And additionally, how does higher quality internet change that?
In: 12
A single cable is only physically able to send a certain number of bits per second. This is based on physics and engineering limits of how fast you can switch a laser (if you’re sending bits as light over a fiber optic cable) or a transistor (if you’re sending bits as electrical pulses over a copper cable), and the cable’s tendency to smear and weaken the signal (which gets worse as you transmit bits faster or over longer distances, if you push the limits too much your signal turns into garbage and the receiver can’t tell 1’s from 0’s).
CableCo might have a single 10,000 megabits cable between your neighborhood and its main network, and you pay CableCo for 100 megabit Internet. Typically CableCo will *oversubscribe* its cable — that is, CableCo will happily accept subscription fees from 500 people in your neighborhood, and promise them all 100 megabits.
If no more than 100 people want to max out their Internet connections at a time, it’s fine — the cable has enough capacity to give 100 people 100 mbps, and everyone’s happy because they get what they were promised.
Slowdown happens when the cable capacity is exceeded. If 200 people try to max out their Internet, they end up with 50 mbps. The cable can’t give them any more.
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