Connection Speed requirements

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sen8or

1611 posts

Uber Geek

#306109 29-Jun-2023 08:05

Hi folks

I have had full speed fibre for quite a while (since it came out), but our household has changed quite a bit and I'm wondering whether its still "necessary".

We don't download a lot of files, almost all traffic is streaming, whether its live TV (TVNZ+ app), youtube or streaming service. There could be up to about 3 or 4 devices connected / streaming at once but it would normally be 2 max (our main tv and daughters ipad).

With the recent price jumps (just got the email from Skinny), its made me look at whether or not a slower plan will work in our situation?

Looking for advise / experiences of other with similar requirements

Thanks

Sen

nzkc

1276 posts

Uber Geek

#3096121 29-Jun-2023 08:13

Even with 4 devices streaming 4K you'd likely not notice anything on a 100/30 connection. I say likely because with 4K it is recommended to have 25Mbps per stream as a guide, though its often less (from what Ive seen with Netflix and YouTube).

In typical usage you'll not notice much of a difference, if any difference, at all. If it were just web browsing then even 30/10 would be fine. And at that speed, 1 stream (maybe 2) would be good to go too.

If you're looking at 300/100 you are going to be fine.

In your situation I'd be thinking: Worst case its a month - we try it if it doesnt work we switch back. This is assuming you're not switching to a different provider and therefore a 12mth lock in. Even then, they'd let you upgrade without a penalty (downgrade may be different).

MightyApe

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Senecio

2166 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#3096129 29-Jun-2023 09:00

You would need to have 10-12 4K streams running concurrently before you saturated a 300/100 plan. This would still leave overhead for browsing on a computer.

The reality is that 300/100 is ample for 95% of home plans.

cddt

662 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3096149 29-Jun-2023 10:47

Senecio:

The reality is that 300/100 is ample for 95% of home plans.

I would bump that percentage up to 99.9% of homes.

I suspect a lot of people upgrade their fibre plan when actually it's their wifi which is the bottleneck.

davidcole

5807 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3096228 29-Jun-2023 14:28

I'd be a fairly heavy user, and a number of concurrent streams and other things happening. I doubt I've saturated my 300/100 connection.

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deadlyllama

1225 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3096256 29-Jun-2023 16:17

The real question is, could you cope with 50/10 fibre, or even 4G fixed wireless...

...or ask the neighours if you can give them $20/mo to use their wifi :P

eonsim

263 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3096264 29-Jun-2023 16:41

I think 100mb vs 1000mb is reasonably noticeable when doing big downloads such as new games or big patches. I've certainly noticed it and found it annoying when the Xbox has been doing a round of updates or trying to install new games from Steam or similar. Other than that though I don't think most people would notice. If you are mainly streaming then as others have said unless there are half a dozen people streaming 4K content at the same time 100Mb is more fine, and seeing it's often 300Mb now it's even less liekly to be an issue.

Though I guess if you've got a couple of each major console and half a dozen PC's with Steam and windows update it may start to be noticeable if they all try doing something at the same time.

Linux

10317 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#3096275 29-Jun-2023 17:13

Moved from 1000/500 to 300/100 and no difference to experience on the web

sen8or

1611 posts

Uber Geek

#3097527 30-Jun-2023 08:19

Thanks for the input / thoughts.

Theres only 3 of us in the house now, whilst we have a fair list of devices, they aren't all connected / active at the same time so I think the 300/100 will be more than fine. I do have a console but don't use it online for gaming, so the occasional update will just take a bit longer or if I get xbox game pass, d/loading games will be a bit slower, but thats an occasional thing too.

Also seemed timely to examine mobile plan (currently with Spark) and by switching that to Skinny, I also get $10 off broadband and slightly more monthly data so thats a win too.

davidcole

5807 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3097528 30-Jun-2023 08:21

sen8or:

Thanks for the input / thoughts.

Theres only 3 of us in the house now, whilst we have a fair list of devices, they aren't all connected / active at the same time so I think the 300/100 will be more than fine. I do have a console but don't use it online for gaming, so the occasional update will just take a bit longer or if I get xbox game pass, d/loading games will be a bit slower, but thats an occasional thing too.

Also seemed timely to examine mobile plan (currently with Spark) and by switching that to Skinny, I also get $10 off broadband and slightly more monthly data so thats a win too.

I don't know about xbox, but playstations are notoriously slow at downloading updates due to their network. So you have to expect to wait regardless of your connection speed.

BMarquis

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Chorus

Lifetime subscriber

#3097532 30-Jun-2023 08:44

davidcole:
I don't know about xbox, but playstations are notoriously slow at downloading updates due to their network. So you have to expect to wait regardless of your connection speed.

On our xbox series X (unsure if series s or older consoles are any different) downloads tend to be able to make good use of my Fibre MAX service, or possibly max out the 1gbps ethernet port - fluctuating from 750mbps up to 820mbps

EviLClouD

191 posts

Master Geek

#3097554 30-Jun-2023 10:07

Just thought it was a little funny that myrepublic reckons 300Mbps isnt good for gaming lol

Lorenceo

895 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#3097816 30-Jun-2023 16:36

davidcole:

I don't know about xbox, but playstations are notoriously slow at downloading updates due to their network. So you have to expect to wait regardless of your connection speed.

I've seen this in the past on PS3 and PS4. All downloads on the PS5 have flown in. 900Mbps easily. Sample size of one, though.