What is Download and Upload Speed?

Now a days internet is the most important part of our day-to-day life. It connects millions of computer systems with each other and is used in almost every field like in entertainment, education, etc. Likewise internet the speed of the internet is also important. It plays a major role in downloading and uploading data on the internet. Downloading is known as the sending of a file from one computer system to another. To a user of the internet, downloading a file means entails requesting it from another computer (or a webpage) and receiving it. Whereas uploading simply means saving files on an online server, for example uploading data on a drive. Or we can say uploading is sending information from your computer to another computer or server.

Internet Speed

The speed at which data or information comes from the world wide web to computer systems, tablets, or smartphones is referred to as internet speed. Megabits per second(Mbps) is the unit of measurement for the speed. This means 1.0 megabits per second are 1,000 times quicker than 1.0 kilobits per second(Kbps). A computer with a high-speed internet connection will be able to download or upload a file much quicker than a computer with a low-speed internet connection.

As we know that most internet-based activities require a more substantial download speed than upload speed, a regular high-speed broadband connection usually has a faster download speed than upload speed. If you desire a faster upload speed as well, you can go for fibernet broadband connections with proportional download and upload speeds. 

Units of Speed

Internet speed is measured in bits per second (bps) or bytes per second (Bps)

• Kbps (kilobits per second) – 1000 bps (125 Bps)
• Mbps (megabits per second) – 1000 kbps (125 kBps)
• Gbps (gigabits per second) – 1000 Mbps (125 Mbps)
• Tbps (terabits per second) – 1000 Gbps (125 Gbps)

Some common units in bytes per second (Bps) are

• KBps (kilobytes per second) – 1000 Bps
• MBps (megabytes per second) – 1000 kBps
• Gbps (gigabytes per second) – 1000 Mbps

Download Speed

Download speed refers to the pace at which data is transferred from another computer to your computer. It can also be termed as the speed at which your internet connection is able to retrieve data from the internet. For example, downloading a file at a speed of 10Mbps, here 10Mbps is the download speed. Downloading data is required for activities like listening to music on Spotify, downloading huge files, and watching Netflix films. In general, download rates of at least 25 Mbps are regarded as acceptable since they satisfy the Federal Communications Commission’s basic broadband requirement (FCC). Keep in mind that the number of devices, internet users, and their online activity in your home can all affect what constitutes an acceptable download speed.

Upload Speed

Upload speed refers to the pace at which data is transferred from your computer to another computer or any online platform for example google drive. It is can also be termed as the speed that your internet connection allows data to be sent from your devices to the internet. For example, if a file is uploading to google drive or while streaming a video at 10 Mbps, here 10 Mbps is the upload speed. It refers to the number of megabits of data per second that your computer can transfer to another device or server on the internet. While it is more customary to download information, some internet activities require data to go in the opposite direction like sending emails, playing live tournaments in online games, video chatting, etc. Upload speeds of 3 Mbps are generally regarded as acceptable because they satisfy the FCC’s minimal requirement. However, if you or anybody in your family uploads videos to YouTube on a regular basis or works from home, you may require a plan with faster upload rates.

Factors affecting internet speed

A variety of factors influence your perceived speed, including both physical and network constraints. They are:

• Many factors impact network performance, including the maximum capacity of a network connection. Packet loss, delay, and jitter can all reduce network speed and make a high-capacity link behave as if it had less bandwidth available.
• A typical end-to-end network path is made up of numerous connections, each with a different bandwidth capacity. As a result, because the lowest-bandwidth link has the ability to limit the overall capacity of all connections in the path, it is commonly referred to as the bottleneck.
• Virus and malware can also affect the speed of the internet because they run in the background and may connect to your internet without your permission and drain your internet.
• If you are using a wireless internet connection, then the distance between your system and router is also responsible for the speed of the internet. The farther you are away from the router the less will be your internet speed.
• The router device age is also responsible for the speed of the internet. The older the device is the slower the internet speed.
• The speed of the internet also depends on which type of connection(e.g. optical fiber, cable, wireless, etc) you are using and who is your internet service provider.