Cutting the cord... Advice?

[LuFins Dad]

Ok, the Verizon contract is up and it’s time to cut the cord. Now I just need to figure out the speed...

Is 400mbps enough to support a movie streaming for mommy and Finley while a 17 year old is gaming and Dad is browsing? Or should I spend the extra $20 per month for the Gigabyte plan?

[taiwan_girl]

@LuFins-Dad WOW!!!!!!!!!

I get just over 3 mpbs download and about 0.9 mpbs upload (though someone set me up with a VPN to bypass some websites that are blocked).

Even at that speed, I am able to use multiple devices (with one often watching a movie).

I can only dream of 400!! I would think it would be much more than you need.

[jon-nyc]

I just did this test:

We regularly have 3 people zooming around the same time, or two zooming and one gaming or YouTubing.

We haven’t noticed issues.

Can’t imagine 400mbs

[89th]

@jon-nyc I just ran the same test and was about 25 up, 25 down, but I'm also on the Verizon Fios "gigabyte" plan. I can never figure out the "plan" speed vs the "real speed".

[Copper]

We had FIOS in Fairfax for years. It was pretty solid.

We cut the cord and switched to YouTube.TV with Amazon and Netflix, no problem, plenty of bandwith.

[xenon]

@LuFins-Dad said in Cutting the cord... Advice?:

Ok, the Verizon contract is up and it’s time to cut the cord. Now I just need to figure out the speed...

Is 400mbps enough to support a movie streaming for mommy and Finley while a 17 year old is gaming and Dad is browsing? Or should I spend the extra $20 per month for the Gigabyte plan?

A 4K stream is about 25mbps. A regular HD stream is <10.

Those are the biggest bandwidth hogs.

Decide how many concurrent streams you want.

Data cap will likely be a more important issue, if you have one.

[George K]

@xenon said in Cutting the cord... Advice?:

Data cap will likely be a more important issue

That’s right.

[LuFins Dad]

Fios supposedly doesn't have any caps. I think I'll try the 400mbps. If it's fine, we may try cutting to the 200mbps. If it's slow, then upgrade...

[Axtremus]

Most likely you will be fine even with just the 200 Mbps plan.
It wasn't that long ago that 50 Mbps was considered a luxury for most homes in the US.
It's also easier to "upgrade" your plan later than to "downgrade".
Most ISPs make it very easy for people to "upgrade" but makes you wait on the customer service line and jump through hoops to "downgrade."

[Klaus]

We have 100mbps. Multiple people streaming is no problem. If there is a bottleneck, it’s usually the upload speed, in our case about 7mbps.

[Doctor Phibes]

We have the basic FIOS, which I think is 200. When I run a test, it's actually nowhere near that. Four gamers in the house, and we stream a lot of TV. Never have any issues.

[Axtremus]

@Klaus said in Cutting the cord... Advice?:

We have 100mbps. Multiple people streaming is no problem. If there is a bottleneck, it’s usually the upload speed, in our case about 7mbps.

You get Internet access for your house thorough a coaxial cable, right? Low upload speed is a typical limitation with coaxial systems. Most fiber optic systems (FiOS is one) usually have symmetrical upload and download speeds.

[Klaus]

@Axtremus said in Cutting the cord... Advice?:

@Klaus said in Cutting the cord... Advice?:

We have 100mbps. Multiple people streaming is no problem. If there is a bottleneck, it’s usually the upload speed, in our case about 7mbps.

You get Internet access for your house thorough a coaxial cable, right? Low upload speed is a typical limitation with coaxial systems. Most fiber optic systems (FiOS is one) usually have symmetrical upload and download speeds.

Yes, it's a coaxial cable. The other alternative here is DSL, which uses the telephone line. DSL has a similar asymmetry, though.

Out of curiosity I checked what the maximum speed is I can get right now. Turns out it is 1 GBit, with 50 MBit upload.