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Why are speeds still asymmetrical?

I've an unlimited SIM card and have been known to do 200GB in a month, some weekends I'm away and stream sport for a few hours - so it is possible and the demand is there.

1Gbps just shortens the time on big downloads for now - but the big killer apps are coming, AR/XR will change all that.
 
A far better question is to ask what upload speeds are needed for most people. Here are some guidelines.
  • Light usage such as emails: 1-2Mbps
  • WFH (video conferencing, small file transfers): 5Mbps
  • Gaming: 5Mbps
Of course there is a growing and sizeable minority who need greater - and sometimes much greater - upload speeds, but there is no question that asymmetrical speeds are what most still need.
 
Does it really make a difference how the end user uses the line?

If I have a say 100/100 line and I use 100 down and 20 up, then the line is used 100 down and 20 up (typical as per discussion above).

If the ISP restricts the same line to 100/20, it's still used 100 down and 20 up, no difference.

Since there is no physical bandwidth constraints on newer technologies like XPS-PON (as clarified earlier), it's not like restricting upload would suddenly give the benefit of a potential 180 download, so what sense does it make?

@Roger_Gooner please join us in the 21th century - a 4k video call takes ~ 15 Mbps alone, plus screen sharing and audio, and we're quickly approaching 20Mbps.
That is for one person only, multiple people have simultaneous video calls in our household.
 
Its mostly an openreach thing like XGS said.

VM have been limited by DOCSIS, OR their limitation is now protecting a certain part of their market.

CF and other altnets dont have the problem.
 
I should be clear I'm not some upload philistine. I agree with you that Openreach should be selling much higher upload on FTTP.

They have no technical reason at all whether selling GPON or XGSPON for the tiers they offer. Probably still on the Wayback Machine or some other archive.

I railed against Virgin Media when they were offering 26:1 at best and wrote a bunch of articles explaining why it wasn't necessary and they could do better.

Depending where you are in the country hopefully an altnet or Nexfibre / VMO2 will appear. VMO2 are starting to show some signs of at least considering symmetrical on the XGSPON now. It was a while ago mooted as a paid-for extra. We'll see.

VMO2 go symmetrical the pressure will increase on Openreach from their customers to increase their offering: remember that you aren't one of those customers.

This would likely initially take the form of an upload increase the CPs may pay for on top of existing tiers much as it did with FTTC.
 
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Which online meeting platforms send 4K video at 15Mbps? We can make the argument for symmetric services (and personally I have one) without overstating the necessity of it all I think.
 
Which online meeting platforms send 4K video at 15Mbps? We can make the argument for symmetric services (and personally I have one) without overstating the necessity of it all I think.
Was about to say, would love to see a laptop that has a 4k webcam built-in, Apple’s maximum is 1080p on MacBooks and that’s at the high-end of the spectrum
 
I should be clear I'm not some upload philistine. I agree with you that Openreach should be selling much higher upload on FTTP.

They have no technical reason at all whether selling GPON or XGSPON for the tiers they offer. Probably still on the Wayback Machine or some other archive.

I railed against Virgin Media when they were offering 26:1 at best and wrote a bunch of articles explaining why it wasn't necessary and they could do better.

Depending where you are in the country hopefully an altnet or Nexfibre / VMO2 will appear. VMO2 are starting to show some signs of at least considering symmetrical on the XGSPON now. It was a while ago mooted as a paid-for extra. We'll see.

VMO2 go symmetrical the pressure will increase on Openreach from their customers to increase their offering: remember that you aren't one of those customers.

This would likely initially take the form of an upload increase the CPs may pay for on top of existing tiers much as it did with FTTC.
Seeing rumours of 2Gbps symmetrical appearing from VMO2/nexfibre. This will be very interesting.
 
Seeing rumours of 2Gbps symmetrical appearing from VMO2/nexfibre. This will be very interesting.

It is looking as though the marketing folks are finally letting go of hamstringing the XGSPON to avoid making the DoCSIS look bad.

If you're interested in early indicators on the DoCSIS side the VM Community Forum is a good place to look: the 3.1 downstream OFDM block should either be added to with a second one or enlarged to facilitate 2 Gbps.

They'll want to launch 2 down across both platforms simultaneously or at least have some of the HFC/RFoG go to it with a plan for the rest if at all possible, albeit with lower upload on the DoCSIS side.
 
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