Broadband: Section 4

So, if you are accessing the Internet using a broadband network connection from home, you may be contending with 49 other access points for the resource to download your favourite Web site.

With simple Web sites, this is not usually a problem. Web browsers only use limited resources and do not grab them constantly.

However, if everyone who has access to that section of the broadband network simultaneously starts to download a streaming video, then this is the equivalent of rush hour at the confluence of the M25 and the M4 near Heathrow.

Events like the Queen's Jubilee and the World Cup tend to provoke this sort of spike in demand along with its associated bottleneck.