Deciphering Your Internet: What Internet Speed Do You Need?

Every year, our lives get more and more entwined with the world of the internet. The past few years have only rapidly increased this relationship, with the increase in remote work across all demographics and industries. 

If you’re concerned about the internet in your home or are looking into new options, you likely want to focus on what internet speed you should get. Internet providers offer different access speeds at different costs, but it can be difficult to choose between them if you don’t know what you need.

What’s a good internet speed and which will be the right choice for your cable internet? Read on, and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.

What Are Your Needs?

In order to understand what internet speed you need, you’ll first need to do some self-reflection about web usage within your own home. Getting out a pen and paper and doing a little brainstorming can be the right way to start.

First, make a list of all the web-based activities that are done in your house. Think of yourself, but of your family members as well. 

Are you mostly sending emails and browsing websites? Are you attempting to transfer and upload large files or post impressive video content? Are there gamers in your home that like to get online on certain game consoles? How much video streaming do you do? 

You’ll also want to consider how many family members tend to be trying to use the internet at the same time. One person doing the above activities alone might not require too much, but your connection can get stressed quite easily if everyone in the home is attempting these tasks at the same time. 

Internet Speed Guide

You’ve made your list, and you have a solid sense of how much you’re going to need to rely on your internet provider. Now we just need to translate that list into actual speeds that you can pick between.

To give you a sense, doing basic things like sending an email requires about 1 Mbps. When it comes to something more serious, like streaming HD video, you might need anywhere from 5-7 Mbps. 

Where you’ll really feel the difference in your internet connection? Uploading or downloading large files. In order to do this at any kind of reasonable speed, you’ll likely need to utilize 50 Mbps or more.

Again, these kinds of tasks could all be occurring at the exact same time. Based on your list and the above values, you should be able to determine how many Mbps you’ll need to keep everything running smoothly.

It’s a good idea to be on a plan that offers more than you actually need. If you’re still not sure, you can talk to experts at this Internet Service who might be able to walk you through how much speed your home might need.

What Internet Speed is Right? 

It can be difficult to determine what internet speed you might need for your home if you aren’t well-versed in these kinds of things. The above information can help provide a basis for what you need to work through. 

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