What is upload speed used for? Importance of fast upload speed

Almost all internet providers offer fast download speed low upload. What is the reason for this? What does download and upload speed mean? What is upload speed used for? Let’s discover the important role of fast upload speed in our life to answer the question “ is upload speed important for us?”.

What upload speed do I need?

What does upload and download speed mean?

What does download speed mean?

As you may be aware, download speed is the rate at which data is transmitted from the internet to your computer. Whenever you get online content from the Internet, mostly you’re consuming downloading data.

For example, you want to buy a book on Amazon. You visit the Amazon website and look for the book name. That time, it takes downloading data to load and visualize the Amazone page from texts to product images. 

Buying a book on Amazon

What does upload speed mean?

The upload speed is the inverse. It refers to how quickly data is transferred from your computer to the network. Whenever you create online content and want to share it with others, uploading data is used.

Back to the example of buying a book on Amazon. In this case, when you type the name book such as “Where the crawdads sing” book on the searching box, it means that you send data to the Amazon server via the Internet. In other words, uploading data is being taken up.

What is an upload speed?

What is the difference between upload and download speed?

Understanding “what is upload and download speed mean?”, maybe you find out the difference between them. 

An easy tip to distinguish is to think of downloading as pulling and uploading as pushing.

When we browse the web, we are pulling/downloading data to and from our network and device.

We upload/push data to the internet when we send an email.

In general, the majority of internet users download more than they upload, but as more and more services are being hosted in the cloud, the demand for faster upload speeds is growing.

What is the difference between download and upload speed?

Importance of fast upload speed

Is the upload speed important to us? Normally, you don’t need to concern about this rate when you do normal tasks like web browsing, social media, streaming TV, or even playing games. 

However, there are some tasks that would undoubtedly benefit from quicker upload rates. These are some examples:

• utilizing cloud services such as Dropbox

• posting images online to sites like Instagram or Google Photos 

Posting photos on Instagram

• sharing file 

• making VoIP phone calls 

• making video conferences via services like Skype or FaceTime 

Video conferences via Zoom

• uploading videos to YouTube 

• live streaming games on platforms like Twitch

• eLearning

• ….

Moreover, when owning fast upload speed, you can get some advantages such as:

• Quick connection: when your upload speed is fast, It saves lots of time to send a large file to others, for example.  

• The ability for simultaneous, continuous uploads.

• Improve working productivity

• Avoid interruptions, lag while conducting video conferences

Upload speeds of 3 Mbps are generally regarded acceptably because they satisfy the FCC's minimal criterion. However, if you or anybody in your family often uploads videos to YouTube or works from home, you may want a plan with faster upload speeds.

What upload speed do I need for Netflix? Netflix requires a minimum download speed of 3Mbps (megabytes per second) for basic streaming and 5Mbps for high-definition streaming (HD).

Upload speed for Netflix

Besides, Netflix requires an upload speed of around 1.5Mbps for normal streaming and 2.5Mbps for HD streaming. Amazon Prime requires somewhat slower download rates, with basic streaming requiring 0.9Mbps and HD streaming requiring 3.5Mbps. It requires an upload speed of 0.4Mpbs for regular and 1.7Mbps for HD, respectively.

A free upload speed test can help you determine your internet upload speed. This tool will also determine the ping ms, upload and download rates. 

MySpeed - an upload speed test

We recommend testing internet speeds in different areas of your home to ensure consistency and determine whether you need to improve your home Wi-Fi connection.