Cheapo 50/10 broadband speed

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linw

2843 posts

Uber Geek

#315427 15-Jul-2024 16:29

My two person household only uses about 40GB of data per mth. My wife uses very little and the only streaming I do is YT items.

Thinking of trying a 50/10 speed (from 300/100), while changing to SKY. The money diffs are pretty big, like $420/year.

I personally don't think I will notice the diff, and, of course, if I did, I could switch back up.

Just looking for some input. Am I mad or is it worth a go?

muppet

2555 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3259841 15-Jul-2024 16:35

I think that'd be fine. The main thing that will annoy you is when someone connects to the Wifi and Google Photos/iCloud/Some-other-cloud-storage-thing starts to upload the 500Mb video they took of fireworks (that no one will ever watch) - this will congest a 10Mb/s uplink very quickly and things can turn to custard while it's uploading.

Depending on your router, it might have some smart queuing so that's not a problem, but unlikely.

I was helping my neighbour yesterday with a new Mesh Wifi system, everything was fine with our tests (Youtube etc). It was only when I started to speedtest I realised he's a 30/10 plan. Ouch. He's never noticed though, he does WhatsApp and meetings and all sorts on it.

RunningMan

8912 posts

Uber Geek

#3259843 15-Jul-2024 17:03

You can do way more with 50/10 than people think. As @muppet says the only time you'd likely notice is something saturating the upload for a long period, but using only 40GB per month I wouldn't see that being a problem for you.

You can get several concurrent 4k video streams through a 50Mb/s connection.

Linux

11293 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3259879 15-Jul-2024 19:17

My parents are on the 50/10 plan and no issues with 4k streaming on Netflix, etc and watching you YouTube at the same time

nzlogan

76 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#3260029 15-Jul-2024 22:23

I reckon go for it! I've just done this - was on a 300/100 connection from Skinny and changed to Quic's $56/month 50/10 plan when Skinny notified of the price increase. Two person household too and there's been no noticeable difference (both WFH some of the time, no issues when concurrently working - video calls, deployments, etc).

Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3260034 15-Jul-2024 22:36

RunningMan:

You can get several concurrent 4k video streams through a 50Mb/s connection.

As far as I am aware, 4K video streaming typically requires a bandwidth of approximately 25 Mb/s per stream. So it won't be several.

nztim

3754 posts

Uber Geek

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TEAMnetwork

Subscriber

#3260035 15-Jul-2024 22:43

Most people have Gig fibre or Hyperfibre for speed test gloating, the times you will ACTUALLY use that speed is like.... never

Unless you are downloading fortnite updates and large ISO files

50/10 is ample for most people

What matters most is the technology you use, and nothing beats fibre

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3260036 15-Jul-2024 22:46

nztim:

What matters most is the technology you use, and nothing beats fibre

Exactly this. You latency on 50/10 will be just as good as on say 300/100.

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linw

2843 posts

Uber Geek

#3260044 16-Jul-2024 04:40

Wow, thanks guys. Looks like a no brainer. Will go that way.

Cheers.

RunningMan

8912 posts

Uber Geek

#3260397 16-Jul-2024 17:48

Wombat1:

As far as I am aware, 4K video streaming typically requires a bandwidth of approximately 25 Mb/s per stream. So it won't be several.

Netflix 4k is 15 Mb/s. Youtube about 12 Mb/s. So yes, several.

rp1790

738 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3260401 16-Jul-2024 17:57

I consider myself a speed nerd but my partner has a 50/10 plan and I can't tell any difference when I'm at her place. Netflix and YT in 4K all work well.