How many people live with you?

How many people live with you?

The more people in your home using broadband, the faster internet speed you will need — and therefore the higher monthly price you’ll likely need to pay.

Regardless of how much internet you personally use, you’ll have to account for everyone else’s usage too. So you should consider the number of people in your household — and how much they all use the internet — to properly judge what fibre broadband deal you should choose.

For example, there could be plenty of times when someone is streaming Netflix, while another is listening to music on Spotify, and another is gaming online. So your internet speed needs to be fast enough to handle all of these tasks at the same time.

As a rough rule of thumb:

1-2 people per household: You could likely get away with a cheaper, slower fibre broadband speed below 50Mbps. But if you both often use the internet separately for bandwidth-hungry things like 4K streaming or gaming, you might have to look for something faster.

3-4 people: If your entire household only occasionally uses the internet, a speed of 35Mbps could be the most cost-effective option. But if you or your children are often watching Netflix or YouTube or playing online games, a speed of 50-100Mbps would be best.

5+ people: 50-100Mbps would be a safe bet if your household casually uses the internet, or you have children watching lots of videos. But if most people in the household use the internet a lot, such as high-quality TV streaming and working from home, a speed of 100Mbps or above would be ideal.