Broadband News

Over a quarter of Britons baffled by broadband jargon

Thursday 8 December, 2011

By Duncan Heaney

Plusnet find broadband jargon remains a mystery to many.

A new study commissioned by broadband provider Plusnet has found that just over a quarter of UK households don’t understand common broadband terminology.

The survey was conducted by research company Opinion Matter in November, and quizzed 1,096 participants across the UK. The results found that, despite 59% of UK households having access to internet-connected computers, 26 % did not know the meaning of commonly used terms like Wi-Fi, bandwidth, router, and download.

It’s often assumed that young people have a better understanding of technology, but the survey shows that with age comes wisdom - 71% of over-55s proved knowledgeable about broadband jargon compared to just 61% of 16-24-year-olds.

Nick Rawlings, Plusnet’s commercial and marketing director, and Lucy Hedges, gadget reporter on BBC2’s Something for the Weekend, are touring UK radio stations across the UK today to discuss the findings.

But if you’re one of the many struggling to understand internet jargon, here’s a handy guide to some common terms:

Broadband: High-speed digital internet

Bandwidth: The data transfer capabilities of your broadband connection - the faster your connection, the more capacity it has

Download: The transmission of data from the internet to your computer

Megabit: Also written as Mb or Mbps (megabit per second) - a measure of the speed at which data is transferred. Used to represent the speed of a broadband connection

Router: Hardware that shares your internet connection with other devices. Essential if you want to set up a network of internet-connected devices

Wi-Fi: The use of radio signals to connect computers to modems without cables, so that they can connect to the internet without wires, anywhere within the reach of the signal.