We talk a lot about download speeds – the theoretical maximum speeds that your internet plan can download at. These are typically characterised in the name of your internet plan (‘NBN 25’, ‘NBN 50’ and so on have their Mbps download speeds characterised by the number in the name). But what about the other number – the one that refers to upload speeds?
What do upload speeds actually mean?
The term ‘upload speed’ applies to how fast information you’re sending online can be sent through your home internet or phone plan. It’s something that’s included in every internet plan, as in order to put stuff on social media or files into cloud storage, along with many other things on the internet, you are in fact uploading.
When you shop for an NBN plan, you’ll usually see plans advertised as “25/10”, “50/20”, or “100/20”. The first of these numbers, the one before the slash, refers to maximum theoretical download speeds in Mbps, while the second number refers to uploads in Mbps.
The higher the number of your upload, the faster it’ll be able to put stuff on the internet. This is immensely important to content creators like streamers, or for people who work from home all day with cloud storage, downloading and uploading things a lot, or if you’re in a lot of video calls and care about quality.
Why are upload speeds lower than download speeds?
For most users, downloads are typically more important than uploads. We download more content than we put on the web through streaming, file downloads, gaming, scrolling through social media, and many more things. As a result, high download speeds tend to be what internet plans are marketed by. To the average internet user, upload speed just doesn’t need to be higher than download.
What is a good upload speed?
A good speed is dependent on the plan you’ve selected and what you need from your home internet. For NBN 50 and NBN 100, an upload of 20Mbps is usually included, which is perfectly for fine for most people. However, if you’d like a little extra kick, some plans offer speeds above this, such as Aussie Broadband, which offers NBN 100/40.
A general rule of thumb is if you’re OK with the download speed on offer from your NBN plan, you’ll likely be fine with its upload speed.
Should I care more about my upload speed?
Ultimately, if uploading files and streaming content from your computer to other computers is important, then your upload speed should matter, but if you’re just streaming from Netflix or Binge, using your internet for social media, gaming, or just using your internet casually, uploads shouldn’t matter all too much.
Upload speeds only really matter if your job requires massive file transfers from your internet to elsewhere in the world.
This article has been updated since it was first published.