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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Broadband bandwidth is not what it seems to be

Bhutan Telecom offers a few broadband packages, starting at Nu 399 and going all the way to Nu 2499.
Here are the options in a table similar to the one on the BT website:

Package NameCircuit BandwidthTariff (Nn)Data Limitvalidity
PersonalUpto 256 Kbps
399.00
2.5 GB
30 days
HomeUpto 256 Kbps
799.00
5 GB
30 days
OfficeUpto 512 Kbps
1199.00
7 GB
30 days
BusinessUpto 1 Mbps
1799.00
10 GB
30 days
EnterpriseUpto 2 Mbps
2499.00
15 GB
30 days

When I first subscribed to BT's broadband service, I expected the specified "circuit bandwidth" to be the maximum download speed; this is what ISPs usually do when advertising broadband packages.

But not with Bhutan Telecom.
ThimphuTech has learned that the download speed - the flow of data from the web to your computer - is actually 75% of the "circuit bandwidth", and the upload speed - from your computer back to the web - is 25% of the "circuit bandwidth". The sum of the download speed and upload speed is what BT advertises. These speeds are theoretical maxima. In practice, the speeds are often a fraction of the specifications, but this is probably a topic for another post.

As a service to our loyal readers, here's a more standard table of packages, showing the actual download and upload speeds:

Package NameDownload (Max)Upload (Max)Tariff (Nu)Data Limitvalidity
Personal192 Kbps64 Kbps
399.00
2.5 GB
30 days
Home192 Kbps64 Kbps
799.00
5 GB
30 days
Office384 Kbps128 Kbps
1199.00
7 GB
30 days
Business768 Kbps256 Kbps
1799.00
10 GB
30 days
Enterprise1.5 Mbps512 Kbps
2499.00
15 GB
30 days

1 comment:

  1. bhutan has some serious catching up to do ....

    ReplyDelete

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