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In most cases (in the USA) the major ISP's offer moderate download speeds, but the uploads speeds are a fraction of the upload speeds (normally about 10%).
Why is this done? It would seem better to have the same speed for the upload and download even if this would make the download slower. Is the ISP's infrastructure set so that more is dedicated to downloads as that is what more people in the world use?
Eric Johnson
Posted 2016-02-10T20:50:04.513
Reputation: 451
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There usually is a limited amount of bandwidth available. Most people download more than they upload, so allocating a larger proportion of the bandwidth to download at the cost of having less bandwidth left for upload is a common trade-off.
Sander Steffann
Posted 2016-02-10T20:50:04.513
Reputation: 4 169
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It used to be because of the Asynchronous nature of internet connections. However I believe that on more recent technologies its more to do with limiting bandwidth/network load, the majority of people using the internet will be consuming content therefore downloading more than they upload, so it makes sense to configure the network to take this into account. It's the same reason domestic contention ratios are high.. The theory is people are not all downloading at once... However with streaming media becoming popular this is less and less true.
D3vy
Posted 2016-02-10T20:50:04.513
Reputation: 129
"It used to be because of the Asynchronous nature of internet connections" -- This seems like a recursive explanation. What exactly is this "nature" that you're referring to? – sawdust – 2016-02-10T21:31:55.990
I didn't go into that because my explanation was based on the more current use of fttc or fttp connection (fibre) (UK also said asynchronous when I meant asymmetric). There is a Wikipedia article that explains it better than I could, its to do with the frequency in use and crosstalk between multiple connection in the phone exchange. However ADSL is becoming less common now so the correct answer in my opinion is the one I gave above regarding network load. – D3vy – 2016-02-10T21:44:51.030
1Most people don't necessarily need a huge upload, therefore It's a lot more cost effective for companies to not put the effort into creating a stronger upload. Is it fair to the customer? Not really, but that's just the game US ISPs play with their customers. coughComcastcough. I didn't post this as an answer because I have no proof. – Ethan Z – 2016-02-10T21:09:20.947
1For the typical end-user, such an asymmetrical configuration make sense. Simply look at the Ethernet statistics of your modem. Unless you're hosting somekind of server or doing a lot of uploading, the typical user receives far more data in web content than sends out. There have alway been symmetrical connections (e.g. T1 service), but those are often considered "business/commercial" services rather than for homes/residential. – sawdust – 2016-02-10T21:23:55.733
@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 That question was almost 7 years ago so I was thinking stuff may have changed. – Eric Johnson – 2016-02-10T23:59:39.403
VTR as the duplicate answer deals exclusively with ADSL – bertieb – 2018-02-13T19:11:13.917
The accepted answer at the marked duplicate deals with ADSL, but the other answers are applicable to other connection types. Voting to leave closed. – music2myear – 2018-02-13T22:28:29.843
@EricJohnson - You would think things have changed, even if they had, this question would still be a duplicate. If you want an updated answer, a new answer to the duplicate should be submitted, not a new question. Of course, things have not really changed, upload is still often asymmetric – Ramhound – 2018-02-13T22:37:57.473