How do i know what Broadband upload speed i need

[Fascinationsuk]

I run a business on line eBay,Amazon,Web,Rak,FB etc. and i am just starting to expand in the next couple of week we are moving to new larger premises so that the public can come in to view/purchase the items, what i would like to know is how should i work out what sort of upload speed i need for my broadband before i go and order it? thanks for any advice

 

[Alan]

What will you be uploading? And why is it relevant to upload speed that the customers can come in to view?

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

It entirely depends on the purpose. For general web browsing the upload speed doesn't tend to be a bottleneck. However if you are uploading big files, to your website for example, the bigger the better. If you are using VoIP, it is critical to make sure you have enough - that will depending on the number of calls you make/receive simultaenously.

If you could give us a bit more information to what you use your network for we should be able to give you a better idea. It's worth checking what you get at the moment aswell.

 

[Sparx]

Why are you concious about your upload speed? Yes it helps in every day usage... But whichever product you go for, if all you do is upload a few images for new/revised products it shouldn't be a huge issue at all.

 

[Fascinationsuk]

i was worried if say i got 3 people working on listing and all uploading with other traffic they would get bottle necked(casing the employee to get frustrated and move away to the job in hand) and slow down the process give up, i just want a smooth internet but do not want to pay more than i need to, to keep my over heads down,

 

[Fascinationsuk]

i currently get 60mbps (i think thats right i dont really understand the speed thing) but it often drops out and is so frustrating sometimes losing an hours work,its is mainly used for uploading and downloading file images and working on them,

 

[cjd]

to keep my over heads down,

You're not unusual in saying this kind of thing but I find it really hard to understand. Especially when in the next post you say that your broadband is constantly going down and preventing your three staff from working.

The price difference between a decent, fast broadband service that isn't broken and the one you seem to have is about £25 per month at most. In business terms that's petty cash and when lost time is factored in it's a straight profit.

For three people thrashing the internet, get a good fibre business broadband connection from a good provider and then forget about it.

 

[russ74]

Agree with CJD on this. Little brings the productivity of a business to a standstill faster than a poor / faulty internet connection yet so few appreciate the value of it unless it underperforms.

A hotel is a business but it would not work very well if it bought a washing machine intended for use in your own home, yet business will buy a residentially prices broadband and find it unfit for business. People will happily pay £400 per month in a car allowance to make one employee productive, yet will make 20 people relatively unproductive by scrimping on internet. Good connectivity is a must for any modern day business in my opinion.

 

[Fascinationsuk]

really appreciate your comments guys and it is being calculated in my mind, the thing is i am moving over to business broadband from residential and have read so many posts on over paying for under performing isp, i am currently using virgin but the area we are going to does not have virgin so i just want to be sure as i have read that the 50gb download package and the unlimited download package are almost identical as you would never use the 50gb anyway and everything else is the same 76mbps upload i think it was, the next package down was 30mbps upload i think ,but the price difference is double for the unlimited from 50gb

 

[Riiser]

Hi

I am use Virgin 30Mb package and I run my own website and blog and I am constantly uploading images and to date have had no real issues.

Does the connection loss or speed drop happen at particular times of the day?

 

[Fascinationsuk]

it is just random i can be half way through some work and all of a sudden bang no internet and up to an hours work gone 5 min later it will come back on sometimes once a day some times not at all sometimes 10 times a day,

 

[Riiser]

Hi

What is sounds like you may be at the periphery of the Exchange servicing your broadband.

You can check for your current location and your new address by going to www(dot)samknows(dot)com. Go to Exchange search, Add your post code and you will get a real picture of what is available.

 

[Squantrill]

Speed has nothing to do with reliability, one customer I service has a 50MB connection and it is up 99.9% with no intermittent issues. But its a leased line. ADSL is not leased line it effectively runs on the old telephone lines unless you have a glass fibre connection you will suffer with some drop outs especially if you are in a poorly provided area. One other thing to take in mind is the subscriber contention ratios. I believe BT had residential at around 50:1 back in my day this means that 50 users are all getting access to the internet on the same feed.. and if somebody is watching netflix another play games and another downloading por&* I mean business files then your bandwidth will suffer and you will get drop outs. Also upload speeds are much smaller than download speeds meaning it is much quicker to fill this pipe up. ADSL is for downloading if you are serious about business IT then you should consider symetrical internet connections. Or asymmetrical connections and use remote desktop services to a cloud based solution, this way your business hardly ever suffers brown outs....

 

[WorkPlace HR]

We have 30MB up and down speed and we all (10 of us) use VDI connections plus VoIP with no issues.

 

[ColockerDC]

You have likely realised that most broadband is sold on it's download speed rather than upload. Unless you know that you have a specific requirement for large upload capacity I would not worry too much about what upload is included. The providers have already thought out the packages well enough that the upload speed is suitable for the download included.

Having said that, if you have a specific reason for needing upload capacity then it can make a huge difference to your business. I can give two examples from FTTP circuits we have delivered recently.

First was an online estate agent who were uploading lots of large, high-resolution photos of their properties. We installed a 100/100 FTTP circuit (ie 100 mbps in both directions) to upgrade their 1mbps upload ADSL2. The feedback that we got was that it had massively increased their productivity as they didn't have to take a coffee break every time they were waiting to upload a new property.

Second was an online video company. They had a dedicated line to upload their content and were maxing it out 24/7 so had to keep reducing the video quality in order to make the file sizes smaller and get the uploads completed in a sensible time. We put 1000/1000 FTTP in for them and again the feedback was that it transformed their workflow. In fact last time I went to see them they were saying they were in the process of upgrading their servers as they were now the slowest part of the chain.

Cheers, Chris

*FTTP = fibre to the premises. This is where the internet connection is delivered on fibre optic cable all the way to the premises as opposed to FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) where it is fibre to the 'green box' at the end of the street and then copper the rest of the way. Most 'fibre broadband' you see advertised is FTTC not FTTP