Difference? high upload speed & low upload speed

[Verzy]

I'm planning on changing ISPs and was wondering what the main difference is with the speeds. Should it be equal? (e.g 60 up/60 down) I've heard people having the same upload and download speeds.

What does the download speed involve? What does it effect?

 

[kanewolf]

Download speed is usually what is touted by ISPs. It is usually a higher number. The original thinking behind this was that content existed outside of your house and you needed to download it. Now, to take advantage of "the cloud" ISPs are making the upload speeds the same as download speeds. FIOS has just given free upgrades to their subscribers.

If you are trying to stream Netflix or YouTube, then download speed is important. If you are trying to upload to YouTube, then upload speed is important. If you are trying to use "the cloud" for off-site backup then upload speed is important.

 

[Kewlx25]

For most people doing "typical" Internet stuff, most all you need is download, but we're starting to reach a point where download speeds are near 100mb and uploads are still around 5mb. This is actually a problem because about 3% of what you download will be used in your upload to "acknowledge" that you've received the data. 3% of 100mb is 3mb, which means most of your upload is being used by your download. Try voice chatting or playing games at the same time, and you may have issues, not because your download can't handle it, but because your upload can't handle your download.

Not to mention a whole new type of services like twitch or video chat or whatever, that need faster uploads. Want to use cloud storage to backup your 60GB of pictures? That's going to take a long time to upload.