Speed test Guides
Updated 23 September 2026
Internet plans advertise download speed. When you work from home, it is the other number that decides how your day goes: the one that measures what you send.
Working remotely, you produce as much data as you consume: your image on a call, your shared screen, files you send, automatic backups, remote connections to the company server. All of it travels over the upload link, which on cable and copper plans is often ten to twenty times narrower than download.
| Technology | Typical upload |
|---|---|
| Fibre to the home | often symmetrical, or several hundred Mbps |
| Cable | 10 to 50 Mbps |
| VDSL | 5 to 40 Mbps |
| ADSL | under 1 Mbps |
| 4G / 5G at home | 5 to 100 Mbps, highly variable |
| Use | Upload required |
|---|---|
| One-to-one call, standard quality | 1 to 2 Mbps |
| Call in high definition | 2.5 to 4 Mbps |
| Smooth screen sharing | 3 to 5 Mbps |
| Call and screen sharing together | 5 to 8 Mbps |
| Sending a 1 GB file in 5 minutes | about 27 Mbps |
| Continuous cloud backup | as much as it can take, unless you cap it |
Add whatever the rest of the household is doing: a single backup can saturate a 5 Mbps upload and make your call unusable.
This is the most common problem and the least well identified. When an app fills the upload link, latency for everything else explodes, including browsing and downloads. It feels like "everything is slow" while download speed is untouched. The phenomenon has a name: bufferbloat.
Typical signs:
Run the test over a cable with nothing else going on, and note the upload figure. Run it again during a backup: the drop shows exactly what your tools are taking. Watch the ping in both cases too: if it goes from 15 ms to 300 ms, you have found your culprit.
A VPN encrypts your traffic and routes it through your employer's server. It almost always reduces usable speed and adds latency, especially if that server is far away. If your calls go through the VPN when they do not need to, ask IT whether an exception is possible: it is often the single most effective fix.
About 10 Mbps covers high-definition calls, screen sharing and a file transfer at the same time. Below 3 Mbps, calls get uncomfortable as soon as anything else starts.
Because the transfer saturates the upload link and pushes latency up for everything else. Cap the transfer tool's speed or enable anti-bufferbloat management on the router.
It can work well where coverage is good, but latency and upload vary with the time of day and how busy the mast is. Test over several days before giving up a fixed line.