Capacity Speed (as opposed to
Application Speed) is NOT
usually a measure of how a connection will perform when used to view a video or
listen to music, but is a measure of the data rate a connection can sustain,
i.e. a Capacity of the connection. As a result Capacity Speed is unlikely to
provide result that reflects the user’s real experience.
As an example, a hose pipe may be specified as 100 gallons
per hour. Like an Internet connection of so many megabits per second, gallons
per hour is a capacity not a speed. It does not define how fast the water is
moving through the hose pipe. The time it will take to fill a 1000 tank will
ultimately depend on the speed of the water and the length of the hose. Keeping
in mind that Internet pipes travel the globe, a pipe from New York to Sydney
(10,000 miles) will not fill the tank as fast as New York to Boston (500 miles).