How Fast is your Internet?

[Christopher11]

I have Xfinity home internet, 400mbps, for 65$ a month. I've been with them 12 years. They have another plan for $80 a month with autopay, that would double that speed. I also have an offer from T Mobile, 60/ month. Any thoughts? Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I might upgrade, switch... etc.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Why? Is 400mbps not fast enough for whatever you are doing? That would support a LOT of (different) streaming video at the same time, a huge amount of streaming music, etc. If you think in terms of maybe a 40mbps budget per person living with you, you'd have enough speed for 10 people.

If you are perhaps doing massive transfers in high volume, massive torrenting, etc, there might be some justification. Else, doubling the speed won't play a few videos or music any faster and only start them perhaps a second or two faster. Lots of people get by just fine for a family down at 50mpbs. You may already be in significant overkill for most of the typical things people transfer.

If you don't really need 400mbps, maybe you can work them DOWN and shave some cost: possibly no consequence for your daily usage but you might save $10-$30 per month. If- say- $20, $20 times 12 months = $240/yr. Use that for 3 years and it buys you a pretty good iPad or a cheapest iPhone... or significantly subsidizes the iPad or iPhone you actually want at the time.

 

[Christopher11]

Ah. Good point! I guess I'll just keep this. You're right, it's plenty fast.

 

[Christopher11]

It's just me alone, so it should be plenty fast for me, is what you're saying. It is.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

For just one person, you are completely killing it. Next time you have to renew, I'd be working it down and save some money. There are not many uses of that speed for 1 person.

Unless you have like a 20 TV/monitor (simultaneous) setup or have to download huge files over and over through the month, typical broadband uses would suggest maybe 50-70mbps as plenty fast for one person. Nationally, many are at only 25mbps.

You might find this interesting reading.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have talked about this in threads the past, many US homes are paying for speeds that they would hardly ever actually utilize.

Many ISPs try to upsell these speeds, getting their customers to pay an extra $20, $30, or even more a month for Gigabit speeds, but for many, Gigabit speeds is overkill. Even 100Mbps speeds is overkill for some.

For perspective, you can stream over 50 different 4K HDR Netflix streams simultaneously with Gigabit internet.

I personally know people that are paying for Gigabit speeds, and they only use their internet for streaming apps and things like Facebook.

All that said, there are definitely use cases for faster speeds, but I would bet in most cases, the user already knows that they could see some real benefits from increasing their ISP speeds.

If you are currently fine with your internet and you don't have problems, why spend the extra money?

I have Xfinity home internet,

If you are using a Cable ISP, then there could be some benefits from increasing your speeds, maybe not with the download speeds, but with the upload speeds.

Most Cable ISPs have asymmetric download and upload speeds, meaning that the upload speed is sometimes a tiny fraction of the download speed.

Comcast is one of the worse, only have 5Mbps upload speeds on a lot of their Internet Service tiers. If you need a decent upload speed, you often have to pay for download speeds that you don't need.

Me for example, I need more upload speed than what Comcast currently offers, but I am stuck with them in my new home. My family could totally get by on 200Mbps download speed, probably less, but I am forced to pay for the Gigabit speed tier to get the 35Mbps upload speed.

 

[Christopher11]

For just one person, you are completely killing it. Next time you have to renew, I'd be working it down and save some money. There are not many uses of that speed for 1 person.

Unless you have like a 20 TV/monitor (simultaneous) setup or have to download huge files over and over through the month, typical broadband uses would suggest maybe 50-70mbps as plenty fast for one person. Nationally, many are at only 25mbps.

You might find this interesting reading.

You're really awesome man, thank you. Well I'm glad I got it down to 65$ or so.

 

[Nermal]

I'm probably overpaying too. I was originally on 100/20 and upgraded to 1000/500 for the extra upload speed... but they've subsequently introduced a 300/100 plan which is probably more cost-effective! I should actually get around to talking to my ISP one of these days...

 

[Christopher11]

I have talked about this in threads the past, many US homes are paying for speeds that they would hardly ever actually utilize.

Many ISPs try to upsell these speeds, getting their customers to pay an extra $20, $30, or even more a month for Gigabit speeds, but for many, Gigabit speeds is overkill. Even 100Mbps speeds is overkill for some.

For perspective, you can stream over 50 different 4K HDR Netflix streams simultaneously with Gigabit internet.

I personally know people that are paying for Gigabit speeds, and they only use their internet for streaming apps and things like Facebook.

All that said, there are definitely use cases for faster speeds, but I would bet in most cases, the user already knows that they could see some real benefits from increasing their ISP speeds.

If you are currently fine with your internet and you don't have problems, why spend the extra money?


If you are using a Cable ISP, then there could be some benefits from increasing your speeds, maybe not with the download speeds, but with the upload speeds.

Most Cable ISPs have asymmetric download and upload speeds, meaning that the upload speed is sometimes a tiny fraction of the download speed.

Comcast is one of the worse, only have 5Mbps upload speeds on a lot of their Internet Service tiers. If you need a decent upload speed, you often have to pay for download speeds that you don't need.

Me for example, I need more upload speed than what Comcast currently offers, but I am stuck with them in my new home. My family could totally get by on 200Mbps download speed, probably less, but I am forced to pay for the Gigabit speed tier to get the 35Mbps upload speed.

Super useful, and thank you sincerely for all this information my friend. Yeah, you're right, my internet is fast! I was just pissed because it had vaulted to 90$ a month... too much. They got the price down, and this speed is plenty fast. Glad to hear you guys chime in on that. So with this speed, if I'm torrenting a movie, I can still watch youtube vids and do internet searches... that should be fast enough. Thanks again. Yeah, I noticed by the way, that the upload speed is slow when I did a test.

One good thing about Xfinity internet by the way, not sure if you knew this, but there's a Xfinity Hotspot in most places, including in your home likely if there are any other customers around... so I like knowing that it's there as a backup if I needed it, although the speed is way slower. Like 30 mbps or something.

 

[Christopher11]

I'm probably overpaying too. I was originally on 100/20 and upgraded to 1000/500 for the extra upload speed... but they've subsequently introduced a 300/100 plan which is probably more cost-effective! I should actually get around to talking to my ISP one of these days...

Yeah, I put off doing it too. Glad I finally did tonight.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I think we're all programmed to think "faster, faster, faster!"... but the reality is there is actually a valid "fast enough" for most people. Unless in-house demand spikes (which can happen with LOTS of residents wanting to stream lots of different video at the same time, etc), most of us are just fine at sub-100mbps. Paying for much more than that is typically not buying us anything but maybe tiny fractional gains in how fast a video stream can start playing, etc... and by that I mean gains that you might not even notice.

In general, I suspect MOST could benefit by bargaining DOWN their broadband bills by accepting slower speeds than they have... and then discovering they can't tell any difference at the slower speeds. However, that added cash (savings) will pile up over time. Enjoy the savings!

 

[mrfunnypenguin]

I have Sonic Fiber, which is 10 gbps per second. From the wireless router, which is an older eero I get 500 mbps.

 

[Audit13]

Sometimes, it's not always about speed.

I'm in Canada and have been with my current ISP for a few years. As time went on, I found I was paying more for less in that I was paying $75/month for 300/150 down/up speed when they introduced a faster 1.5/1.0 down/up for $50/month.

I was fine on 300/150 but jumped at the offer for higher speed at a lower cost.

 

[Stevenyo]

1000 down/600 up. Honestly far more than I need, mainly have it for the upload speed. Being able to upload a few hundred gigabytes an hour is a feature i use regularly (gotta love perpetual .edu google drive accounts, I have dozens of terabytes uploaded for free and use it as my main off-site backup)

 

[Bustycat]

1000 down/600 up. Honestly far more than I need, mainly have it for the upload speed. Being able to upload a few hundred gigabytes an hour is a feature i use regularly (gotta love perpetual .edu google drive accounts, I have dozens of terabytes uploaded for free and use it as my main off-site backup)

Not affected by the current policy which ended unlimited storages?

Compare Editions - Google for Education

Compare the features and tools included in Google Workspace for Education.

edu.google.com

 

[PhoenixDown]

I also have an offer from T Mobile, 60/ month

T-Mobile is using its 5G wireless network to provide the connection. There's nothing inherently wrong with that or similar services provided by VZW and ATT but you may want to try it before you cancel your cable internet.

 

[Stevenyo]

Not affected by the current policy which ended unlimited storages?

Compare Editions - Google for Education

Compare the features and tools included in Google Workspace for Education.

edu.google.com

Probably will be someday, but no notice given yet! There's a reason I never put anything up there that I don't have on at least two drives locally as well, but can't beat free as the price of an offsite backup while it lasts!

 

[nigelbb]

I'm in the UK & just upgraded from 68Mbps/18Mbps ADSL to 500Mbps/500Mbps FTTP. We have noticed very little difference in our day to day use of email & web browsing. The network is not the bottleneck any more so I can see that it's mostly the speed of the web servers & our MBPs rendering those pages. Viewing almost all websites is in general no faster than when we had ADSL & I include MacRumors.

We were paying £26/month for ADSL & the FTTP is an introductory offer for 18 months of £19/month so a no brainer to switch.

 

[zakarhino]

1 gig up and down, no data cap unlike my last provider which had a 1TB cap which we often exceeded. I pay around $100 a month. Looking to upgrade the entire networking system in my house to Ubiquiti soon so I can get WiFi 7.

 

[zakarhino]

I have Sonic Fiber, which is 10 gbps per second. From the wireless router, which is an older eero I get 500 mbps.

Really jealous... Waiting for Sonic's native fiber to get to my area eventually but I don't think it will happen any time soon.

 

[breather]

300 down
100 up
30 bucks

 

[ExciteWalk]

ATT Fiber offers up to 5,000 here but we’re only paying for 300. Lucky for us we actually get ~400 on a wired speed test and ~100 wireless. Their WiFi power isn’t great though, doesn’t reach across a single apartment unit.

 

[max2]

1 Gbps down and up but have a option of 5 Gbps down and up.

Wish we had Ziply Fiber though lol. 50 Gbps down and up.

https://ziplyfiber.com/internet/multigig

 

[headlessmike]

I get 1 Gbit/s up and down for about $5 per month (yes, really) in Sweden. I used to pay four times that amount for 70 Mbit/s. For most use cases the difference is negligible as long as latencies are low and the network is stable.

 

[rin67630]

I get 1 Gbit/s up and down for about $5 per month (yes, really) in Sweden. I used to pay four times that amount for 70 Mbit/s. For most use cases the difference is negligible as long as latencies are low and the network is stable.

Yes, and latencies and network stability is frequently neglected.
Speedtests like Ookla often address specialized local servers from your ISP trimmed to deliver nice figures:
You get 700Mbit/s and have a laggy internet.
An independent test like packetstats delivers a much more realistic evaluation.