Internet speed or latency

[skaertus]

So, I have to choose between two Internet (fiber optics) providers. I live in Brazil, in Sao Paulo, so my choices are obvially different from what you have in the U.S., and I will describe them below.

- Provider 1: 60 mbps download speed, 30 mbps upload speed, low latency (ping).

- Provider 2: 300 mbps download speed, 150 mbps upload speed, high latency (ping) for international servers (i.e., servers located outside Brazil, such as those in the U.S. and Europe).

- Provider 3: 120 mbps download speed, 10 mbps upload speed, low latency (ping).

Provider 2 of course offers the better speed, but my issue here is that latency is high (always higher than 100ms for international servers, and sometimes hitting 200ms). I wonder how much this makes of a difference for my use. I know that low latency is important for games, but that is not really my case as I am not using this for playing.

I basically use the Internet for general web browsing, and also for streaming. I use a lot of Netflix, and also YouTube and Spotify. I wonder whether speed or latency would be more important for this kind of use, and which provider should I choose.

Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

Good Ping is always a Dominate choice.

So.. (as an example), I would take the 120/10 since I do not care about the Upload.

In other words you have to choose according to the way you need to use the Internet. Latency of 200ms can be a pain for any use (not just games).

Download speed is important in cases were One needs to download huge amount of Large Files, or in a household with many concurrent users.

 

[PliotronX]

Lucky to have so many choices! Id probably go with provider 3 but if you use a lot of cloud storage, provider 1 for the upstream. I can't stand high latency.

 

[Ken g6]

I have 10/1 internet, and I can stream. I don't think you'll have a problem with any of them unless you have a 4k TV and multiple people streaming at the same time.

 

[skaertus]

Thanks for the feedback, it is being helpful. Just for the record, Provider 1 is the cheapest, at about USD 25/month. Providers 2 and 3 are about USD 40-45/month.

Good Ping is always a Dominate choice.

So.. (as an example), I would take the 120/10 since I do not care about the Upload.

In other words you have to choose according to the way you need to use the Internet. Latency of 200ms can be a pain for any use (not just games).

Download speed is important in cases were One needs to download huge amount of Large Files, or in a household with many concurrent users.

Thanks. I am really looking to skip Provider 2 due to the high latency of international servers.

But is upload speed so no important? I was under the impression that an upload speed of less than 1/10 of the download speed was way too low. Is it not?

Lucky to have so many choices! Id probably go with provider 3 but if you use a lot of cloud storage, provider 1 for the upstream. I can't stand high latency.

Yes, I use some cloud storage. I currently have about 6 GB on Dropbox and 14 GB on OneDrive. Not a huge amount, but still significant. And I have several devices to sync: a desktop PC, two laptops, two smartphones, and an iPad.

I have 10/1 internet, and I can stream. I don't think you'll have a problem with any of them unless you have a 4k TV and multiple people streaming at the same time.

Well, I know it is possible to stream at 10 mbps download/1 mbps upload, but I do not think it would be ideal. I do not have a 4k TV, but I may get one in the near future. The thing is, once I subscribe to the Internet service, I must keep it for at least one year.

 

[DigDog]

PLEASE
In the name of everyone that has to play with you, dont be a BR BR. Go with provider 1 or 3.

I would chose 3 because i upload videos, and once you got 20+ mbps, download speed becomes irrelevant - you are already downloading video faster than you can watch it.

Realistically you will be playing mostly on NA servers,and if the choice is 100ms or 200ms, the difference is huge. 100ms is an annoyance you can learn to compensate for, 200ms is unplayable. Low ping is always better, without question.

But wait, i said i dont play games!!

But you will.

Once you get some hardcore 1337 internet, whats stopping you from pwng everyone in QuakeChampions?

 

[mnewsham]

But is upload speed so no important?

Depends what you're doing.

For general use, 10-20mbps is more than enough for most people.

Unless you're uploading large files (10GB+) regularly, I wouldn't worry too much about upload speeds.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

I basically use the Internet for general web browsing, and also for streaming. I use a lot of Netflix, and also YouTube and Spotify. I wonder whether speed or latency would be more important for this kind of use, and which provider should I choose.

General Web Browsing My Opinion: 1 Mb/s per person and decent latency (sub 110ms)
**My Opinion: Most websites and general browsing aren't going to benefit a whole lot from anything more than 3 Mb/s per person. You're just not going to get a significant or noticeably better experience doing general web browsing for most sites. There may be a few sites where more is noticeable, but I don't think more than 3 Mb/s per person is a necessity at all for basic web browsing.

If you stumble into a slow website with 3 Mb/s allocated per person browsing, I'd seriously question if it wasn't just the website's host or server that was the bottleneck... 'cause it's likely not you at 3 Mb/s.

Netflix My Opinion: 1.5 Mb/s or more per person, latency doesn't matter a whole lot
**Netflix suggests 25 Mb/s for 4k content. Most people do not have a 4k screen. (Most content is probably not even available at 4k resolutions)
**Netflix suggests 3 Mb/s for 1080p content.
**My Opinion: Most people will easily stomach watching a TV show on Netflix at 720p.

Youtube (depends resolution), but My Opinion: 1.5 Mb/s or more per person, latency doesn't matter a whole lot.
My Opinion: Most Youtube videos could be watched at closer to 1 Mb/s per person pretty readily. Most people aren't watching every video on youtube to see every nitty detail (most videos aren't uploaded in 4k, anyway), and as such 480p/720p could cover most youtube watching for most people... DVDs were in that ball park for resolution (480p), afterall.

Spotify: 350 Kb/s per person will easily cover this, latency doesn't a whole lot matter

Playing most online games: ~250 Kb/s per person is probably more than enough, latency matters a lot (downloading updates will benefit from higher bandwidth so you don't have to sit there all day downloading the update).

The only thing people need super high download numbers for, is if they do a whole bunch of downloading of big files or they have a very gadget focused family.

Are you downloading ISO files, video content to edit from another location for work? Is there some monetary incentive for you to have certain files downloaded extremely quickly? Like maybe you put computers together to sell and find yourself downloading windows updates all day.

Do you have a TV on Netflix all day long, plus a computer that's browsing youtube all day long, plus 2 or 3 game systems on the network, plus 3 phones surfing facebook all day long? I mean, I could see the benefit of 50 Mb/s download speeds for a family like this, but really, they could "get by" with 15 Mb/s. Some families already get by with less, but they probably feel the headache of it and are just deal with it because DSL is the only option and they are too far out for higher than 1.5 Mb/s.