Cable Forum - View Single Post - General Do you actually need very fast broadband speeds?

Qtx · 29-07-2022, 16:05

So a friend has had fibre to the premises cabling installed to the flats where he lived and he asked me if it was worth upgrading from his current FTTC as he's not clued up on these things. Advised him he will get no real benefit as he just browses websites and watches a few youtube video on a laptop. Even if he got Netflix later, his current 40mb connection is more than enough.

It got me wondering, how many people actually NEED a 100mbit or faster connection at home?

I can see it being useful in say a family of 4 or 5+ where each person might want to stream videos at the same time + gaming + downloading but even then, 100mbit and a router with QoS that prioritises gaming/video should be more than enough. With newer video codecs like HEVC, the actual bandwidth needed for videos has gone down.

Obviously with 8k video and future technologies its nice to have infrastructure ready for when we need it. People working with video editing and large datasets working at home are a few genuine reasons to have faster internet.

I Just think that most people don't actually need very fast broadband at home. Yeah its nice to download an ISO in a few seconds but does waiting another 60 seconds really much of an issue?

Marketing and wanting to have the fastest because we like shiny and fast things because we can seems to be the main reason for getting the faster speeds I reckon.

Thoughts?

29-07-2022, 16:05	#1
Qtx CF's Worst Nightmare Join Date: May 2012 Location: Probably outside the M25 Services: Sky Fibre Unlimited 40/10 Posts: 3,473	Do you actually need very fast broadband speeds? So a friend has had fibre to the premises cabling installed to the flats where he lived and he asked me if it was worth upgrading from his current FTTC as he's not clued up on these things. Advised him he will get no real benefit as he just browses websites and watches a few youtube video on a laptop. Even if he got Netflix later, his current 40mb connection is more than enough. It got me wondering, how many people actually NEED a 100mbit or faster connection at home? I can see it being useful in say a family of 4 or 5+ where each person might want to stream videos at the same time + gaming + downloading but even then, 100mbit and a router with QoS that prioritises gaming/video should be more than enough. With newer video codecs like HEVC, the actual bandwidth needed for videos has gone down. Obviously with 8k video and future technologies its nice to have infrastructure ready for when we need it. People working with video editing and large datasets working at home are a few genuine reasons to have faster internet. I Just think that most people don't actually need very fast broadband at home. Yeah its nice to download an ISO in a few seconds but does waiting another 60 seconds really much of an issue? Marketing and wanting to have the fastest because we like shiny and fast things because we can seems to be the main reason for getting the faster speeds I reckon. Thoughts?