Before you pay for more speed, it is worth knowing what you already get — and how much you actually need. Most households are sold considerably more than they use.
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How much speed do you actually need?
Speed is shared across everything happening at once, so the honest question is not “what is the fastest?” but “what is everyone in the house doing at 8pm?”
- Up to 100 Mbps — one or two people, browsing, email, HD streaming on a couple of screens.
- 200 to 400 Mbps — a family streaming 4K on several devices, video calls, some gaming.
- 500 Mbps to 1 Gig — a busy household, working from home, large downloads, many connected devices.
- Above 1 Gig — genuinely useful for large file transfers and heavy multi-user upload, and overkill for most homes.
Upload speed is the one people forget
Cable plans advertise a big download number and a much smaller upload number — 500 Mbps down but only 20 Mbps up is common. If you work from home, upload is what carries your video calls, backups and file sharing. Fiber plans usually match upload to download, which is often a bigger real-world difference than the headline speed.
Why your test result is lower than your plan
- WiFi loses speed with distance and walls. Test next to the router, and over a cable if you can.
- Older routers and devices cannot pass through gigabit speeds no matter what arrives at the house.
- Everything else on your network is sharing the same connection while you test.
- Evenings are the busiest hours on most networks.
If you consistently get far less than you pay for, that is worth a call to your provider before you upgrade — the problem is often equipment rather than the plan.
Not sure what to make of your result?
Call 1-848-800-6610 and we will tell you honestly whether a faster plan would help, or whether you would be paying for speed you cannot use.