Understanding Broadband Usage Limits

Some broadband providers limit usage so they can provide the highest speeds to all their customers. In the broadband industry it is common for up to 50 residential customers to share the same connection from their local exchange. Normally this doesn't cause any problems, but if a few customers are using most of the bandwidth, it can slow things down for others.

What is a Gigabyte (GB)? Can you explain how a usage limit may affect me?

Broadband usage limits are usually measured in gigabytes. For example, your new provider may say that you can use up to 20 gigabytes of data transfer per month. A gigabyte is a little over a thousand megabytes… but what will a gigabyte of usage actually do? Well, it helps to understand the size of the things you may be sending and receiving like photos, songs and emails.

A high quality photo taken with a 5 megapixel digital camera is about 5MB in size. You could send or receive about 200 photos and it would use 1GB of your usage limit.

An average song is about 3MB in size. You could download over 300 songs and it would use 1GB of your usage limit.

What about email?

You could send or receive about 7,500 emails that did not contain attachments and it would use 1GB of your usage limit.

What about surfing the Internet?

You could surf the internet 24 hours a day for about 5 days and use 1GB of your usage limit.

What about online radio?

You could listen to about 17 hours of streaming audio and it would use 1GB of your usage limit.

What about video?

You could watch about 7.5 hours of streaming video and it would use 1GB of your usage limit.

How do I decide if a usage limit is right for me?

Most usage limits are quite reasonable and very few people will exceed a 20GB usage limit in a month. However, if you know that you will be a heavy user, or if you live in a home where many people will be using your connection, it may be best to choose an unlimited package. You should be aware that even unlimited broadband packages are subject to what is known as a "fair use" policy. This means that if your usage is extremely heavy month after month, the provider may contact you to see if anything can be done to reduce your usage. They may even limit your usage at certain times of day.

Below is a table that will help you understand what you can do each month with a 20GB usage limit. All activities are included.

Activity	Quantity
Surfing the Internet	24 hours per day
Downloading music	About 600 songs per month
Sending and receiving emails	About 12,000 per month (no attachments)
Listening to online radio	About 4 hours per day
Watching streaming video	About 1 hour per day