Understanding the difference between internet speed and the data usage.

Actually, understanding the internet speed and the data usage can be a bit confusing. However, if you have a good understanding, it can save you lots of money.

Recently, Nepal Telecom launched new connectivity service, 4G or Fourth Generation. Nepal Telecom was the first telecom in South Asia to introduce 3G, but 4G came very late this time. Nevertheless, we can now enjoy the fastest wireless internet speed.

That being said, one question arises, does it worth? I mean, having the speed of 32.4 Mbps really worth.  Before answering the question, let’s understand the difference between the speed and the data usage.

Simply, internet speed is the measure of how quickly the information is transferred from the server to your device. As usual, the speed is measured in proportion of time, i.e. how much data is transferred in a second (minute, hours, etc.) e.g. 1 bit per second, or 100 bytes per second, etc.

Now, let’s understand the data, it is the amount of content transferred to and from your device to the server. Usage of data is correlated to the amount of time spent online but it not compulsory. For example: downloading a movie will use more of your usage allowance than sending a text email message because the movie contains a lot more data than the email message. The data is measured in a bit (small unit) and Exabyte (largest unit). And combining 8 units of bits, you will get 1kilobit (or 1 byte) and 1024 kb is 1 byte, 1024 bytes is equal to 1 Megabyte and goes on.

Hope you have understood the difference between internet speed and the data. Now, let’s try to answer the above question “Does the high internet speed is of worth?”

Actually, the answer is not straight as we might think. Let’s explain it with an example: Suppose you have a tank that holds 100GB of the internet, which would be my data usage. If we put a valve at the bottom to control the flow, that would be our internet. A 2Mbps connection would be just a small stream and 20Mbps connection would be like the flood. More flow means more usage of internet and if you have control over the valve, you can control your data-flow too. So, in general, higher the internet speed means more usage of internet data.

However, this is not strictly correlated. If you only do not download any heavy stuff or watch any HD videos, you are good. For heavy users, data limited is the worst thing you can ever imagine. The speed of 32.4Mbps and unlimited data could be the mouthwatering thing.

So, the speed of 4G and the data limit impacts differently to the nature of the users.