Broadband is the ever evolving way in which most households and businesses now connect to the internet, and there are so many different companies offering seemingly similar products clouded with confusing techno jargon that it's often hard to see the wood for the trees when it comes to understanding broadband.

However, there are a few simple things that you should come to grips with that could really help you when it comes to buying broadband for your home or tackling some of the problems that you may encounter with your broadband connection.

Broadband Types

There are three main types of broadband that are available in the UK today; ADSL, Fibre Optic and Mobile Broadband. ADSL, which stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is the most common form of broadband because you can receive it down your existing BT phone line.

Fibre optic broadband services are much faster and consistent than ADSL (we'll get to why in a moment) but the areas in which they are available is relatively limited so most people won't have the option.

Mobile broadband services are the newest on the market and rather than operating over a physical landline are received wirelessly like a mobile phone signal. This means that you can take your broadband connection anywhere in the country that is in an area of network coverage. Let's take a look at the three in more detail.

ADSL

You should expect to see most ADSL services on offer with an advertised download speed of 'up to' 8 Megabits per second, but the truth is that most people are not likely to be able to achieve this maximum speed because it is dependant on the length of your telephone line and its distance from your local telephone exchange.

You should be able to use most ISP (Internet Service Providers) websites to check the actual speed that your telephone line should be capable of. However, for most people ADSL broadband should be fast enough, allowing web pages to load quickly and smoothly, and file downloads to happen in a snap.

There are some ADSL services that advertise 'up to' 24Mbps download speeds, but these are available in very limited areas. However, you may be one of the lucky ones.


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Fibre Optic

Currently only offered by Virgin Media in the UK, fibre optic broadband uses glass tubes carrying light signals to provide your broadband connection, and because the signal does not deteriorate no matter how long the cable is, you'll be able to achieve much faster download speeds, of between 24Mbps and 50Mbps.

Coverage of fibre optic cabling is limited, but it is being rolled out across more areas of the country over the next few months so you may soon be eligible for the connection.


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Mobile Broadband

No landline means no additional line rental charges and no commitment to a fixed address, so you can take your laptop anywhere you like and still enjoy a moderately fast broadband connection. However, mobile broadband is often slower than ADSL and Fibre optic because of the limits of certain ISPs networks and the USB modems that are supplied.

You will also often have far stricter monthly download limits set, with the minimum usually at around 1GB, which you cannot exceed without incurring further charges, and will limit the amount you can use your connection. Such is the price of freedom.


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