# How does my Internet speed compare?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 11, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296 "2026-08-11T15:36:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/41 "2026-08-13T01:05:42Z")
941 down, 948 up. Lumen fiber-optic provided by my apartment complex and included in the rent.
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### Author:  [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_Maker_Jupe)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/42 "2026-08-13T16:01:18Z")
440 down,100 up right at the modem/router. Upgraded to EERO wifi from ORBI wifi, and no more dropping out, that was the big issue. Im 2 wifi nodes away here, (big property) and so I get 35 down and 10 up, but its stable YAY me.
I previously ran all new cable to the house from COX box, 2 years ago, this spring as Hajario mentioned, up thread, Frontier came in and tore street up and installed new fiber run. We would still need to get that tunneled from street to house, but that’s on them. They did the whole town of Montecito, before they had customers!! We were thinking money changed hands somewhere. COX cable is being purchased by CHARTER , so it will be interesting to see what that brings.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/43 "2026-08-13T19:02:22Z")
In my neighborhood Frontier run along the utility poles alongside Cox coax or whatever it is and landline phones. Verizon bought Frontier so bundled them with my existing cell plan and get a discount.
Around half the price and double the speed compared to that satanic fucking Cox.
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### Author:  [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_Maker_Jupe)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2026, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/44 "2026-08-14T16:04:26Z")
All underground here. Cox is ok IF you go down to their public outposts and talk to someone. I had a very complex issue involving old buried lines (freshly cut by neighbors trench,still worked hanging on by one thread!) Cox helped sort it out, altho their access box they put in 30 yrs ago was 100 ft down the road, instead of in front of the house! They could have asked!! We didn’t realize it was active all this time either. oh well. Anyways, so much hard work and stress has gone into this Im hesitant to start fresh. At least the Frontier box is lined up with the house this time. Yay Frontier. (they trashed folks gardens cutting the boxes in though)
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/45 "2026-08-14T21:25:37Z")
930 down, 110 up, Partner fiber.
A lot of you guys have massive upload speeds - every connection I’ve ever had, uploading has been roughly 10% the speed of downloading. I wonder why that is.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/46 "2026-08-14T23:54:03Z")
A cable internet connection is usually asymmetrical (faster download than upload) and a fiber connection is often, but not always, symmetrical (same upload speed as download). This is because a cable connection has to use different frequencies for upload vs. download since they are transmitted on the same wire. So the company has to essentially pre-allocate the upload vs. download bandwidth. Historically, most customers use more download bandwidth than upload, so the bandwidths were allocated to give much more bandwidth to download. When cable was used for TV service, there was extremely little upload traffic compared to download. Even when it was switched over to Internet service, most people until recently used much more bandwidth downloading than uploading. So that allocation made sense. Changing that allocation now would require replacing a huge amount of physical infrastructure that is designed around the existing frequency allocation.
A fiber connection has a much higher total bandwidth than copper, so they can afford to provide the same upload as download speed.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/47 "2026-08-15T00:45:58Z")
Thanks. I have wondered this for a while and even asked the question and never got a good answer until now.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/48 "2026-08-15T01:42:42Z")
Americans often referred to their Internet connection type as DSL\*, whereas here in Australia we always called it ADSL. The ‘A’ stands for Asymmetric, so we always had the difference in upload speeds, but the US rarely seemed to. I guess that explanation shows that ADSL was also around, just not acronymmed as such.
The Brits just call it all “Broadband.”
\*_DSL is Direct Subscriber Line, ADSL is Asymmetric Direct Subscriber Line_
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/49 "2026-08-15T14:34:15Z")
> [@glee](#):
>
> Yes, I’m in England. 🧐
I’ve met a lot of people in person
Everyone I’ve ever met in person lived in the US
Ergo, by the principals of inductive logic, everyone lives in the US
Did you mean to say ‘new’ england?
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/50 "2026-08-15T14:43:43Z")
I have Verizon FiOS 1 Gig up/down. It’s fairly close to that when I’ve tested it.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/51 "2026-08-15T15:11:13Z")
All the DSL I’ve seen here in the States has actually been ADSL. I think we just don’t really distinguish between the two.
(A)DSL is even more restricted in bandwidth that cable. Telephone lines just weren’t made with high bandwidth in mind (carrying a small band of frequencies for voice conversations), and the signal degrades very quickly over short distances.
The highest my old place could get with DSL was 7 Mbps, and my current home could only get 3.5. Both had uploads that were less than 1 Mbps.
It’s why the DSL provider upgraded to fiber, and they apparently finally got the fiber out here a few weeks ago.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/52 "2026-08-15T16:07:58Z")
VDSL is the one that is better than ADSL. You could get over 100 Mb/s over VDSL.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/53 "2026-08-15T16:13:16Z")
True. I forgot about that tech, as it isn’t used where I am. But it is still asynchronous. They just don’t bother to put it in the acronym initialism.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/54 "2026-08-15T16:16:29Z")
I guess they figured people want to download more than upload. (Not to the extreme described by @Alessan, though.) They _could_ have made it more symmetric.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/55 "2026-08-15T16:30:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> Americans often referred to their Internet connection type as DSL\*, whereas here in Australia we always called it ADSL. The ‘A’ stands for Asymmetric, so we always had the difference in upload speeds, but the US rarely seemed to. I guess that explanation shows that ADSL was also around, just not acronymmed as such.
>
> The Brits just call it all “Broadband.”
>
> \*_DSL is Direct Subscriber Line, ADSL is Asymmetric Direct Subscriber Line_
DSL actually stands for “Digital Subscriber Line”. DSL services to the home have traditionally been asymmetric when operating over copper telephone lines, so it’s always really “ADSL”. Dropping the “A” is just a short form and not indicative of any new technology. The big leap forward was when Fiber to the Home (FTTH) was introduced.
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> A cable internet connection is usually asymmetrical (faster download than upload) and a fiber connection is often, but not always, symmetrical (same upload speed as download). This is because a cable connection has to use different frequencies for upload vs. download since they are transmitted on the same wire.
Cable was originally intended to carry a relatively small number of television channels down to the home (no more then about a dozen or so) sourced from large antennas operated by the cable carrier. With the prevalence of cable installations, because homeowners disliked unsightly antennas sprouting from their rooftops, “cable channels” like CNN started to crop up – channels broadcast over C-band satellite frequencies and typically available to the homeowner only over cable. Suddenly the number of channels cable had to carry exploded.
It’s a wonder that there was any bandwidth left for internet at all. The switch to digital QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) freed up a lot of bandwidth. That, along with improved cable modem protocols, today lets cable providers offer bandwidth in excess of 1.5 Gbps over copper coax without having to switch to fiber, along with other services like landline telephone service.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/56 "2026-08-15T21:48:36Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> DSL actually stands for “Digital Subscriber Line”.
Darn it. I’m sure someone clever once told me it was Direct, and since then I’m sure I’ve been corrected on it before, but now I can’t get the wrong word out of my head.
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### Author:  [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2026, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/57 "2026-08-16T02:38:25Z")
I’m feeling like a caveman reading this thread. I have DSL over POTS (plain old telephone system) with 24 Mbs down and 4 Mbs up. The phone service is Bell, my ISP is Primus which is now an independent subsidiary of Bell.
Coincidentally, I just had an issue with my POTS line, there was no dial tone but the DSL was still working as well as expected. The first Bell tech couldn’t identify the problem but tried his damnedest to up sell me to fibre. The second tech traced to issue to a faulty terminal block on the pole that was dropping the POTS voltage too low to give a dial tone, but not too low for the higher frequency DSL signals. He couldn’t couldn’t fix it, but techs 3 and 4 who came 2 days later did a direct splice into the main trunk cable, bypassing the terminal block completely.
The take-away for me is that Bell appears to be phasing out POTS so I will need to switch to fiber fairly soon. Fortunately, Primus offers a lower priced 500 Mbs symmetric package with VOIP that’s less than what I’m currently paying. Once I switch, and drop Bell, I’ll be saving about ninety dollars a month for about 16 times the download and 80 times the upload speeds.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2026, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/58 "2026-08-18T20:23:06Z")
@Pork_Rind @Section_Maker_Jupe
I just got an email that my 1G/1G internet was going up from $65 to $80 so being that I am retired and have nothing better to do, I called to politely complain. I told the rep some sob story and she asked me a bunch of questions about how I use the internet in my home she put me on hold and came back five minutes later and offered to upgrade me to 2G/2G for the original $65/month locked in for five years. They are going to send me updated EERO routers in a few days before I get the benefit of the faster speed. The new bill has like five or six new discounts to get me that benefit but whatever. You may want to look into getting that for yourself.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/59 "2026-08-18T21:10:11Z")
VPN on: 600ish down, 30ish up.
VPN off: 650-700ish down, 40ish up.
Usually the VPN is on by default, but I turn it off when it shows unusual lag (very occasional) or on certain sites. I used to have 950ish down, but I deliberately downgraded my Xfinity speed awhile back when I was negotiating a new plan because the new package saved me a bundle all-in and I didn’t think I’d actually notice the difference. I’ve never really noticed the difference.
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2026, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-my-internet-speed-compare/1032296/60 "2026-08-18T21:41:25Z")
Open Infra optical fiber cable contract in rural Eastern Germany, half an hour by car South of Berlin, 1 GB/second Up & Down promised, 56 Euro per month, currently around midnight:
Download: 207 Mbit/s
Upload: 126 Mbit/s
Ping: 12 ms
Underwhelming, to say the least. Today felt slow the whole time. Internet problems are being reported from Berlin, hacker attacks on the administration. Whether this should have an impact here, I ignore. BTW, those speeds should be plenty for what I have been doing all day (simple surfing, no heavy use, downloads or backups), but it felt slow, slower than those numbers. It may all be in my mind, of course.
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