What is a good speed for WiFi?

How do I interpret my WiFi speed test results?

There are many reasons as to why you should be regularly testing your WiFi speed at home; and, not for just the obvious instances where you find your WiFi signal strength is weaker than normal. Testing speed on a regular basis allows you to pinpoint performance trends, isolate which devices may be causing issues for your wireless network, and ensure no one is stealing your bandwidth. But, now that you’ve tested your WiFi speed, how do you interpret your WiFi speed test results?

How is WiFi speed measured?

Screenshot taken Jan 24th, 2019 of Speedtest by Ookla results.

If you’ve used any of the free speed test tools out there (see Lifewire’s updated list of the top free internet speed test sites), you’ll likely recognize the terms Download, Upload, and Ping:

Download: The time it takes to pull data, measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
Upload: The time it takes to send data, measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
Ping: The time it takes between sending a request and receiving a response, measured in milliseconds (ms) and also referred to as Latency.

These are the primary three measures upon which your WiFi speed is tested. Your Download speed is ideally, and typically, the fastest because the majority of our online activities require we pull data from the internet. Upload speeds are important for interactive video calls and sending files to sites and services on the internet. Your ping speed dictates the quality of your voice and video calls, as well as your ability to play online games.

What is a good WiFi speed?

The 2018 Measuring Broadband America, Fixed Broadband Report by the FCC provides detail as to what speeds were advertised by ISPs and what speeds were experienced by subscribers from September to October of 2017. Seeing what your ISP advertises as their Internet speed may be a good place to start when evaluating your own WiFi speed test results.

However, keep in mind that what constitutes a «good WiFi speed» boils down to several factors. One of these is which online activity you are trying to accomplish. Browsing the web, checking your email, streaming 4K video, and playing an online video game each require certain speeds to execute seamlessly and without interruption. (A fun fact: With Minim, users are provided a list of activities that are and are not possible at their network’s given speed, in addition to in-depth bandwidth usage insights per device).

Regarding what speeds you need for these common activities, BroadbandNow provides the minimum download speeds required for each:

1-5 Mbps for checking email and browsing the web
15-25 Mbps for streaming HD video
40-100 Mbps for streaming 4K video and playing online games
200+ Mbps for streaming 4K video, playing online games, and downloading large files

According to the FCC, the average household needs a minimum download speed of 25 Mbps to perform basic functions like checking email and browsing the web with one OTT activity, such as streaming video.

Other factors that affect your WiFi speed test results can be the number of users, number of devices connected, and the frequency at which these devices are used. To get a better idea as to what WiFi speed you need in your household, BroadbandNow provides a Speed Calculator that takes into account each of these factors.

How can I increase my WiFi speed?

Luckily, there are several ways in which you can improve your WiFi speed test results. Here are some options:

Check your router — Does your router support the latest WiFi standard? Is your router dual-band? If you answered no to either of these questions, you may want to consider upgrading your router to a newer model.
Switch to a different WiFi channel— Some channels are more congested than others, so you may be able to improve your WiFi speed by switching to a WiFi channel that’s less crowded.
Use the 5 GHz band— If your router supports it, you may want to switch over to the 5 GHz band. Of the two WiFi frequency bands, 5 GHz WiFi provides less coverage but faster speeds, and there are also more WiFi channels to choose from than within the 2.4 GHz band.
Choose a strong WiFi password— What could be slowing down your network could very well be others from outside your household using your WiFi and stealing any available bandwidth. To prevent this, never leave your WiFi network unprotected and/or with the default username and password.
Upgrade your WiFi network— To improve your WiFi speed test results, you may want to consider adding a WiFi booster to your network, or consider upgrading to a mesh network. The result of either option is stronger WiFi signal, which in turn can increase your WiFi speed.

To start, I recommend choosing one or two of the options above and running a second speed test— If you find your WiFi speed test results are better, that’s great! If not, give another option a try and run another speed test to compare.

What is a good download and upload speed?

Let’s face it, an internet connection is a must for most people, and it needs to be a reliable one at that. But have you ever wondered what download speed you really need?

A good download speed is not the same for everyone, as we all use the internet for an array of different uses. In this blog post, we’ll help you work out if you’re a light, medium, or heavy user and what that could mean for your connection needs.

Not sure what internet speeds you’re currently getting? Use our broadband speed test to find out now.

What is the minimum broadband speed I need?

The minimum broadband speed is 10Mbps, at least. This is a bare minimum download speed. This will allow you to do the most basic online tasks such as surfing the web, email, social media, online shopping and streaming in standard definition.

But what happens if multiple people in the house are using the internet at once? That’s where things get more complicated.

What is a good download speed?

A good download speed is 5Mbps. That’s the minimum for streaming your Netflix on your HD TV.You rely on the internet for a lot more than basic activities. Ultra HD requires 25Mbps.

At the same time, someone else in the house may be online gaming, or watching a YouTube video, while another person is on a video call with their friends.

All these activities chip away at your bandwidth, and having only 10Mbps between you won’t get you very far – that’s why our packages start at a minimum of 40Mbps.

What can I do with my internet speed?

with 10Mbps – One person: surfing the web, social media, online shopping, SD streaming
with 40Mbps – HD streaming, online gaming, multiple people: surfing the web, social media, online shopping
with 100Mbps – Ultra HD streaming, HD streaming for multiple people, online gaming for multiple people
with 250Mbps – Multiple heavy users, ultrafast downloads, Ultra HD on multiple devices
with 900Mbps – Simultaneous UHD streaming, online gaming and large downloads for almost any number of devices

If you want to know exactly what download speeds you need for different activities, look at how much broadband do I need?

What is a good broadband speed for streaming Video?

A good broadband speed for streaming video is 3Mbps. That’s the minimum broadband speed required to stream on most platforms in standard definition (SD).

5Mbps is the minimum to stream in HD, while 25Mbps is the minimum download speed required for Ultra HD.

How is broadband speed measured?

Broadband speed is measured in bits. Most broadband packages measured in megabits-per-second (Mbps).

An important distinction to make is megabits(Mb) vs megabytes(MB).

Files are normally described in megabytes. A megabyte is actually 8 megabits, so to download a 1MB file on a 1Mbps connection would take 8 seconds.

What is internet bandwidth?

Internet bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can be transferred across your connection at a given time. Although bandwidth is often used to refer to your internet speeds, there is a slight difference, internet speeds are the rate of data transfer, while your bandwidth is how much your connection can handle at a given time.

What is the difference between download and upload speed?

The difference between download and upload speed is download speed is how fast you can retrieve data from the internet. Upload speed is the speed you can send data from your devices to the internet.

Sure, we do tend to download more than we upload, so having a faster download speed is understandably the priority. However, there are still some day-to-day activities that require a decent upload speed such as video calls, online gaming and of course, uploading all your favourite photos to social media.

What is a good broadband download speed Mbps?

A good download speed is at least 25Mbps for most internet activities. But you should have at least 40Mbps if you have multiple users in the house.

For those who like to stream in Ultra HD, we’d recommend a speedier connection. Ultra HD requires at least 25Mbps, so if more than one of you is online, you’ll want a bigger bandwidth of up to 100Mbps.

If your family are heavy users, and you’re likely to be gaming, streaming, downloading and video calling all at once, we recommend 250Mbps and upwards.

For the ultimate broadband experience, we recommend 900Mbps.

What is a good speed for download?

A good speed for downloading is 25Mbps. But it depends what you’re downloading. Downloading a song or photo can easily be done on a standard connection, however, larger files can take a while. Downloading game console files the size of 30GB and 50GB should be fine on 25Mbps download speed. But Ultra HD movies would take 2 hours to download on a 10Mbps connection. So, if you don’t want your download to take all day, you’ll need a faster connection.

Have a look at the table below for an idea of what you can achieve with different download speeds:

Speed	200 family photos (200MB)	Xbox or PlayStation game (40GB)	40-minute HD TV show (1 GB)	100 high quality songs (500MB)	2-hour 1080p HD movie (4GB)	2-hour 4K Ultra HD movie (14GB)
10 Mbps	2m 47s	9h 32m 39s	14m 18s	6m 59s	57m	2h 20m 25s
40 Mbps	41s	2h 23m 9s	3m 34s	1m 44s	14m 18s	50m 6s
250 Mbps	6s	22m 54s	34s	16s	2m 17s	8m 1s
900 Mbps	1s	6m 21s	9s	4s	38s	2m 13s

What is a good broadband upload speed in Mbps?

A good broadband upload speed in Mbps is 5Mbps. That’s more than enough for most video calling platforms, uploading small files and casual online gaming. Our packages start at 10Mbps to ensure you’ll have more than enough.

If you’re a more competitive gamer, or frequently upload large files, you’ll want a speedier upload of at least 25Mbps.

What is a good internet speed?

A good internet speed is 25Mbps download speed. But it really depends on what you need from your broadband. If you’re gaming often and using video platforms like Zoom or Facetime, you might need 900Mbps.

What is a good upload speed?

A good upload speed is 5Mbps because you can use this for video calls, and generally browsing the internet. If you’re a pro gamer or need to download many files, you will need much more.

What Mbps is good?

5Mbps upload speed and 25Mbps download speed is good. But there are lots of factors that will affect what broadband speeds you need.

A path to better broadband

If you’re looking for faster download and upload speeds, why not try Airband?

Our wireless and full fibre broadband connections can deliver superfast and ultrafast speeds to your doorstep, and bandwidth that can cope. Use our coverage checker to see if you’re in range.

If you have any queries, feel free to chat to us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.