The biggest mistake people make shopping for home internet is buying on raw speed numbers. A 1 Gbps plan sounds 10× better than a 100 Mbps plan, so people pay for it. But unless your household actually uses that bandwidth, the bigger plan is pure waste.
Here's how to size it correctly.
Speed is about simultaneous use, not headline numbers
Internet speed is shared across every device using it at the same moment. The right plan depends on how many devices you have streaming, calling, or downloading simultaneously — not what you do alone on a quiet Sunday.
Real-world bandwidth requirements
- HD video streaming: 5–10 Mbps per stream
- 4K video streaming: 25 Mbps per stream
- Standard video calls (Zoom, FaceTime): 3–5 Mbps
- HD video calls: 8–10 Mbps
- Online gaming: 5–10 Mbps (latency matters more than speed)
- Smart home devices: under 1 Mbps each, but they add up
How to estimate your household need
Add up the worst case — what's actually happening at your peak hour. Two people on Zoom (20 Mbps), kids streaming Disney+ in 4K (25 Mbps), someone gaming (10 Mbps), a doorbell camera and three smart speakers (10 Mbps total). That's 65 Mbps of active demand.
Then add a buffer of about 50% for headroom and quality consistency. So that household needs roughly 100 Mbps of guaranteed throughput.
Recommendations by household size
- 1–2 people, light use: 100 Mbps
- Family of 3–4, mixed streaming + calls: 300 Mbps
- Heavy household, 4K everything, work-from-home: 500 Mbps
- Content creators, large file uploads, gaming household: 1 Gbps fiber
Why the upload number matters too
Most people only look at download speed. But if you work from home, video conference often, or back up files to cloud storage, the upload speed is the part you actually feel. Cable plans typically have upload speeds 10–30× slower than download. Fiber plans are equal both directions. That's the practical difference.
When in doubt, call us
Tell us how many people are in the house, what they do online, and we'll point you at the smallest plan that handles your actual usage. We're not going to upsell you to gigabit fiber if 300 Mbps cable will run your household just fine.
Want this answered for your specific home?
Tell us your service address on a quick call — we'll pull live availability and walk you through what's actually worth ordering. No forms, no spam, no obligation.