The Ultimate Internet Speed Guide

In today’s connected world, it’s important to make sure your Internet connection is up to the challenge. Most people don’t realize how many items they use every day that are connected to their WiFi at the same time and slowing down the connection for everyone. Read on to see how what impacts your Internet bandwidth and how to select the right speed tier for your home!

Top 3 Things Impacting Speed

The Number of People in Your Household

Typically, more people in a household means more networked devices. And when more people are using the Internet connection at the same time, that’s when you start to see buffering and slowdowns. Here’s a typical breakdown of how much speed you need based on how many people are in your home:

What You Use the Internet For

How you use the internet also affects connections speeds. Different activities require different speeds. These are typical speed requirements for 1 person enjoying each activity listed.

As a reminder, the listed speed requirements don’t include other devices running in the background like your phone doing updates, security cameras, smart thermostats, smart watches, smart appliances, smart light bulbs, smart doorbells and anything else running on your Internet connection.

Doing just one activity alone doesn’t require a lot of speed. The biggest impact on your experience is simultaneous Internet usage like several people on multiple devices.

Number of Connected Devices

As mentioned above, the more devices that use a household’s internet connection at the same time, the slower the connection becomes for everyone. The average household today has about 21 connected devices. With all those devices, it can really start to impact your bandwidth.

Connection Speed Formula

Check out our formula to help you run the numbers and determine how much bandwidth your home may actually need!