How fast is 0.5 mbps

A good internet speed is anywhere between 50 and Mbps. Speeds of 50 to Mbps allow a few people to stream in HD or even 4K, stream music, game, browse social media, and work from home. But really, finding the right internet speed for you is more of a balancing act. If you have too many Mbps, you might be paying too much for your internet plan.

Other potential internet users can include your partner or spouse, children, housemates, and even frequent visitors, like grandkids or siblings. Gamers also need an internet connection with low latency—and maybe some upload speed to top it off. Want the latest internet reviews, top picks, and deals?

Look at all the devices using your Wi-Fi Like people, the more devices you have that use the internet, the more Mbps you need. Do you game? Watch Hulu? Stream music on Spotify? Who does that? And your roommate, kid, or partner is doing the same. We recommend giving each person who uses the internet in your home 25 Mbps. And for every device, you can allot 10 Mbps. Xfinity even has a plan that delivers 2, Mbps download speeds, which is not necessary for most people.

The plan is also ridiculously expensive. Still, plans in the range of —1, Mbps are useful if you live with a lot of people and everyone is on the internet at the same time. See Your Providers. A connection speed of Mbps will be fast enough for you to download small files quickly, stream movies in HD, play online games on a handful of devices, and operate a few smart-home devices. Also, Mbps speeds will require longer wait times to download large files.

To make sure your internet speeds are fast enough, consider ordering an internet package that sets aside 25 Mbps for each person living in your household. However, any more roommates than that and you may want to upgrade to Mbps, Mbps or even 1, Mbps speeds depending on what you use your internet for.

Plus, activation, installation and monthly modem rental fees. Plus taxes, fees, and other charges. Includes AutoPay and Paperless Billing. Plenty of internet providers have Mbps plans, or plans that hit speeds in the ballpark of Mbps.

So if you want to save some cash, then definitely go for a plan from RCN or Xfinity. Customers of these providers get average download speeds of just over Mbps. You can get much faster speeds from any of these providers, but these speed-test results suggest that Mbps or slightly faster is a pretty solid speed for most internet users nationwide. Websites, emails, videos, and other online things typically travel over an internet connection in large packets of bits—and a megabit equals one million individual bits.

These are the slowest internet speeds possible, covering everything under 1 Mbps. These are extremely fast speeds, covering 1, Mbps and up. The fastest internet plans, which run over cable and fiber networks, usually top out at 1 Gbps.

Upload and download speeds refer to different types of internet activities you do and how fast you can do them. A download is anything you get off the internet, while an upload happens when you load something onto the internet. In almost all cases, download speeds are a lot faster than upload speeds.

Most of what we do online involves downloading data, so cable, DSL, and satellite internet providers have put a lot more effort into boosting download speeds while upload speeds have straggled far behind.

Sometimes your upload speed could be as much as 10 times slower than your download speed. That means your upload speed will be just as fast as your download speed, making it an ideal choice if you depend heavily on using things like Google Drive and Zoom, post a lot of stuff on TikTok and YouTube, or frequently host livestreams.

Unless you need high-definition video calling through Skype, or are planning on providing live video streams, 1 Mbps should suffice for most households. In fact, you could probably get away upload speeds that are about half as fast for most uses, though you may get quite frustrated when trying to Skype, adding a video to YouTube, or uploading an entire album of photos to Facebook.

Faster upload speeds are nice to have, and will definitely save some time and frustration, but are not a necessity for most of us. We really only need faster upload speeds to make high-definition video calling and hard-core gaming experiences smoother. It is also beneficial to have a faster upload speed for smooth VoIP Voice Over IP conversations, such as through Skype calling, especially if there are multiple computers sharing the same connection.

For a more seamless and less frustrating internet experience, it is always nicer to have a faster internet connection. Check out specific provider plans below or enter your zip code in the tool above for more information about fiber internet plans for working from home available near you.

According to our annual customer satisfaction survey , EarthLink is the best fiber internet provider in overall satisfaction, speed satisfaction, price, reliability, and customer service. For instance, your plan may support download speeds of up to Mbps, but the upload max may be only 30 Mbps.

Here is a list of cable internet providers for working from home:. Our annual customer satisfaction survey revealed that Cox was the best cable internet provider for overall satisfaction.

It also ranked the highest in speed and customer support, while Mediacom ranked the highest in reliability. Suddenlink was the highest ranking cable provider for price. Meanwhile, Spectrum and Xfinity—the two largest cable internet providers in the US—ranked in the bottom half of our survey. Xfinity ranked the lowest out of 12 for customer service and price.

However, it outranked Spectrum in terms of reliability and speed. Bottom line: Based on customer feedback, EarthLink is the best fiber internet provider, and Cox is the best cable internet provider. To see if these providers are in your area, enter your zip code below. You need 8 Mbps of download speed for each person in your household who will be using Zoom, which is also the recommended download speed for Skype.

Video calls require sending and receiving real-time video simultaneously, so there are a few internet speed factors you should keep in mind to get the most out of your remote meetings. These are download speed, upload speed, and latency:. Most video conferencing applications work best with less than ms of latency.

Moreover, certain types of internet connections like fiber tend to have lower latency than others like satellite internet. Most households with an internet connection can manage at least the minimum requirements. If you do run into issues with video conferencing, your upload speed is most likely the culprit. Internet providers generally give customers much less upload speed than download speed except most fiber internet providers. So even if your download speed is safely in the clear for video calls, your upload speed might not be up to par for big group calls.

Turning off your video or switching to a wired connection can help. Looking for more Zoom-specific information? Check out our guide on how to do anything on Zoom. You need only about 1 Mbps of internet bandwidth per instance for chat and email. However, you may need more bandwidth when you share photos or videos in your conversations, and when downloading larger assets like images and attachments from emails.