Does Cable TV Slow Down the Internet?

The entire available bandwidth is segmented into broadcast TV channels, so because of this functionality of cable TV and aerial TV are pretty similar. A certain number of channels are then held for broadcasting downstream internet data on cable in place of TV video or audio data. Though, there could be various reasons behind a sluggish internet connection. The reasons can vary from the placement of your Wi-Fi router to the number of users and amount of data being consumed and what time you are facing this trouble. The internet speed you subscribed to and the one you are getting, you can determine that online by taking a 60-sec text. You should always invest in a good service such as Spectrum Cable so you don’t regret or worry later. It offers fairly consistent speeds for your home and office.

But here, in this article, we are going to talk about how cable services work. By the end of this read, you will understand how cable TV and the internet works and what are the factors behind slowed internet connection – is this because of cable TV or there is something else to the story?
Hence, without further delay, let’s dig into the quest of whether cable TV slows down the internet or not?

How do cable services work?

Your cable box actually has its individual modem with its own specific bandwidth. Your video will not have any impact on your data because the majority of the cable systems have particular frequencies for video. But, your internet should run quicker as a lot of bandwidth is spared due to the fact that they’re all approaching IP-based video. The freed-up bandwidth was earlier set aside for video only, but now can be utilized for data too. In that case, even though your cable box has its particular bandwidth, it appears out of a bigger system of bandwidth. So, the effect is much more than zero yet is undetectable in 99.
9 of instances.

If the cable equipment isn’t working properly, there might be a possibility of distinct frequency bands for the internet in comparison to TV. We should assume that a gigabit internet connection complements a 100MHz band. Seeing the TV signal get a 5GHz (50x the internet band) band won’t be unusual and there will still be some free space on the coax cable coming to your house.

At the hour people are watching TV, use of residential internet reaches the peak. Moreover, similar is the case, if a handful of your cord-cutting next-door-neighbors are streaming video simultaneously. It could slow down your internet. Or even, the same effect will be caused by Wi-Fi interruption from your near neighbors.

What is the purpose behind distributing channels?

It is for preventing the interference of the channels, moreover, it also prevents interfering of internet channels with broadcast TV channels. The upstream internet channels are unrelated yet again. Either way, even if our household is not watching TV, broadcast TV will be involving cable bandwidth
For instance, 36 channels out of the 10 broadcast ones are divided by cable and reserved for the internet downstream. Keep in mind that several logical TV channels are supported by digital at the same time on one physical TV channel. Hence, the cable provider will broadcast 100s of those TV channels. At the same time, a total downstream capacity of 2 Gbps per cable segment is given by 36 internet channels, which is then distributed among internet subscribers using that specific segment.
Nevertheless, at this time, a lot of cable TV is on-demand instead of broadcast and this can get complicated. On-demand TV is similar to internet data. Sometimes when the provider dispatches it to internet bandwidth, it comes in competition with different internet demand. Hence, we conclude that the use of broadcast TV on cable has no effects on the internet.

Still, when on-demand TV is in use during peak intervals, it can have an impact.

Final Thoughts

As discussed in the aforementioned read, and seen many times. The primary cause behind a sluggish internet connection is usually due to two common reasons. First, at times your internet services availed through cables/wires can slow down during peak hours when most of the people are using it at once. Secondly, when your internet connection or data are not sufficient for you or all the people who are consuming it. You need to figure out if the package you have availed of is fulfilling your requirements considering the download and upload speed as well as the data.

Maria Colombo
Maria Colombo
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