May 12, 2009

Will we ever see 200 Mbps?

When Virgin Media announced that, they are putting their 200 Mbps broadband service on trial in Ashford, Kent there must have been a rush of households looking to sign up.

But although the very thought of surfing the internet at speeds faster than anything available in the UK, does this speed actually get to the end user?

It is believed that the likely hood of a consumer receiving 200 Mbps broadband is rare even when the fibre cable is connected to the home; this is because other factors affect the speed.

First up this is cable, so the more people that use it the slower the speed, then there are the routers, the standard 802.11g router can only handle 54 Mbps, while the older 802.11b router can only deliver 11 Mbps.

Source [Ars Technica]