A Guide To Broadband Upload Speeds

While most consumers focus primarily on download speeds, your broadband upload speed can have a significant impact on your overall internet experience. To understand why this is the case, let us take a look to understand what an upload is and how it affects your internet usage.

What is Broadband Upload Speed?

Upload speeds refer to the speed at which a user can send information from a device to the internet. As most consumers tend to download far more data than they upload, most internet service providers, or ISPs, focus their marketing on their download speeds. Many ISPs will tend to offer significantly lower upload speeds to compensate for increased download activity on the network. For instance, upload speeds can be as much as 80% slower than the broadband providers upload speeds.

For the majority of broadband users, upload speed has a lesser effect on their overall browsing experience. Therefore, most are fine with this combination. However, there are those in need of a fast upload connection who may want to shop around for a service that takes both into account.

Why is it Important?

Good broadband upload speeds are important for users that use video communications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other video chat type services. This can be particularly beneficial to those working from home. Online gamers also benefit from faster upload speed. While gaming is not the most data-intensive activity a good upload speed will certainly be beneficial. If you are someone that regularly uploads or uses file-sharing services you will also benefit from fast upload speeds.

What is a good Broadband Upload Speed?

We have talked about what uploads speeds are and the benefits. But what is considered a good broadband upload speed?

According to Ofcom’s latest data, the average upload speed is 14.2 (Mbit/s) for UK homes. So if you are getting better than this on your upload speeds you are doing better than most.

It is worth running a broadband speed test at different times of the day to see what speeds you are receiving during peak and non-peak hours.

What Affects My Upload Speed?

Several factors will affect the speed you receive for uploads. Some of these will depend on the broadband service that you choose. For instance, fibre broadband will be faster than standard ADSL broadband for upload speed. This is due to data transfers faster over fibre cable networks as opposed to copper wire. Better still if you are in FTTH (Fiber to the Home) you should receive the best upload speeds.

If you are in an FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) area this will affect the speed you receive. Those green boxes that you probably walk past each day house the fibre connection to the area. The further away you are will significantly decrease the speed you receive.

Another important thing that will determine how fast your upload speed can be is the package you have selected. Larger packages will often provide better upload speeds.

Although often overlooked your home setup will also play a part in the speeds that you receive. For instance, if you are connecting over Wifi then this will generally be slower than via an ethernet cable. If WiFi is your only option then the distance from your router will affect the speeds you receive (both upload and download).

How Can I improve My Speed?

Like download speeds, upload speeds can also be affected by external factors, such as the distance between your home and broadband exchange and the amount of congestion on the network.

Quite often though, other factors within the home can affect your upload speed. Therefore it may be worth considering the following things.

  1. Other Devices Using the Network
  2. Look at your broadband router settings
  3. Consider Range Boosters if Connect via Wifi
  4. Try connecting via ethernet cable, if possible.

If you feel that you are not getting the upload speeds that you should from your broadband provider, contact them. They may be able to help improve the upload speed that you receive.

Ofcom provides a guide on some practical ways of improving your broadband speed.

Fastest Broadband Packages By Upload Speeds

If you are looking for the best broadband package by upload speed. Then the following packages offer upload speeds above the UK average. As we mentioned earlier the average broadband upload speed across the UK is 14.2 Mbit/s for households. Therefore anything above this should be considered fast for uploads.