are more common in some regions and others in others and vary depending on the distance from large urban centers or cities, the availability of infrastructure and even the population density.
telephony, favor the largest metropolitan regions and regions with greater population density, given the cost of implementing the necessary infrastructure and the demand in these areas.
Access via cable
Similar to the cable concept of television operators and which normally used part of the existing infrastructure for the television service, to provide access.
At the beginning of the adoption of the first access operators, managed to offer very good speeds, however, this type showed a vertiginous drop in terms of offer, both due to the cable service itself having declined due to alternatives, as well as the growth and access of other type connection s.
ADSL via cable
Similar to the type above, but with some variations in terms of technical concepts and using the cable infrastructure of the fixed telephony network, instead of cable for pay TV.
It is still one of the predominant models in the country, but more because of the installed base in older users.
Other types have much higher growth rates for new subscribers.
Optical fiber
In the country there is similarities with the Internet via cable, due to the type of installation and operation and does not typically make full use of optical fibers, as it is not uncommon for the part of the installation inside the property not to be made by fiber, but by cable, which ends up being a bottleneck and producing losses.
Even so, it achieves speeds higher than the two previous types, low speed loss in cases of long distances and little influence of noise and physical barriers.
Radio
Access o Internet via radio frequency, it is more common in small towns and rural areas or even with low population density, where investment in infrastructure would make the three models above expensive.
This type is also more susceptible to interference, even meteorological, and thus, a heavy rain can degrade the performance, produce oscillations or even cause the unavailability of access.
Via satellite
This type of connectivity makes use of a set of technologies that results in one of the most expensive services of all, but which allows its availability almost anywhere, being until recently the only option in very remote regions. or and in most rural areas.
It can also be affected by extreme weather conditions, in which what is called “satellite sight” is lost, as the antenna that captures the signal has to “see” the satellite and thus even very dense clouds can interrupt or cause r signal degradation.
Starlink
Launched in several countries, including Brazil, Starlink is a service provided by SpaceX, which aims to provide access with high speed and low latency, to any location on the planet, however far away from urban centers, through a large and sophisticated network of satellites in low orbits.
There are various aspects of infrastructure and other associated technologies, which allow Starlink to be classified as a service different from the hitherto known satellite types.
Even without and star with all the planned infrastructure launched and in operation, the few users who have already used the service, have observed advantages over other satellite services and in some circumstances, even other more common types.
4G
4G is associated with the mobile phone network and as it is one of the largest infrastructures available, it is offered by many providers, especially in more remote cities, where cable options are not available or are more expensive.
As a result, its main advantage over other alternatives is its availability in practically any region, but generally the volume of data that if it can be transferred, it is low compared to other types.
Under ideal conditions, in regions with a good number of antennas and without congestion, it is possible to reach speeds of up to 10 Mbps, although the standard predicts up to 150 Mbps, which is reasonable.
However, the latency is high, which causes an experience poor efficiency for some types of access.
5G
Officially launched in Brazil in July 2022, the “pure” or StandAlone, is nothing more than the supply of the 5G signal according to the molds determined in the auction of the fifth generation frequencies by Anatel.
It is still too early to see how it will be in practice, but in theoretical terms and in accordance with what the associated technology stipulates, it must be the type of connection with the highest speed and lowest latency among all those available so far.
When there is availability of infrastructure in the areas of 5G, in addition to comparatively better performance, new types of applications and services that are highly dependent on real-time performance, such as self-driving cars, will be enabled.
Broadband Regulation and consumer rights
Broadband service is an integral part of telecommunications services and, as such, is regulated by the Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), which in turn is subordinated to the Federal Government.
Its role is not only to regulate, but also to supervise the fixed and mobile telephony sector, determining the obligations of those who provide the service, and the rights of those who consume them.
Therefore, you have extensive information about broadband, as well as other services related to telecommunications, available on Anatel’s website. If you need to complain, learn how to do it, using this booklet from the agency itself.
How to measure your Internet speed?
Most important so that you know if the service you have contracted is in agreement, you can measure the speed of the access that is made available to you by your provider and for that, some points must be observed when carrying out the speed tests:
- When performing the speed test, first make sure there is connectivity, that is, all the necessary equipment (modem , router, access device, etc) are working properly;
- It is highly recommended that you do not have programs open on your device, other than the web browser that will access the measurement site;
- Do not have more than one browser open and whichever one to choose to access, have only the tab or tab that you will use to access the tool open . It is not decisive for the values obtained, but on devices that are making intensive use of CPU and memory, or even downloading some content, it may affect the result;
- Make sure that there are no downloads of any type of content by the operating system, such as updates or emails;
- On a local Wi-Fi network, depending on the distance from the modem or router, the speed will be affected . In addition to proximity, it is highly recommended that it be in the same environment and without physical obstacles, as these also affect the signal and, consequently, performance. The most suitable is a physical connection, that is, by cable;
- Other users should not be connected and using the network.
The test itself is done by accessing if some sites that provide measurement tools.
Most only inform the parameters of download, upload and ping.
Some are part of services of telephone companies or access providers and aim to compare your connection with the one marketed by them and for this reason, we placed first on the list, the meter website provided by nic.br, which is the Internet regulatory body in Brazil and which offers a of the most complete and reliable tests:
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- Simet (nic.br);
- nPerf;
- Speedtest by Ookla;
EAQ (Assessment Entity of Broadband Quality);
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- My Connection.
It is always convenient to carry out at least 2 tests.
If there is a significant difference – equal to or greater than 10% – repeat the tests and even choose to carry out the test in a third tool, remembering that although tests generally have an appropriate margin of reliability, they may present variations related to the environment in which they are the tools are hosted.
Conclusion
The speed of your Internet connection is a fundamental aspect so that you can have everything you need. Internet currently provides. Knowing the characteristics of the service you have contracted, as well as the types available, helps you to ensure that you are receiving it in accordance with your rights and with the current regulations and, therefore, you can enjoy the quality of the available content.
