Symmetrical Internet refers to plans that have the same upload speed and download speed. Download speed is a more common number to focus on, but we’re going to focus on the importance of considering upload speed for how YOU use your internet.
Upload speeds are usually slower than download speed, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-30 times slower. Unless you get a “100/100” or “300/300”, etc. plan.
To my browsing, shopping, reading, streaming friends- you probably DON’T need symmetrical speeds.
To my business, students, telecommuters, and content creator friends- you probably DO need better upload speeds. I’ll also talk about Gamers in a second.
What do we upload?
– Emails
– Files
– Photos
– Audio
– Video (4k video takes longer)
For a 1GB 4k video, here’s what you need to know:
– 10 Mbps upload speed- about 15 minutes
– 100 Mbps upload speed- about 90 seconds
– 300 Mbps upload speed- about 30 seconds
If you’re a twitch streamer, or doing live episodes on YouTube (like us, every MONDAY!), you’ll need a solid upload connection.
What about video conferencing? You only need 1.3 Mbps of upload speed for that.
HD Twitch Steam? Only 3.6 Mbps of upload speed. You probably get that already!
Really the only people that need to worry is businesses, who have tons of employees using their internet connection simultaneously.
For many of us, 5-10 Mbps of upload speed should be PLENTY!
Now for GAMERS! Don’t you need better upload speeds? Not really. Here’s what you do need: (check out our video on this-
– Reliable connection
– Latency
– Packet loss
– Jitter
In short- DON’T pay a ton of extra money for a symmetrical internet connection. You DON’T NEED IT!
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bad info doesnt explain bitrate for streams
The original reason for asynchronous internet speed was to keep consumers from running their own servers.
I am total rookie here so thanks for the up and down speed and yes it is part of my bill , but you also pay for the data allowance and I do not see that imput here.
Don't try gaming you'll be a disadvantage to people with bell fiber cogeco uploads caps at 30mb and bell is rocking up 800 something mbs so if your a gamer better get bell fiber. True story.
Thanks dude
So I use the thousand up and 1000 down internet for one year and it is smooth for gaming. I've used under a hundred megabytes per second upload speed for years and it is not as smooth for gaming 10 MB and you start to lag you at least need 30 upload to be comfortable in fast-paced games. Don't get caught up on download make sure you have a good upload
And then along came 2020…
Dude. You really should have mentioned remote desktop/remote play. If I want to stream a 1440p signal to a separate location it's 20-80mbits per second. Also YouTube uploads, p2p file sharing, or NAS storage. Ever heard of Plex or other media servers? Honestly, upload speeds are sad these days. As more people start teleconferencing we'll see this bottlekneck hard. If my girlfriend and I are both taking online classes and one of us shares a file or uploads a media project one or both of us are kicked off of zoom.
Mu download speed is 10 mbps and my upload is 20. Wtf
Bigger issue is stability and latency. Fiber destroys coax in those 2 areas, on top of destroying it in upload speeds.
300 down 30 up and 11 ping. but Cox is upgrading so if I don't get a doc 3.1 modem they will change me to 500 down and 10 up don't wanna buy a $150 modern. I just got a $230 wifi 6 router on a payment plan.
You explained it very clearly, it would seem obvious. But for most symmetrical internet lined you skip over one of the most important advantages. Generally asymmetrical lines have a shared, overcommitted bandwidth. Symmetrical lines have a reserved bandwidth. When you need the most reliable and consistent speed and latency, for example for live streaming or videoconferencing, a slower symmetrical line maybe better than an asymmetrical line even with a higher upload speed.
I am very, very new to streaming games. I have done zoom conference calls and facebook live at times and those are fine with my slow internet upload. I'm getting more interested in online gaming and streaming. Found out I need OBS Studio to help with streaming on youtube. I have a good computer and the game looks great on the monitor but low quality when streaming. I adjusted settings so it is actually smooth and bad quality. I'm guessing it is my low upload speed. I have ATT Internet 12 which is 12 download and 2 upload. Because of that I had to reduce my video bitrate to about 2,000. Should actually go lower but the quality is bad enough. At $55/mo that is all I can afford for now. Maybe in a year I can upgrade. Uploading video isn't too bad after I use Handbrake and lower the file size and still maintain a decent quality. It is just the game streaming that I'm trying to figure how to make better.
I have a upload speed of 0.05-0.3 rn usually 40
got 300mbps download speed and less than 1 mbps upload…just browsing youtube are slow…
Australians chilling with 0.6 ups
Can i ply steam games? I have almost 6upload and 12 download speeds.
3:19 nice prediction bro, that's almost every student nowadays.
60/60 Mbps
My upload speed is 0.40 mb lol
Mine is 5mbps upload speed and I get a very bad ping in games
My internet upload is only 500kbps