Internet speed explained simply: Mbps and Gbps

Real estate brochures mention it more and more often: fiber optic present, fast internet connection, 1 Gbps possible, business fiber available. It all sounds reassuring. But what does that actually mean?

Is 100 Mbps fast? Is 1 Gbps ten times better? And when does an organization need 10 Gbps? Many people do look at internet speed, but do not know exactly what the numbers mean. That is not surprising, since the figures are rarely explained in plain language.

In this article we explain internet speed without IT jargon. By the end you will understand the difference between 50 Mbps and 10 Gbps, and above all why a speed alone still says nothing about what a building can handle digitally.

Mbps and Gbps: what do these numbers mean?

Mbps stands for megabit per second. Gbps stands for gigabit per second. The only thing you need to remember: 1 Gbps is 1,000 Mbps. The higher the number, the more data can move over the connection at the same time.

A useful comparison is a motorway. Internet speed is the width of the road. The more Mbps or Gbps, the more traffic can pass without a jam.

• 100 Mbps is a smaller road with a few lanes.
• 1 Gbps is a much wider motorway.
• 10 Gbps is a very wide digital motorway for large volumes of traffic.

More lanes means more people can drive at the same time without things grinding to a halt. For an office, that means more employees who can video call, work in the cloud and send files at the same time.

An overview of speeds

The table below gives an indication of what the different speeds roughly mean. These are guidelines, not strict standards. What an organization actually needs depends on how it is used.

This order helps to get a feel for the numbers: 50 Mbps is less than 100 Mbps, which is less than 500 Mbps, which is less than 1 Gbps, which is less than 10 Gbps.

How much is 1 Gbps really?

To make the numbers tangible: 1 Gbps can in theory handle much more data at once than 100 Mbps. In practice that means comfortable room for multiple Teams or Zoom calls at the same time, working in cloud software, sending large files, running backups, video streaming and, increasingly, AI applications.

Do note that the theoretical speed is not always the same as what the user actually experiences. A connection of 1 Gbps on paper feels slow if something is constrained along the way. We will return to that later.

Download and upload

Every connection has two directions. Download is data coming to you: opening a website, retrieving a file, watching a video. Upload is data going from you outward: uploading files, video calling, cloud backups and sending camera footage.

In the past we mostly consumed data. Today we increasingly produce data as well. As a result, upload is becoming more important for organizations than many people realize. Anyone who video calls all day and works in the cloud is constantly sending data outward.

A motorway leading to the building is fine, but if the last hundred meters is a dirt track, you still arrive slowly.

Symmetrical or asymmetrical

You may come across the term symmetrical. A connection of 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload is symmetrical: equally fast in both directions. A connection of 1 Gbps download and 100 Mbps upload is asymmetrical: the upload is then much slower.

For organizations that work heavily with cloud, video, large files and backups, a symmetrical connection is often worthwhile. They send out roughly as much as they receive. That explains why two buildings both advertising "1 Gbps" can still feel very different in daily use.

Fiber optic does not automatically mean 1 Gbps

This is one of the most common misunderstandings. Fiber optic is the infrastructure. The speed is the subscription or capacity delivered over it. The two are not the same thing.

A building with fiber optic can, in practice, have 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps available. The presence of fiber optic therefore says nothing yet about the actual speed that comes out of it. As we explain in our article on fiber optic in buildings, the cable is just the beginning.

Compare it again to a motorway: it may have ten lanes, but that does not automatically mean you are allowed to use them all. What you are allowed to drive depends on the agreements that have been made.

Internet and wifi are not the same thing

Another common mistake: confusing internet and wifi. Internet is the connection to the outside world. Wifi is one way of using that connection wirelessly inside the building.

That is why a building can have an excellent 1 Gbps connection and still feel slow due to poor wifi. Fast internet with poor wifi remains slow internet for the user. In our article on wifi coverage in buildings we go deeper into this distinction.

The weakest link determines the speed

The speed you experience depends on the entire chain: provider, fiber optic, router, switch, cabling, wifi and finally your laptop. If one component can only handle 100 Mbps, that becomes the brake on everything behind it.

So you can have a super-fast connection to the building, but if the internal cabling or wifi cannot handle the capacity, the user will not notice any of it. The connection is only as fast as its slowest component.

More speed is not always better

A higher speed does not automatically mean an organization needs it. A small office with five employees has very different needs than a video production company, a software developer, a call center, an architecture firm, an AI company or a large head office.

The right question is therefore not "what is the fastest connection?" but "what capacity does this organization need now and in the future?". That is a different way of looking at things, and it fits with the shift from square meters to data capacity.

Data consumption keeps growing

Organizations use more and more data through cloud software, video calling, AI, large files, digital collaboration and backups. In addition, buildings themselves are increasingly using data through sensors, IoT, cameras, access control, smart building systems and energy management.

The real question thus becomes: is today's speed also sufficient for tomorrow's user? Those who are already at the limit risk running into constraints within a few years.

What does this mean for real estate?

Real estate brochures often only mention "fiber optic present". A tenant would actually want to know more. What speed is available? Which providers are there? What is the upload? Is the connection symmetrical? Is redundancy possible? What can the internal cabling handle? And can the building scale up if the organization grows?

Fiber optic present is a start. But it does not yet say what a building can handle digitally. For a tenant who wants to pay attention to this, we have put together an overview of what to look out for before you sign.

That is why IT-Label never looks at internet speed in isolation. We look at the full digital delivery level of a building: the external connection, the internal cabling, the wifi, the MER and SER, the switches, the redundancy, the scalability and the monitoring. That is how IT-Label functions as the digital MOT for real estate.

Taking the next step

Internet speed does not have to be complicated. But a single number never tells the whole story. The real question is whether the building's digital infrastructure can deliver what the user needs today and tomorrow.

Do you want to know what your building, or the space you are considering renting, can handle digitally? Request an IT-Label pre-inspection, or first take your time reading further in our knowledge base on connectivity and digital infrastructure.

IT-Label. Together we make visible what is still invisible today. For more information, visit www.it-label.com.