Leverburgh WiFi Network - Network Speed

As broadband internet access has many advantages over a standard 56k Dial-up or ISDN connection wireless internet access can, using specially developed software systems, speed up the connection still faster. This speed increase has been tested up to almost 62 times faster than the Dial-up speed available from the Leverburgh exchange.

By using a clever caching system we are able to store many of the commonly downloaded files on one of our servers (this system is similar to that used by the larger ISP's). Because the internal network connections run at 2mbps, those files which have been cached wil be delivered at this speed no matter what speed anything else is delivered at.

Unfortunately we do not have the facilities to cache all of the files that are a vailable on the internet so there will be times when these files will have to be downloaded directly. However we have multiple connections to the Internet (called backhaul) which are used simultaneously to ensure that these speeds remain at broadband speeds.

For basic Internet browsing, email, downloading, etc, we are confident that our systems will deliver a consistent broadband speed of an average of no less that 128k***, with speeds reaching up to 2mb. If you are just browsing we expect that your speed should be on average in the region of 512k but again speeds can, and will, reach up to 2mb. The average speed from the Leverburgh exchange over dial-up on our last survey was 33k and over the last 2 years it has never exceeded 38k but remained a steady 33k.

There may be periods, during excessive useage, that our speeds decrease but because all of the revenues are used to provide the service we are confident that we can meet any demands made upon the network. However to help avoid congestion we are offering a file download service and back-up service. However, even during periods of excessive downloading by many users simultaneously our system should never fall below 128k which BT describes as broadband and is still nearly 4 times faster than speeds currently availble from the Leverburgh exchange. We think that this would be an extremely rare event but thought it worthwhile mentioning.

Please remember that ALL broadband services often fail to provide full broadband speeds but nearly ALL ISP's hide this fact from their customers. We have direct experience of one broadband supplier who was charging over £100 per month but often failed to reach dial-up speeds, even for basic web browsing. Furthermore, it is our opinion that the planned Connected Communities service will run into serious difficulties almost immediately after roll-out. We base this opinion on the amount of bandwidth* that is to be made available to their network. Currently Leverburgh WiFi Network has almost half this amount of bandwidth currently serving Leverburgh alone with plans to increase this amount as more users come online**.

*Bandwidth is the amount of data and the speed of the data made available. For example it could be said that the bandwidth available to people using dial-up in Leverburgh is 33k.
**Based upon figures quoted, on more than one occassion, by a spokesperson for Connected Communities over the last 2 years.
***BT quotes their 128k connections as being broadband.