Can the upload speed be greater than the download speed?

[#1]

Can the upload speed be greater than the download speed?🤔

Are they tortally independent of each other?

FYI I'm on 150mbps up and down

[#2]

@Leapy That report is weird. Where is it from - what site? Try using Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test  - a site I know gives accurate(ish) results.

What is your package?

[#3]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Everything Else to Tech Help

[#4]

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@jab1 wrote:

What is your package?

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Not a plusnet one!

[#5]

@jab1 Its from my ISP Community Fibre on their Linksys app router page.

[#6]

I'm on 150mbps up and down fromm Community Fibre at £20 a month.

[#7]

@dvorak  Thanks. 😉

@Leapy OK - is it supposed to be a symmetric (same U/L - D/L speed) one?

[#8]

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@Leapy wrote:

I'm on 150mbps up and down fromm Community Fibre at £20 a month.

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Then that is a possibility - depending on the load on the test site.

[#9]

@jab1 @dvorak  I'm on 150mbps up and down but its ofter both higher on wire at around 160-175mbps and around 80mbps  up and down on WiFi, but the up aways seems a bit lower that the down, hence my question?🤔

[#10]

@jab1 on Speedtest.net on WiFi it....

[#11]

@Leapy That makes more sense. Can yo do a wired test on the same site? I suspect the Linksys speed-tester is a bit 'strange'

[#12]

@jab1 sadly today, I don't have a suitable wire for a direct laptop conection to the router.

[#13 · Accepted solution]

With FTTP the connection's native speed is the same regardless of the package you are on - so for many (including my Gigaclear connection) it is 1Gbps. The system then throttles the speed to whatever package you are on (often a little higher), so that over some seconds the average data rate achieved will be your package speed. Very short data bursts may average above your notional maximum.

Upload and download are throttled independently, so it isn't uncommon to see upload faster than download (my Gigaclear 600Mbps connection is usually 610-630mbps upload).

[#14]

We went from Plusnet FTTC to Plusnet Full Fibre 74 last week and are getting similar upload speeds to download, i.e. faster than contract. The OpenReach installation engineer didn't understand why, either.  Clearly not a complaint, just curious.

(Used Speedtest.net)

[#15]

That sounds rather strange - the OR fibre isn't symmetrical (unlike some altnets), so I'd guess something has gone wrong with the provisioning, and the down and up speed limits applied to your connection are from different products. I suspect it may change at some point. As long as you are getting the download speed you expect I think I'd keep quiet and hope they don't notice your upload speed.

The only alternative explanation I can think of is that the speedtest is wrong. It could be worth downloading something very large to see if you get the elevated speed in real life.