ISP's and usage.

[DavidDetroit]

I'm on 2.4Mbps

Do you do any streaming like Netflix?
I'm now shooting for lower Mbps speed. I got enamored by the fast speeds but have since come to my senses.

 

[Gerryjo]

I'm on 2.4Mbps!

Archaic....

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Do you do any streaming like Netflix?
I'm now shooting for lower Mbps speed. I got enamored by the fast speeds but have since come to my senses.

Yes, though Netflix seems to work ok, it's when I want to download something off Sky Planner or even browse some websites the pictures take forever to load. To be fair I should have 20mbps but something's up with my provider at the moment.

 

[DavidDetroit]

20mbps but something's up with my provider at the moment.

I do happen to believe (because I read somewhere that 6Mbps was fine to watch Netflix) that we get oversold. Computers are a great example--hard drive, RAM and CPU. The cheapest computer there is right now handles 99% of the public just fine as far as specifications are concerned.
Even knowing this, I started drooling over 200Mbps versus 100Mbps. I really am going to try and get the lowest Mbps available; however, knowing greedy companies, 50Mbps probably won't even be an option.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

ISP peak speed ratings are a bit misleading.
What they tend not to tell you is the contention ratio: i.e. how many other people are sharing the physical connection.
This is like saying "you can drive 70mph on the M1" without explaining that other cars may get in the way.
Many ISPs also apply 'traffic shaping', which means they throttle your speed if you're using too much data or if its a busy time of the day.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I read 6Mbps was sufficient to stream Netflix.

It probably is for SD and HD but if you have a small allowance (capped usage) you would use it in no time.


Google -
For Netflix, the minimum speed required is about 3Mbps for standard streaming, 5Mbps for HD and 15Mbps for Ultra HD if you want to avoid buffering.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

ISP peak speed ratings are a bit misleading.
What they tend not to tell you is the contention ratio: i.e. how many other people are sharing the physical connection.
This is like saying "you can drive 70mph on the M1" without explaining that other cars may get in the way.
Many ISPs also apply 'traffic shaping', which means they throttle your speed if you're using too much data or if its a busy time of the day.

I think its law that all ISP's now have to give a guaranteed lowest speed and if they cannot provide it you can walk away.

 

[DavidDetroit]

It probably is for SD and HD but if you have a small allowance (capped usage) you would use it in no time.

Aren't those separate issues (speed and usage)? Maybe there's something I'm not aware of with the way internet works there.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Aren't those separate issues (speed and usage)? Maybe there's something I'm not aware of with the way internet works there.

They are kind of linked, most of the fibre packages i have seen have no download/upload limits so you get great speeds with no worries about usage (200Gb - 250Gb month in our house) but it could be an issue if you are with an ISP that does have a strict usage limit.

The first post (which i moved from another thread) said -

Since I started watching youtube my monthly data has gone from 3 to 20Gb per month.

 

[DavidDetroit]

it could be an issue if you are with an ISP that does have a strict usage limit.

Okay, that makes sense. Over here in the Detroit-Metro area we just have a couple options for internet and neither charges for usage but the companies are both overpriced. I'm sure I'd not even notice a lower Mbps rate and it will be interesting to see how low I can go when I check. We don't do much more than watch one device (TV).
Phones are a different story and there are all sorts of convoluted plans you can get based on how much you download/stream.