If you only use your broadband to check your email, a speed of around 5Mbps will be sufficient, but you’re probably using the internet for a lot more. Your upload speed: which is how quickly you can upload data, for example sending emails or backing up files to the cloud.Ĭheck your broadband speed What is a good download speed?.Your download speed: which is how quickly you can download content like websites, emails and stream video and music online.Watching videos, playing games and downloading music are all impacted by your broadband connection speed.Įvery broadband connection has two different speeds you can measure: Virgin Media also offer speeds of up to 1,000Mbps, via their own network. Some Irish providers are able to offer speeds of up to 1,000Mbps to certain areas with ‘Fibre-to-the-Home’ connections from SIRO. The majority of broadband connections in Ireland range from 24Mbps to 100Mbps, although more fibre networks and high-speed broadband is being rolled out all the time. Let's establish something today that has the best roadmap for growth.What is the average broadband speed in Ireland? I disagree with leaving parts of the country without internet while we wait to bring them 1,000 Mbps (a gigabit) of service. So the issue of sooner than later is important - while balancing that against the need to future-proof your connection. I can stream HD on 3-4 Mbps, and while I have not quite yet adopted 4K, I can just squeeze a 4K stream into 15 Mbps. But in reality, I can do a ton with 15 Mbps of download and 15 Mbps of upload. That still leaves the initial question of how much total bandwidth do you need? Well, as much as you can afford is the best answer.
I believe that symmetrical is the clear winner, for both professional and personal internet use. Let's prepare ourselves for the future instead of holding ourselves hostage to limitations of the past. While funding asymmetrical circuits could fuel growth of older technology like DSL, funding symmetrical circuits could fuel growth of new, inherently symmetrical technology such as Fiber or next-generation fixed wireless. Remote desktop, Facetime and Skype are a few other examples of services that rely as heavily on upload capability as they do download.Ĭloud-based surveillance and data backup (Nest, Ring, Arlo, Carbonite, BOX.com, Google Drive, etc.) is gaining popularity very rapidly, and this technology relies nearly entirely on a substantial upload capacity to stream video to cloud servers 24 hours a day.
Other devices may also be running backup services that sync to the cloud. Syncing devices means waiting for massive HD files to upload, which takes a significant amount of time with asymmetrical connections.
Most people have smartphones, and most of us sync those phones with online services like Google. I believe that many new applications in use today and coming into use in the near future will use upload capacity as much, if not more, than download capacity. Yes, all of the asymmetrical applications of the past still exist, but these applications are easily accounted for with a modest internet connection by today's standards. Today, however, our needs for high capacity have changed substantially. In the 2000s, most business and consumer internet traffic was download-based. Businesses moved to quality symmetrical connections when they became available long ago, and now business and residential applications are becoming more similar. Instead of investing in older asymmetrical technologies, in my opinion, we should be moving toward symmetrical technologies like fixed wireless and fiber. I would suggest that the answer is "more upload speed." Older technologies based on copper and coax cables were asymmetrical due to technology limitations, which is why we have become accustomed to a 10:1 ratio - higher download speeds than upload speeds. But what is in your and your company's best interest as consumers of data? Of course, you can't fault a company for trying to act in their best interest. I speculate that the reason they're doing this is so that they can use older technologies, like DSL and LTE, to deliver services, thus reducing their deployment costs. Meanwhile, AT&T and other large telecommunications companies are working to reduce the upload speeds. This will bring widespread connectivity to businesses and individuals in these areas. Now, much to my delight, Chairman Ajit Pai is putting forward a new program called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund with another $20.4 billion committed to connecting rural America. The FCC put forward the following internet speed tiers in its recent $2 billion Connect America Fund II auction: 10/1 Mbps, 25/3 Mbps, 100/20 Mbps and 1000/500 Mbps. So how much speed do you need, and more importantly, how much upload speed?