If you have made the transition from in-the-office to work-from-home, regularly livestream on social media, or game a lot — then you should find upload speeds important. And the more people you have in your home doing these types of things, the more important it becomes. Your internet's upload speed determines how fast you can send content to the Internet, and you'd be surprised how quickly it adds up.

What's the difference between download and upload speeds?

If the difference between download and upload speeds seem a little confusing, think of it this way: download speed is how quickly you can get something from the Internet, like scrolling your social media feeds, reading emails, or watching a show on Netflix. Upload speed is how quickly you can get something to the Internet, like posting a TikTok or having your video on and presenting to an audience during a teleconference meeting.

Why should I care about upload speeds?

Internet usage has skyrocketed in homes. In fact, the Q1 2022 Open Vault Broadband Insights Report states each U.S. broadband household has an average of 9 streaming services and 25 connected devices. 25?! That's a lot of devices that all need Internet to function. This increase in home internet usage continues to make the biggest case for the importance of higher upload speeds, especially with the increase in homeschooling and hybrid/remote work. In fact, research shows 97.6% of remote workers want to continue working remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers. Employees have seen the advantages of WFH and this data shows it won't be ending anytime soon. 

Plus, faster upload speeds are critical when uploading video content and streaming via apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. This is helpful because social media usage continues to quickly grow and put an additional strain on home Internet upload bandwidth. 

Alone these activities may not seem like such a burden on your home network; however, the need for faster upload speed adds up when multiple people engage in similar activities at the same time on the same network. Streaming your favorite video game may only require about 6 Mbps alone, but if you're livestreaming a 1080p video on Twitch and a 4K video to YouTube at the same time, about 36 Mbps upload speed is needed to ensure both streams remain stable (HighSpeedInternet.com). Add on a parent who is remotely working and a sibling or roommate who is on Google Classroom, and you will soon need closer to at least 50 Mbps of upload bandwidth. 

Cable internet connections, which do not use fiber all the way to the home, typically offer upload speeds from about 10 Mbps to 35 Mbps. altafiber currently offers upload speeds from 200 to 1,000 Mbps. 

With increased reliance on the internet for everything from communication to work to entertainment, internet usage and bandwidth consumption will continue to grow exponentially. According to OpenVault's Broadband Insight Report, average per-household consumption was 586.7 GB at the end of 2022, an increase of nearly 10% over the prior year.

altafiber has been hard at work investing in fiber infrastructure to increase our existing customer base's upload and download speeds. If you have a house or apartment full of remote workers, learners, gamers, or TikTokers, consider one of our high-speed bundles by visiting the button below.