[Closed] How Much Broadband Do I Need?

My best speed currently is about 28mb.

It comfortably allows streaming at 4K, gaming, surfing and music streaming across many devices quite often all at once depending on what my kids are doing too.

That said you will notice a difference but it'll do what you want.

In simple ish terms.

You need about 4Mbps to stream in HD.

Netflix recommend 25 to steam in 4k.

If you want to steam live 4k events (these are very rare) then you might need as much as 90 as they’re not as well compressed.

Worth noting that if you’re sharing your connection with your family then of course you need spare on top.

When it comes to downloading large files (games etc) then more is better, but the bottle neck is often their server, it’s rare to download games for Xbox for example higher than 50ish.

Just went through this myself, moving from Virgin 100 (and TV too) because asking silly money per month (£55+).

Decided to leave, so had the fun chat with the service center guy who was insistent that I'd not survive on anything less than 100Mb (and in fact was wondering how I coped even with that) and that I'd come crawling back before long. Really didn't make me want to stay I'll say!

Anyhoo, a week later I got the expected call from the Retention dept. and have agreed to stay for £32 a month on 100Mb broadbean only. Suits me as I don't have to do anything and in reality we don't have a BT line so would have to pay to have one installed.

TLDR;

Phone up, ask to leave, wait for phone call from Retention department. Agree to stay for £32 a month (if that works for you).

What's more important is the quality of the network after your link to the exchange. My folks have something like 30Mbps but it's shared between a lot of people so at peak times it's pretty laggy and it was more annoying than our 3.5Mbps. But, I think streaming traffic is prioritised as they've always been able to watch video. Not sure if anyone publishes contention ratios any more but that used to be the figure to check.

We went with 150Mbps because you get much more upload than you do with lower packages, which we wanted for stuff like cloud backup and sending large files (for work). At 150Mbps it's really difficult to find even a speed tester site that can max it out, because the links between our exchange any any other site is usually the weakness. So no, you don't need anything like 150Mbps, probably. What it would allow would be several of us in the house watching 4k, but that's not happening soon.

Sadly, phoning and throwing my toys out of the pram didn't work.

Basically, I ****ed up and accepted an 'upgrade' without properly checking the channels and it transpires we've lost one of my sons favourite kids channels. I phoned to cancel the upgrade and was told my old package was no longer an option on their system and the kids telly is another fiver a month!!! No further discounts available, like it or lump it.

You need as much as you can get for the right price. I'd try and get the VM price down using the method above. It's just as easy to get the hump with any of the providers.
I can max-out my 230mbps connection downloading from an .nzb server with just half a dozen connections but I guess the actual speed of a large download is only as imnportant as how quickly you want it to complete.
I'd say even a 75mbps fibre optic phone line will be struggling in a couple of years time.

I'd quite happily halve our broadband throughput if they halved the price. Paying something like £45/month for 75 Mb/s with Virgin.

Vodafone 35mps here. Very stable and never drops below 25, even at peak times. I can stream 4K no problem

The only thing I’ve struggled with is the Champions League final at 4K via YouTube. Although that might’ve been an issue with BT/YouTube rather than broadband speed as a few mates were also reporting buffering and poor picture quality

The only thing I’ve struggled with is the Champions League final at 4K via YouTube. Although that might’ve been an issue with BT/YouTube rather than broadband speed as a few mates were also reporting buffering and poor picture quality

The problem with live steaming rather than streaming pre recorded content is it's not possible to compress the image on the fly, when the BBC broadcast some live 4K for a sporting even (might have been Wimbledon or The Olympics, I forget which) they recommended a min of 90Mbps.

But its very rare to get live 4k.

If you're using a wireless connection you're probably only using a fraction of that 100mbps link anyway.

For me, it wasn't so much about raw speed so much as the number of connected devices. Slower broadband was fine until you've got a console downloading tens of GBs worth of data, Netflix streaming, Windows Update running on three machines, a bunch of phones and tablets browsing the Internet... that's when it all came to a screaming halt and I needed more bandwidth.

FYI - for those considering Sky. My Sky broadband was lovely, was only 20mb but never noticed any delays, moved house and took Sky Fibre for 40mb and have daily periods of slow loading or not being able to see some of the chromecasts we have. I think its down to the dual band element (2.4ghz and 5ghz) of the router switching as it can happen at any time of the day, no correlation with number of connected devices. I've done the usual checks of the channels and for interface and it is minimal, think I need to now split the 2.4ghz and 5ghz but haven't got round to it.

Yeah _ recently dumped VM as they were getting pricey and instead went for an all data SIM on Three - works fine and that's with 2 kids streaming to multiple devices + HD tv + wife and myself on tablet/laptop - have to say I'm pretty happy at the mo

for what its worth, we have plusnet non-fibre and we can stream 4k absolutely fine. it sometimes self-degrades to full HD (busy evenings) but I suspect that limitation is at the exchange (as the wire we have won't be getting busy). Netflix 4k stream actually produces around 8-16mbps, a higher speed helps, but you don't need much.

Going through this today, current Virgin is too pricey with tv and is going up and up, so wanting to drop to a broadband only deal. Done "the conversation" and got £37 per month with £50 voucher which will almost make the first month and a half free.

I've looked at other options, Plusnet etc but there is no fibre in our area for other suppliers, only Virgin on their separate fibre system. It would mean dropping to basic broadband at speeds of max 20mb, quite a difference from the 100mb we have now.

Oh how the other half live. 🙂

(6 people sharing a 2 mbs connection and no mobile signal within 5 miles)

The problem with live steaming rather than streaming pre recorded content is it’s not possible to compress the image on the fly, when the BBC broadcast some live 4K for a sporting even (might have been Wimbledon or The Olympics, I forget which) they recommended a min of 90Mbps.

Got a source for that?

Surely less about the compression and more to give you some headroom as there's little/no buffering?

Oh how the other half live.

Yes, but you can probably access a couple of actual entertaining streams fairly easily. 🙂

If you’re using a wireless connection you’re probably only using a fraction of that 100mbps link anyway.

For me, it wasn’t so much about raw speed so much as the number of connected devices. Slower broadband was fine until you’ve got a console downloading tens of GBs worth of data, Netflix streaming, Windows Update running on three machines, a bunch of phones and tablets browsing the Internet… that’s when it all came to a screaming halt and I needed more bandwidth.

I might be witchcraft, but even using the otherwise useless VM 3.0Hub, that fraction is 99/100ths in the same room, dropping to 7/10th in the furtherest corners of my house.

Multi users are indeed the death of wi-fi, but for me, it wasn't the bandwidth so much as hours of endless YT vids stuffed the cache of the router and I'd have to reboot it, no quick thing with the VM hub.