Not having enough bandwidth can dramatically impact a brand’s bottom line, as slow or dropped connections mean missed sales opportunities or frustrated consumers. A Scientific American article examining the demand for bandwidth pointed to how several hundred thousand U.S. fans tuning in to watch a highly anticipated episode of “Game of Thrones” sent the streaming service into a partial failure. Global internet traffic, according to the article, is increasing by roughly 22% each year — far outpacing the ability of telecommunications and internet service providers to supply more bandwidth. With bandwidth in short supply, that supposed “unlimited bandwidth” feature associated with so many shared hosting plans seems like the deal of the century. You’ll notice bandwidth is measured in firm numbers at the VPS and dedicated server levels. Alas, unlimited (and it’s cousin, unmetered) bandwidth are largely marketing terms that don’t really mean what they look like. Unmetered may be a bit more accurate, though, as many hosts know the number of accounts they put on a shared hosting server won’t use up all the machine’s bandwidth if everyone behaves. Think of unlimited bandwidth instead as simply “undefined” bandwidth.