Matt Davies Stockton Explains How to Choose Your Internet Download Speed

Introduction

According to Matt Davies Stockton, fast internet download speed has different definitions for different people. To you, it may be 100Mbps and for someone on a rural Midwest farm in the middle of nowhere, it may be just 25Mbps. Let’s figure out how to choose your internet download speed.

The Details

  1. Fast internet – According to the FCC, a high-speed internet connection is 25 Mbps of download speed and 3Mbps of upload speed. While that’s adequate for basic internet usage, it’s a bit outdated by modern standards. That’s why even basic internet plans offered by most broadband internet companies start at around 100Mbps. The metrics are completely different for businesses or for commercial operations. However, there are high-end residential internet speeds where ISPs provide 1, 2, or even 5 Gbps speeds.
  1. Gigabit internet – As the name suggests, gigabit internet is an internet connection that delivers a download speed of over 1000 Mbps. It’s very expensive and faster than most people’s needs. If you spend most of your time streaming HD content, checking your social media feed and emails, and occasionally engaging in Zoom meetings, gigabit internet offers much more bandwidth than you need.

On the other hand, if you live in a big home or shared dorm where a lot of people are sharing the WiFi connection, then gigabit internet may be worth the cost. For personal use, you won’t need gigabit internet unless you download and upload a lot of large files to cloud servers regularly, host live streams, or stream in 4K on numerous devices.

  1. Calculating your required internet bandwidth – Your internet download speed or bandwidth requirement depends on how you use the internet and how many people are using the same connection. Here’s a list of internet activities and the recommended bandwidth they require:
  • Email – 1 Mbps
  • Web Browsing – 5 Mbps
  • Streaming music – 5 Mbps
  • Social Media – 10 Mbps
  • Streaming Hi-Res lossless music – 20 Mbps
  • Streaming HD content – 25 Mbps
  • Video conference – 50 Mbps
  • Streaming 4K content – 100 Mbps
  • Online Gaming – 100 Mbps

Add up the activities that you do regularly and that’s the bandwidth you’ll need. For instance, if you stream 4K content and do online gaming most of the day, then you’ll need 200 Mbps.

However, that’s just your internet usage. If you live alone, that’s all the bandwidth you’ll need. But if you’re living with friends in a shared apartment, have a wife, or a standard family of four, you’ll also need to take their internet usage into account. Apart from that, you’ll also need to take into account the number of devices that use the internet simultaneously at home. So, a family of four with heavy internet users may need to opt for gigabit internet to keep those streams smooth and buffer-free.

Conclusion

Matt Davies Stockton suggests that you figure out the total number of devices in your home and assess the content and data consumed by those devices to come up with the right internet download speed for you. You don’t want to spend an exorbitant amount of gigabit internet when you don’t need it.