How Fast Is 10Mbps for you? Is 10 mbps fast enough for gaming and streaming video?

Choosing from different internet service plans for your home or office can be a nightmare, particularly if you’re not that familiar with internet speeds and other factors. So, if the salesperson advises you to get a plan that offers a 10Mbps (megabytes per second) speed, you might wonder: “is this internet connection providing upload speeds for me?” Unfortunately, this question is hard to answer since different people use the web in different ways and internet connections can vary across so many factors: 

How fast is 10mbps internet?

To know if 10Mbps is fast enough for you, it’s important to take a close look at what you do when you’re online. And please consider that 1 mbps 3 mbps, 5 mbps is pretty hard to put up with if you are working with large files, and important products and services…10 mps? Let’s find out!

What do you want to do?

If you usually just surf the web, check the weather, read articles and blog posts, and/or reply to emails, you’ll definitely find that 10Mbps are fast enough for you. It allows you to pull up web pages in a quick and smooth way and send your email replies ASAP.

How fast is 10 mbps? Is 10 mbps enough for netflix and video streaming? Is mbps fast enough for music and gaming?

10 Mbps for residential use is just fast enough for you if you like to stream music or play online games. It’s also ideal if you stream 1080p videos, although you might find that you have faster load times when you watch 720p videos. This speed is also usually enough when you download regular-sized files every now and then.

Things become slower when you share your internet with other people, amf 10 Mbps may be insufficient . If you’re playing an online game while your dad watches football videos on YouTube and your mom listens to Beatles songs on Spotify, you’ll most likely experience a lag in your internet speed. This is also the case when you make real-time video calls through Skype, Facebook Messenger, and other clients.

If you own a business, on the other hand, 10Mbps is the slowest speed you can take without sacrificing your productivity. You can share it with four other computers (a total of five including yours), but only if you and your staff just use the internet to check and reply to emails, browse the web for information, and upload or download small files. If you frequently download/upload large files or share many documents with your staff, or if you employ more than four people, you’ll want to opt for a faster internet speed.

Exactly how fast is 10Mbps?

Are you using wi fi or ethernet? It can make a difference. It probably won’t mean much to you if we’d say that a 10Mbps internet speed allows you to download 10 megabits of data per second — it’s pretty hard to visualize one megabit, or even 10. Because of this, we can measure 10Mbps relative to other speeds.

Making sense of the best high speed internet providers for you:

If you’re currently on a 2 Mbps plan, for instance, it can take you around 3 hours and 15 minutes to download a 3GB movie (high definition). But, if you upgrade to an internet speed of 10Mbps, you can finish downloading the movie within 40 minutes or so. If you have the budget and can upgrade to a more expensive plan with a 25Mbps speed, you’ll have the movie right on your computer after 15 minutes.

(Note: These are measured without taking TCP/IP overheads into account. Overheads allow you to connect with other computers, but they can significantly increase your download time.)

Where do you get fast internet speeds?

Thankfully there are many companies that offer good web connection with solid internet speed, for streaming, online immersive games, good download speeds and upload speeds. While each are is different here are your options:

Cellular Internet Services: Resold fast connections for rural and mobile internet users

Cellular internet services which resell T-Mobile, ATT and Verizon that can work even in rural areas. Available internet speed with these providers range from 5 mbps, 10 mbps and higher. These are great for people in hard to reach areas that don’t like the data caps of satellite internet service providers. The bandwidth needs of some people may be better served through satellite services as the average internet speed for HD Netflix and simultaneous gaming usage is higher with satellite but the data caps can be a serious problem, for people that are heavy users of video streaming and gaming or have multiple users.

Satellite Internet Services: More than 10 MBPS for most but not great for heavy users

Satellite internet services are fast and work great for people that have a clear line of sight on their property to the satellite. Rural internet users will appreciate the speeds for sure, but likely may not appreciate the data caps and the price. High download and upload usage will make for a very expensive plan. If you are primarily using email for your internet usage, satellite will be a great option. Video call streaming will work, but if zoom calls are core to your daily work, the bandwidth requirements will get much too expensive quickly. For people that are watching Netflix for a couple hours every day, will find that after 10-15 days of usage their data caps will hit the limit and the slower internet speed will be put in place. This can be very frustrating.

5g Internet service provides a game changing level of internet speed.

5G internet service is emerging and a 10 mbps internet connection will be a thing of the past with speeds reaching blazingly fast downloads and uploads. Video calls, concurrent Netflix use, with two other users playing online games and watching videos on YouTube, all at the same time at home will be like each user has their own dedicated line. It will change internet usage very quickly. Fast internet connections like this only exist with fiber optic lines and even then, most users don’t have equipment to experience the full download speed and upload speed possible.

Cable Internet Service – Fast Video, Fast Download, Great for home internet

Cable internet is still a great option for many home and business internet users that want good internet speed with all the bandwidth required for heavy use: video calls, Netflix, Youtube, gaming, email, multiple devices, high quantity of file downloads and uploads. A consistent speed of 10 mbps will be easy, with most users experiencing 50 mbps or higher all the time. With households of 5 users or less, each with connected devices, there will be no constraints.

Fiber optic internet service is a great option but is out of reach for many users. Cities and counties generally need to invest in the infrastructure to ensure fast speeds that allows for multiple users to use Netflix, Zoom call streaming, Facetime, YouTube, gaming…for those homes that have fiber optic, it’s a great tool. With fiber optic you would save time on loading all kinds of internet services.

DSL Internet service is still a good option for many users depending on the local options. Now its a second rate option as cable, fiber, 5g options will provide a better more consistently high internet speed. If you are considering DSL, make sure that you check out the other options. Streaming will work fine but multiple users may had bandwidth constraints.

Home internet usage has a full range of options to accommodate the various needs and situations people face. One thing people think about too much is the best internet speed possible. The vast majority of users don’t need much more than 10 mbps, most of the time. Second thing people spend too much time on is getting the best internet service. There is not best internet service. It’s a real waste of time and money to purchase massive bandwidth that will rarely get used. A home internet connection needs to be enough to not be noticed, not much more. 1 mbps is a thing of the past. Is 10 mbps fast enough for most users? Yes, but not if the home has more than 3 users.

Web surfing, social media and email users don’t take that much bandwidth. 30 mbps will work for almost all users except the professional users that regularly download and upload large files, video, social media video files, streaming and video creators.

Quick note: some internet service providers do require a credit score check to get started.

Is 10 Mbps fast enough for work from home?

In many cases the answer will be yes. For a user that needs a good download speed, 10 mbps will be fine to get through the work day. For a user doing many meetings per day on zoom and perhaps streaming music or youtube videos while working, it will depend on if the internet service will have a good mbps upload speed. The internet connection provided by most providers will be good enough and one quick hack for people doing video streaming for conferencing is to kill the video speed and just use audio and perhaps screen sharing. This will make for a much more usable connection.

One helpful Quora user answers this question quite well we think:

With so many people talking about gigabit internet, how can anybody possibly survive on 10 Mbps anywhere in the world? Do we need to have a separate directtv to watching movies?  Actually, quite well, thank you. Email, texting, accessing work servers … all that stuff takes very little bandwidth. If you want to download the latest project plan, you might have to wait a few seconds. If you work on the company newsletter with lots of graphics and pictures, it might take several minutes to upload the finished file. (Upload speeds are often significantly slower than download speeds). If a file with embedded pictures takes forever to upload, you probably didn’t reduce the size of the pictures before putting them in the document. You’re definitely going to want to learn how to do that. Video chat programs generally require 2 Mbps or less (upload and download).

So how about when the work is done? What limitations does 10 Mbps put on you? Not so many. 10 Mbps is fast enough to stream an HD video on tvs, post videos, handle bills…the whole thing. That’s probably the biggest use of bandwidth you will ever use. Games actually don’t use very much bandwidth compared to videos.

The main limitation you will find is that your internet service is good for one person at a time. If one other person/partner in the house wants to check Email, that won’t slow you very much. But if the kids get on their games and do video chats, you will see a significant difference. And the kids won’t be very happy either. Even having other household users surf the web can affect your ability to work. All those web pages laden with graphics, pictures, and video ads. It can make a notable impact on how quickly you can do your work.

Other Quora users report that generally speaking 10 mbps will do a fine job to handle most work tasks including hd videos and web browsing, unless there are multiple users streaming video and downloading large files. For multiple users 25 mbps will be a good minimum. Things may not be perfectly fast, and perhaps there will be a delay with downloads, but all in all things will work just fine and not delay any work. Email, logging into a work station remotely, video conferencing, social media, all the rest…will be great!

Obvisouly each user if different with some homes having more users. The download speed you experience may not be equal to upload speed. So a 100 mbps may at times equal a 1 mbps upload speed. This is not uncommon.

Is a 10 Mbps WiFi speed for 1 person good?

Yeah, 10 mbps will be totally sufficient for most single users homes. Netflix will work great. A file download speed will be fine. A file upload speed will be ok…would that be fine for you? For many, using social media 1 mbps just wont be enough because of the video files, or hulu, netflix, social apps. Even simple review apps will work slow. List out your needs, a-z to make a determination.

Can you increase your download and upload speed?

You can get some extra speed through your line by tweaking a few things on your computer and your router so you can make a 10 mbps connection in your area fast enough for your needs.

Here are a few simple ways to increase your download speed:

• Update firmware and software. Having outdated firmware and software (router, operating system, software on your computer) could slow down your internet. Keep your firmware and software updated.
• Scan for viruses. If you have viruses on your computer they could suck away your internet.
• Check your cables. Old phone cables, sockets, and lines should be shortened and replace with new ones – believe it or not, the length and quality of the cables can affect internet speed.
• Test a different modem/router. One of the most often reasons for slow internet is a bad modem.

Final Thoughts

A 10Mbps is an internet speed you need for basic internet tasks with not too many users. If you usually have heavy web usage because of your business applications, or if you love watching HD videos and movies and your playstation, our recommendation is: get an internet plan that offers higher speeds so you can enjoy everything you want online from anywhere.

We want to know from you: What internet speed you need is up to you?

• 1 mbps
• 3 mbps
• 4 mbps
• 5 mbps
• 8 mbps
• 10 mbps
• 20 mbps
• 25 mbps
• 50 mbps
• 100 mbps?

How much mbps download speeds do you need? How much mbps upload speed do you need from your internet provider?

Let us know in the comments how your service provider works for you home use, cell phones and what speed per second works for you whether it’s 10 mbps or not. All rights reserved.