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Internet speed

M1keC

Casual Member
I keep hearing about the need for superfast internet and how the UK is lagging behind other countries in that respect. But do most users actually need it? I've been using standard broadband at home with a speed of about 15Gb and it seems fast enough for 2 users to stream video simultaneously. I wonder what proportion of households actually need more than this? Are we spending vast sums on superspeed internet that will be a waste for 90% of users? I don't know. What do you think? How much internet speed do you actually need?
 
I suspect you mean 15Mbps, rather than 15 Gigabits per second :) .

In many ways it depends upon the end-user(s) as I can tell you that I could never go back to a speed like 15Mbps after having c.70Mbps, but maybe I'm not the best example.

At home my wife will often be watching HD videos, my daughter doing the same in HD or 4K and I'll be streaming in 4K, so a peak speed of 60Mbps+ on the network is not uncommon just for video. Likewise all those game updates and Windows 10 patches seem to be multi-GigaByte jobs and being able to do those in minutes rather than hours is most welcome (otherwise streaming is a pain). This is before I even consider the data demands of ISPr and large daily backups.

The thing is, once you get use to everything being done at a quicker pace then going slower feels like a step back in time. At a certain point NEED is less relevant and DEMAND takes over. But don't overlook the benefits of just being quick to do simple tasks like patching and downloads.
 
Several points:
1) not everyone gets even 15Mbps.
2) not all premises are domestic, and even 15Mbps isn't much for a small business
3) a growing number of people (like myself) work from home - I'm a software engineer and regularly have to download test data of 100GB+. That takes several days on my ADSL2+ connection.
 
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I am pretty much like Mark; in addition, my daughter and I play an online game that regularly has large updates to download; even on a 80Mbps line, this can take 30+ minutes, I would hate to try and do it on my old 6Mbps ADSL line, it wouldnt have finished downloading before the next update was out!!!
 
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