The reports from tech Company Getac reported at DailyRecord are in, and Glasow has officially some of the highest levels of superfast internet connectivity in Scotland. Though we might be a little behind the leaders in Edinburgh, Glascow’s availability is still a standout with both high average speeds and few users on slower connections. To celebrate this development, we thought we’d take a deeper look at Glasgow’s success, and how Glaswegians can best take advantage of what it has to offer.
“Glasfaser Bund Internet starke Nahaufnah” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Christoph Scholz
Glasgow’s Achievements
There are two areas for Glasgow that find a place above the rest. In the first place, we have Glasgow East, which has reached 99.1 superfast availability with an average download speed of nearly 180 Mbps. Currently, only around 2.7% of internet users in Glasgow East operate with connection speeds of under 10 Mbps.
Claiming second place is Glasgow South West, achieving 99.5% superfast accessibility and an average download speed of 162 Mbps. With only 2.6% of Glasgow South West users operating under 10 Mbps, both of these areas set standards to which the rest of the city can aspire.
Superfast Opportunities
Average speeds reaching over 160 Mbps might not mean a lot to those without experience in the world of tech, so let’s break it down with some context. To start this comparison, we could compare how this speed measures up to the speed many of us grew up with using a 56k dial-up modem. According to calculations using the Download-Time website, downloading an old 700-megabyte music CD would take around 29 hours on a 56k. With a speed of 160 Mbps, this download process would take 36 seconds.
“The Mighty USRobotics” (CC BY 2.0) by Diego3336
For a more contemporary example we could start with less-demanding data uses like trying to check out the top online casinos at KingCasinoBonus. This service lists major online betting sites like MadSlots Casino and Dragonbet, comparing features like deposit matches and free spins. Users can then go from here to playing games like slots and blackjack on their mobiles or desktops, using less than 10 Mbps in most instances. With a 160 Mbps connection, this means one network could run more than 16 users following this activity at once.
For a slightly more realistic example of strain put on a home network, we could look at ultra-HD video streaming on services like Hulu or Netflix. For one of these streams, Netflix recommends a minimum bandwidth of 25 Mbps, though 30 Mbps is a safer bet. In this case, 160 Mbps could handle five active users streaming Ultra-HD content once. Again, unlikely, but it does perfectly demonstrate just how much overhead the faster connections in Glasgow can offer.
With further investments in online infrastructure and gradually lowering internet costs, the average speeds all over Glasgow are only going to improve. As for whether you really need to take advantage of the super high speeds that these opportunities represent, that’s another question entirely. Whatever the case, let’s just hope that the next survey might place us above Edinburgh.