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Internet plans, how fast do you want to go?

Writer's picture: Jeff NoelJeff Noel

After years of few options for internet plans, we are now faced with an increasing number of companies coming to the area offering different plans, technologies, and speeds. One of the first questions is “How much speed do I need?”. That depends greatly on what you are trying to do. Below is a guide giving a brief introduction to some terms you may be seeing thrown around, as well as some minimum speeds for certain activities.

Everything you do on the internet is going to be affected by one, or both, of the following:


Bandwidth – How much Data can flow in a single direction per second. Measured in Mb/s (Megabits per second). Think, how many vehicles can drive in this lane on the road. This rating is often different whether you are sending data to the internet (upload) or receiving data from the internet (download), with download speeds being much faster than upload speeds generally (but not always).


Latency – How quickly Data leaves your computer, gets to the destination, and returns to you. Measured in milliseconds. Think, how quick you can drive to the store and back. As you use up more of your available Bandwidth, your latency tends to increase (more cars on the road, takes longer to get to the store and back).


So now we can break it down to things that are either Bandwidth intensive, sensitive to Latency, or both:


Bandwidth

This includes items like Video Streaming (Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, etc.), File Transfers (downloading from the internet or uploading to cloud backups), or remotely checking cameras (calf or security). Here are some recommended bandwidths:


  • Netflix Ultra HD 4k – 25Mb/s Download

  • Netflix HD 1080P – 5Mb/s Download

  • Netflix SD – 3.0Mb/s Download

  • CraveTV – 6Mb/s Download

  • CTS Calf/Security Camera Local – Doesn’t require internet bandwidth

  • CTS Calf/Security Camera Remote SD – 2Mb/s Upload

  • CTS Calf/Security Camera Remote HD – 8Mb/s Upload


Say you want to watch 1 Netflix Ultra HD 4K stream, and two Netflix HD 1080P streams, you would simply add them up (25+5+5 = 35Mb/s). Remember that is a minimum, and it is best to be a bit higher than that to ensure smooth playback. If you commonly find yourself downloading or uploading large files to the internet (games, cloud backup, videos, etc), you’ll generally want to get as fast of a connection as possible.


Latency

Things like Gaming, VoiP, Wifi Calling, etc are mainly sensitive to latency. That is because they don’t send much data back and forth, but you want them to work as close to real time as possible. If you are playing a game or talking on a voice call, you don’t want a noticeable delay between what you are doing and it being registered on the other end.


With that said, items that do use a lot of Bandwidth can affect latency, as you start to use all your available Bandwidth, latency will increase dramatically. If you are doing something sensitive to latency, we can setup rules on your network to prioritize those items over bandwidth intensive operations, to help ensure low latency for when you need it most.


Both

Items like Video Calling are sensitive to both Bandwidth and Latency. You need enough bandwidth to be able to send and receive the video, but also low latency to ensure there aren’t any delays in speaking. Here is what Zoom recommends for bandwidth:

  • Zoom 1:1 Minimum – 0.6Mb/s Upload, 0.6Mb/s Download

  • Zoom 1:1 1080P HD – 1.8Mb/s Upload, 1.8Mb/s Download

  • Zoom Group Minimum – 0.8Mb/s Upload, 1.0Mb/s Download

  • Zoom Group 1080P HD – 3.0 Mb/s Upload, 3.0Mb/s Download

Still unsure on what plan best suits you? Feel free to leave a comment and we'll be glad to help answer any questions you have! And stay tuned for a future article, where we will discuss using Speed Tests to test your internet connection.

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