Bentley Walker Speed Test
Our services are advertised with speeds such as ‘up to 30Mbps’ – however, it is wise to remember that the experience of this will not be comparable to the experience of using a 30Mbps cable internet connection. This is due to the difference between latency and bandwidth.
Bandwidth (a.k.a speed) – this determines how fast an amount of data can be transferred per second. This is generally measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
Latency (a.k.a delay or ping) – this determines how long it takes data to travel between the source and the destination. This is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Due to the route that the data take (you to satellite to ground station to satellite to you), the latency associated with satellite internet is noticeably higher than the latency associated with cable internet.
For example, if you were browsing the web, this is how the different types of connection would feel:
Satellite internet (High Speed/High Latency) - You would click a link on a web page and, after a noticeable delay, the web page would start downloading and show up almost all at once.
Cable internet (High Speed/Low Latency) - You would click a link on a web page and the web page would appear almost immediately, downloading all at once.
Hypothetical (Low Speed/Low Latency) - You would click a link on a web page and the web page would start loading immediately. However, it would take a while to load completely and you would see images load one-by-one.
Therefore, please keep this in mind; you may not be experiencing slow speeds from our service. Instead, it may be the higher latency that you are not accustomed to.