What is download allowance?

You may have noticed the “download allowance” column in our broadband comparison tables and wondered what it is.

In a nutshell, the term refers to the monthly limit that your internet service providers sets for the amount of data you can download (unless you are on an unlimited package). You download different amounts of data depending on what activity you are doing online. Below you'll find a guide that matches different web uses to the amount of data they eat up.

Average broadband download sizes

• 20Kb - text emails sent and received
• 50Kb - 1 website page
• 3Mb - 1 song
• 3Mb - 1 video clip (3 minutes)
• 400Mb - 1 film

Gb: Mb: Kb Conversions**

1Gb = 1024Mb 1Mb = 1024Kb

1 day on a 3Gb package:

2.4Mb - 50 text emails sent and received

10Mb - 200 website pages

30Mb - 10 songs

60Mb - 20 video clips

=102.4Mb or around 3 hours online.

These are estimated values. In practice it is hard to know how much you are going to use until you start downloading. However, one way to do so is to use a program that monitors the amount of downloads you are using.

Unlimited broadband

There are a number of broadband packages on the market that advertise “unlimited downloads”. While this looks like the best deal going it is important to read the small print.

If you study the contract terms closely you will find that most (if not all) unlimited broadband packages are subject to fair usage policies.

A fair usage policy stops any one user using up the majority of bandwidth set aside for an internet provider by limiting their speeds at peak times of the day.

Often broadband providers will notify heavy-users by phone or email to warn them that speeds will be curtailed at certain times.

These policies mostly impact those who use Peer-to-Peer software as well as online gamers and people who download large volumes of songs and films.

To compare unlimited broadband packages click here unlimited broadband

Mobile broadband

You may have noticed that the download allowances on many of the mobile broadband packages are a lot lower than the home broadband packages.

If you think you're going to make extensive use of your dongle, it's a good idea to choose one of the many mobile broadband products with a 5Gb monthly download limit or even one that offers unlimited usage.

In order to find the mobile broadband packages with the highest download allowance click here mobile broadband.

Exceeding the download limits

Exceeding the download allowance of your broadband provider will incur a cost from some ISPs. Such costs are detailed in the terms and conditions of your contract. Other ISPs will not charge extra for extra downloads, but they may curb the speed of your connection.