


It may not be exactly the same, as various factors can affect the speed of the internet going into your home. However, if that WiFi signal strength is good, then the speed you’re seeing on your devices should be very close to the broadband speed quoted by your provider. These include walls, doors, furniture, and frequency interference, which impacts WiFi signal strength. That's because there are several things that can affect the speed of the connection between your router and your devices. This speed isn’t necessarily the speed you’ll see on your individual devices. And while those activities are speed-dependent, that’s not always a good indicator of actual speed.īroadband speed refers to the speed of the internet that’s being delivered into your home, either through the old copper cable network, through fibre-optic cables or Virgin Media’s coaxial network. It’s easy to think of it in terms of how quickly a web page loads on your smartphone, or how smoothly a game runs on your laptop.

Roots may be growing into the cable buried in your yard.There’s sometimes a little bit of confusion about what broadband speed really is. Speed may be slow because you’re using the internet at peak times, or your router may be outdated. You may even see disclaimers like “wireless speeds may vary” because Wi-Fi speeds are always inconsistent no matter what provider you choose-it’s just how Wi-Fi works.įor example, there may be issues with the provider’s service area, like faulty connections somewhere within the neighborhood. Internet providers will state “up to” when advertising maximum speeds because many variables can prevent you from hitting that top speed.

What you see on the speed test is simply where your internet speeds are currently. Most of the time, your internet speeds will fluctuate within a small range of that max speed. The speeds promised by your internet plan are the max speeds you can expect. You likely won’t ever see the maximum speed advertised by your provider in the speed test, but your speed test results should come close. Why doesn’t my internet speed match my plan?
