If you’re looking to upgrade your broadband and you want the fastest speeds possible, you need to go with Gigabit broadband – here are the best Gigabit internet plans on the market right now…
Not so long ago, it took a minute or two to download a picture from the web. This was the late-90s. But since then, things have progressed at break-neck speeds with respect to download speeds.
The advent of 3G, then 4G, and now 5G pushed things along on mobile. And with home broadband, you now have the ability to get Gigabit broadband in your home. And 1Gbps broadband – also known as gigabit internet – is INSANELY fast.
How much is 1Gbps Broadband though? As you’d expect, it is a little more than traditional, slower forms of broadband. But as you can see below, Gigabit Internet is still relatively affordable – especially if you’re now doing a lot of work from home.
Best Gigabit Internet Plans
How Fast is Gigabit Internet?
1Gbps Broadband is extremely fast. With a 1Gbps connection, you will be able to download 1000Mbps in data. In order to unlock these speeds, however, you will need a fiber connection. But if you’re in an area that supports fiber connection (a lot of places do now), you can unlock what is currently the fastest broadband internet connection available.
In everyday tasks, like browsing the web and downloading files, things like pictures, for instance, your Gigabit Internet connection will feel snappy, almost instant. But where 1Gbps Broadband really comes into its own is with streaming and gaming.
And let’s face it, the vast majority of people’s bandwidth is taken up by streaming content from YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime, as well as gaming platforms like Steam and Twitch. These data-heavy platforms can quickly clog up slower networks, making viewing and consuming media a chore.
Gigabit internet ensures all of the above things run almost as if you had them natively installed on your device – there is no lag, loading time, or hang. It just runs seamlessly, in the highest quality possible.
Gigabit Internet For 4K UHD Streaming
With 1Gbps Broadband, you can stream 4K UHD content with a hitch. Ditto 4K games via services like Steam. And keep in mind that 4K uses four to five times the amount of bandwidth as 1080p. This is why multiple people streaming 4K content in your home, even with super fast broadband (100Mbps) still clogs things up. 1Gbps Broadband solves this and will allow up to 100 people to stream 4K content at any given time.
If you have a lot of screens and users in your home, upgrading to 1Gbps Broadband makes a lot of sense. You’ll have so much additional bandwidth that even if everybody is online streaming 4K UHD content via Netflix or Disney+, you’ll still have reams of bandwidth left over. In fact, there will be no perceivable loss in download speeds. This is the real power of 1Gbps Broadband.
Gigabit Internet For Gaming
There’s nothing worse than dealing with lag or stutter when you’re playing a game online. It sucks. If you experience lag, whereby you do a controller input, but it is delayed by a fraction of a second, this can be the difference between winning or losing. With 1Gbps Broadband, this does not happen – there is no lag, no stutter. Everything will run like you were playing the game natively on a console or PC.
And if you’re into streaming your gaming on Twitch, the additional bandwidth of 1Gbps Broadband allows you to seamlessly play and stream at the same time, again, without any stutter, lag, or hang. For gamers looking to kill latency, lag, and stutter, 1Gbps Broadband is the best solution on the market right now.
1Gbps Broadband is also great for VR gaming too. Because of the demands of VR headsets, you need a very fast internet connection to ensure there is no latency or lag between the game you’re playing and the VR headset you’re wearing.
With 1Gbps Broadband, this problem is solved. Just like when playing or streaming a game online, there is no lag or hang because you have more than enough bandwidth at your disposal.
Is Gigabit Internet Worth It?
We all use the web in different ways. But most of us – meaning upwards of 90% of people in the west – tend to stream content via Netflix, Disney, Amazon, or YouTube. We do it on our phones, our computers, and our TVs. And then there’s gaming; millions of people play and stream games online every single day. And a slow internet connection can and will make doing any of the above a chore.
By investing in 1Gbps Broadband you effectively ensure that every connection in your home, be it your phone, TV, console, PC, or tablet, will have all the bandwidth it needs to stream and download every possible type of content – from large files to 4K UHD content via Netflix and Amazon Prime. It also brings lag-free gaming and game streaming.
If you’re a heavy user of the internet at home, 1Gbps Broadband is the fastest connection you can currently get on the market right now. For homes that run loads of devices and regularly connect to things like Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as gaming services like Steam and Twitch, 1Gbps Broadband is fast becoming an essential utility to have running in your home.
Even with remote working, there are major benefits to having 1Gbps Broadband installed in your home. You will be able to interact and download items from the cloud in an instant, almost as if they were natively installed on your computer. Beyond this, you can set up a home server and store terabytes of data on it, and, because you have masses of bandwidth, you will be able to instantly access and stream things from it.
Basically, if you use the web at its full potential, so you stream content in 4K, you play online games, or you live stream while gaming, 1Gbps Broadband is the answer to all your prayers. As a professional user, I couldn’t imagine life without my home’s 1Gbps Broadband. It has been invaluable for my productivity and workflow. I’d never go back to anything slower, so, yeah, Gigabit Internet is very much worth it…
Best 1Gbps Broadband Deals
In the UK? Check out Vodafone’s GigaCube…
Richard Goodwin
Richard Goodwin has been working as a tech journalist for over 10 years. He is the editor and owner of KnowYourMobile.