What about the upstream?—Posted on March 1, 2008

It is now pretty well known that when it comes to broadband speeds, what you buy is not necessarily what you get. This debate will no doubt rumble on until some sort of regulation is passed to make sure consumers know exactly what they are paying for, or what they are paying for and not getting. Still it is not altogether clear how the industry will do this.

In the midst of all the furore and indignation, it seems to me that a rather important element is being forgotten here. When a consumer or business buys a broadband package, at least they have some idea of what downstream speeds they are being promised. Sure they may not always hit these top speeds, but it is at least one way for users to compare broadband products on offer. So, here is my question, why can’t the same be said of upstream speeds?

If you look hard enough at the small print, somewhere it will tell you the upstream speeds you can expect – but they are not nearly as well publicised as the downstream speeds. In fact, no contest. This makes absolute sense for home users, who will download much more data than they will need to upload, but surely businesses should be taking more than a passing interest in their upstream speeds?

Most businesses only need sufficient download speeds to ensure that their email system works correctly, and that it doesn’t take up a lot of bandwidth. Upstream speeds are often far more important, especially if the business in question needs to send out large files on a regular basis – architects, media companies and surveyors for instance. They must ensure that their broadband can cope with sending larger files, not only so their colleagues and clients receive them promptly, but also so that it does not affect other, important applications.

If anything, upstream speeds are only going to increase in importance for businesses as new applications enter the mainstream - VoIP is a case in point. VoIP is equally reliant on upstream and downstream data flows. If a small business is using a highly contended public broadband connection while also using a large number of VoIP clients, the upstream can run red-hot and will potentially crash the system if there is not enough capacity available.

Upstream speeds are so important to many companies that installing SDSL broadband rather than ADSL, giving upstream speeds that match the downstream flow, seems like rather a good idea! This will give businesses the peace of mind that whatever their upstream needs, be it sending large files to clients, running VoIP or allowing remote access to their network for staff working from home, their needs will be met. So while the argument rages about download speeds, perhaps it is time for the industry, or customers, to start being a bit more vocal about this aspect of business connectivity.

Dan Cole, Head of Product Management

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