And additionally, how does higher quality internet change that?
In: 12
ISP Technician here.
The Internet is a series of signals that have power and specific frequencies, those frequencies and bandwidth are shared. This also depends on Cable, DSL or Fiber. So think of it like walking through a hallway, Sometimes walking from one end of the hallway to the other only takes a short period of time. This is low usage, then you have the other high usage (peak hours). This hallway is the same as the first one, but… Instead of 100 people in this hallway, we now have 3,000. still just the same you’ll get where you are going but it’s slower due to the shared bandwidth.
Now why does higher quality internet change that: Firstly this question comes across several ways so I’ll assume you mean speeds and type of connection. Speeds being higher are two parts, one being how quickly you can access something. Because of the faster speeds and the effect on your overall experience. Because it isn’t losing as much bandwidth. When the load is high you’ll drop speed due to loss of bandwidth but similar to what the lower plan felt like before you went higher. Secondly ISPs can throttle people and assign their priority, more money? Higher priority.
Types of connections matter too, different types have different amounts of bandwidth and speed. DSL being the oldest, no speeds higher than 3-100Mbps depending on the DSL setup, some providers are DSL getting 80 some get 2. Second cable is the one we have used since the 2000s is the second best with bandwidth and speed delivery. Thirdly Fiber, fiber is the highest capacity and speeds currently available, this started for data centers and spread to others.
Hope this helps if you have questions let me know.
Edit: Erisod also explained it a bit more in-depth but you asked to be explained like you are five so I went super basic. For a more in-depth but still easy to understand read theirs.
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