Internet service provider (ISP) offers several different plans, each offering different download and upload speeds. If you’re in the market for a new internet service, which one should you pick? Do you always pick the fastest you can afford?
Residential internet speeds have increased rapidly over the last few years, so for many people, top-tier internet plans offer more speed than they could possibly use. But what’s a good download and upload speed for you? You don’t want to pick a plan that’s faster than what you need, so we’ll break down the details so you can pick the plan that’s right for you.
What is a good download speed?
A good internet download speed for most households is 10 Mbps per person. Of course, what a good download speed test is for you heavily depends on what you do online and how many devices are on your home network. For basic web surfing or email, 10 Mbps is enough to give you a seamless online experience.
Download speeds test determine how fast information can travel from the internet to your home. Whether you’re pulling up a website, watching Netflix, or updating your OS, all that information is coming from a server somewhere and travelling across your connection into your house. For most every activity you do on the internet, download speed is going to be the most important factor.
What is good internet download speed?
Download speed is also referred to as bandwidth, or the amount of data transmitted over a connection over a certain amount of time. You can think of downloading data like filling a swimming pool with a hose. A bigger hose allows more water to flow through it, and the pool fills more quickly. Likewise, a connection with more bandwidth will download files much more quickly.
Most of the time when people talk about internet speed, they’re talking about download speed or bandwidth. This is also the speed that providers generally refer to with their advertised speeds.
Download speed is generally more important
Although we constantly both download and upload information online, for most of us, the information we upload is generally much smaller. If you’re looking for a new hat on Amazon, for example, your browser is constantly downloading images and text as you browse, as well as downloading the advertisements that pop up alongside your search results. By contrast, the only information that needs to be uploaded are the search terms you look up and the information from the links and buttons you click. This is why upload speeds usually don’t need to be as fast as download speeds.
How do I know if I need more speed?
Internet speed isn’t meeting your needs when you face long loading times, unexpected pauses, and crashed programs when using the internet. Most of us have had to deal with slow download speed test at one point or another, which often involves waiting for images to appear on a web page or a video stopping in the middle of playback to buffer.
If you don’t have enough upload speed, you might get an unusually long wait time when uploading a video to Facebook or you might have your call dropped when trying to use video chat. Since many types of internet connection heavily favor download speeds, it often doesn’t take much to overwhelm your upload bandwidth.
Just because you experience a slowdown in your connection doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to upgrade your internet service. There are several reasons why your internet speed might dip temporarily due to traffic or routine maintenance. But if these delays are a common occurrence that’s starting to interfere with your life, it might be worth it to switch to a faster, more reliable connection.