Find the Right Internet Speed for Your Business

Reliable, fast network connections are crucial for businesses of all sizes, but determining what speed your business needs can be daunting. Internet speeds that are too slow can get in the way of daily operations, and plans with speeds faster than you’re using just add unnecessary costs.

Finding a plan with enough download and upload speeds to support your business without overspending doesn’t have to be difficult. By mapping out your daily business operations and future growth, you can easily find your right-fit speed and stay on budget.

Whether you’re just starting out with a new internet plan or are dealing with a current plan that’s underperforming, this guide will walk you through key considerations for choosing the right business internet speeds.

Choosing the right internet speed for your business

Getting internet that’s fast enough to enable your business operations, while also not paying for overpowered performance, can be a balancing act. Most internet service providers (ISPs) offer multiple business internet plans, each with different maximum speeds, leaving business owners with many options to evaluate.

Each company has its own internet speed needs, but there are some general guidelines you can follow.

Below is a breakdown of some general connectivity needs by business size.

Most ISPs advertise the highest speed your network could handle, but the real-life speeds you’ll experience will generally be slower. Check with potential ISPs about their customers’ average speeds before choosing a plan.

The exact speed you’ll get at any given time of day can depend on many factors, but it is often heavily influenced by how much traffic is on the provider’s network. To compensate for that, some ISPs offer dedicated connections or priority traffic features that essentially bypass the congestion to maintain stable speeds.

Learn more about types of business internet connections with this guide.

Key factors that determine your business’s speed needs

Most ISPs offer plans at several different bandwidth tiers, and the price typically increases with higher bandwidth. Those tiers can range from low-cost plans with modest speeds to high-performance plans that promise up to 1Tbps.

To estimate the bandwidth you need, start by identifying the online activities and devices your business uses daily. The table below shows the typical bandwidth used by common tasks.

General business activities

Note: The speeds listed represent the bandwidth used by a single user or device while performing that activity. If multiple employees or systems are active at the same time, add those speeds together to estimate your total bandwidth needs.

Once you’ve added up the bandwidth used by each activity and multiplied it by the number of users or devices, you’ll have a good idea of the minimum speed your business needs for daily operations.

Signs your business internet is too slow

Numbers alone aren’t enough to determine what speeds your worksite needs. A good internet connection should have speeds that match your activities and number of users and devices, but also be stable enough to consistently meet those needs. Slow or unreliable connections can be a sure sign that your internet is underpowered.

• If you’re experiencing these issues, your internet connection may be too slow:
• Video calls freeze or stutter
• Large file transfers take a long time to download
• Speeds drop noticeably when more users are on the network

If these problems happen regularly, it may be time to upgrade your plan or choose a connection with more bandwidth.

Download vs. upload speed: What matters more for business

Download speeds get the most attention, but depending on your daily internet use, upload speeds can also affect efficiency.

Upload speed becomes important when employees send large amounts of data to the internet. Examples include:

• Video calls and webinars
• Cloud file uploads and syncing
• Sharing large files with clients or teams
• Cloud backups and data transfers
• Remote desktop and VPN connections
• Uploading videos or media content
• Security cameras and Internet of Things (IoT) data uploads

Because many businesses now rely heavily on these types of tasks, upload speed is becoming more important.

Many fiber business internet connections offer symmetrical speeds (where upload equals download). These connections will support video calls, cloud tools, and large file transfers much more reliably than an asymmetrical upload speed.

Here is a list of some general upload speed ranges, by activity and business size.

Why faster doesn’t always mean better performance

Speed often gets the most attention for internet performance, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

Let’s break down some of the components of an internet connection: Speed, latency, and jitter.

• Speed is how much data travels across the network each second.
• Latency is the time it takes for that data to move from one point to another across the network.
• Jitter is when latency varies, causing delays to fluctuate.

If we continue the hose analogy from the earlier Pro Tip box, latency is the time it takes the water to travel from the spigot to the hose nozzle, while jitter is when the water flow becomes inconsistent.

Latency and jitter matter just as much as speed when it comes to having a fast, stable connection.

High-latency connections or those with significant jitter might not be as noticeable when you’re loading websites and cloud tools, but they can cause video and voice calls to stutter or disrupt real-time collaboration.

If your current plan has enough speed to support your business, but you’re still experiencing a slow or unstable connection, it’s possible that high latency in your connection is creating issues. It might be time to upgrade your internet plan or change your provider.

Speed considerations for growing businesses

As your business grows, so should your internet speeds to keep up with more employees and internet-enabled equipment on the network.

There are several reasons it might be time to upgrade your plan for faster speeds:

• Expanding staff or locations
• Adding cloud tools to your workflow
• Adding new equipment
• Connections slow as more employees use the network

As your business grows into a larger operation, you’ll want to work directly with an ISP on a more custom internet solution with guaranteed terms for speeds and performance.

Key takeaways and next steps

• Download and upload speeds, latency, and jitter are all important for a strong connection.
• Speeds change based on network congestion, either within your business or at the ISP.
• Video calls that freeze or stutter are a good sign you need more bandwidth.
• Service-level agreements usually include terms for guaranteed speed, latency, and jitter.
• Custom solutions from an ISP are ideal for large and rapidly-growing businesses.

Determining how much internet speed your business needs can feel overwhelming. HighSpeedInternet.com partnered with Clearlink Consulting to make it easy by offering free expert business internet advice.

Clearlink Consulting is an independent technology consulting firm, not a service provider. Its live agents help businesses of all sizes determine which plans and speeds are best for their needs.

Call +1-833-923-6262 to get connected with a live, local agent for free.