This simple infographic explains how broadband speeds compare

To explain the volume of data or the speed of a broadband connection to a person who is not tech-savvy can be challenging.

One way to overcome their lack of tech knowledge is to use a visual tool to illustrate the amount of data or the speed of a connection.

Samira Riki, a Master’s Student at K. N. Toosi University of Technology, recently made a presentation on Big Data Analytics – where she tackled the problem of visualizing broadband data.

Riki equated a byte of data to a grain of rice, and then showed the relative size of a Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, and so on.

The infographic below shows the visualization of data using Riki’s rice system.

The speed of a broadband connection

Continuing with the theme of equating data to a physical item, the speed of a broadband connection can be compared to a vehicle carrying this data.

The faster the broadband connection, the more data can be carried at a time. Using the analogy of vehicles, this equates to a truck carrying more data at a faster speed than a motorbike could.

The infographic below shows the relative speed and capacity of broadband connections, using the analogy of vehicles carrying goods.

More on broadband

Highest peak broadband speeds in South Africa

One graph which shows just how far behind SA is in getting super-fast fibre

How South Africa’s broadband speeds changed from 2007 to 2015