What the minimum speed for high speed data to be usable still without noticing it much ?

[ng4ever]

I know ping is important too.

Talking 4g lte and 5g data.

[bmtvaquero]

I think that would depend on whether you're checking email, watching a 4K video, or something in between.

[ng4ever]

I think that would depend on whether you're checking email, watching a 4K video, or something in between.

That is true.

[bobdevnul]

I know ping is important too.

Talking 4g lte and 5g data.

I start noticing about below 3Mbps for general use. In the 3Mbps range it needs to be solid, with low packet loss, jitter, and reasonable upload speed. That speed and those conditions will even stream video of resolution enough for casual viewing. I've streamed a lot of video with Visible at their 2Mbps throttle. It looked like HD to me. Maybe it was 720HD.

No it is not going to do 4K HD video. I can't think of any reason to care about that on a phone. It also does not perform acceptably for videoconferencing. It wouldn't do well for large downloads or uploads. I don't need to do those.

Speed testing for bragging rights is worth less than a bucket of warm spit to me.

I am not opposed to good speed on cell networks. More speed available means a satisfactory experience for more people. I have been in horribly congested Verizon areas where I couldn't load a web page in five minutes.

LTE or 5G don't matter at the low speed end of the range. The bits per second do.

I can still get a lot done at 1Mbps, but the lag is noticeable.

[PaulCrawhorne]

Visible at their 2Mbps throttle

When does Visible go to that speed?

My understanding:

Hotspot is a 5Mbps throttle.

Overall data usage at high speed LTE is truly unlimited. The Plus plan only stops 4G depri for the first 50GB you need 5G to avoid depri after that.

Have I got any of that wrong?

[PaulCrawhorne]

4K HD video. I can't think of any reason to care about that on a phone.

Hotspotting to a large screen device

[bobdevnul]

When does Visible go to that speed?

My understanding:

Hotspot is a 5Mbps throttle.

Overall data usage at high speed LTE is truly unlimited. The Plus plan only stops 4G depri for the first 50GB you need 5G to avoid depri after that.

Have I got any of that wrong?

Data on the phone and hotspot is truly unlimited - almost. There have been reports of people using more than a terabyte a month being warned or terminated.

Video streams from sources they know about, which are all of the popular ones, are always throttled to 2Mbps on the phone and through the hotspot. IIRC, that is for all plans. I was able to get 1080HD out of that on Youtube. I don't know about Netflix, etc. I don't have them. Some people claim you can get around this by running through a VPN. I never bothered with that.

Data through the hotspot or USB tether is throttled to 5Mbps download. The upload speed that goes with that is frequently very bad, like 0.01Mbps. Connections to the hotspot or USB tether is limited to one device on many phones. This is pretty easy to get around.

I am not up on the plus plan and 5G phones that can get UW bands to know how they work with priority data or other limitations.

[bobdevnul]

Hotspotting to a large screen device

Yes, I did not think of that. I don't have a 4K TV. I have low-res eyes. There is no point in replacing my 1080 TVs until they die.

[PaulCrawhorne]

Aha, great, yes I do not stream except for short clips

I download, always have 3-4 weeks of films and show seasons staged to view independently of any internet connectivity.

[bmtvaquero]

I just assumed the OP was generalizing and didn't limit the question to phones.

[VisionsDivine]

I have my in-laws set up on an AT&T LTE connection that's more or less always 10mbps down / 8mbps up. It's fine for streaming, video calls, and general browsing. It still sucks for downloading files and does not play VR games at all.

[@Class]

I tend to agree with pretty much everyone on here... About 3-5 Mbps, after that for browsing, email, some zooms, you're really not going to notice. You'll only start to notice for low latency gaming (Nintendo works fine).

This is from experience, until we got starlink internet up at the cottage is pretty much impossible on cellular and the Xplorenet (Hugesnet reseller) had us on 5 Mbps down 1 Mpbs up. The speed it self was fine, it was the 700 ms latency that was the kicker. Made most WiFi calls and Whats app conversations turn into "over".

Anything over 5 Mbps for one person, you're not really going to notice when browsing.

[kevink1]

I noticed that ATT's annual prepaid plan has recently changed. Instead of 16GB that can rollover 1 month if necessary, it is now 16GB, then slow to 1.5mb/s. Enough for video, though not 4K. It should be much more usable for many purposes than the historic 128kb/s offered for many "unlimited" plans once the allocated data is used up.

[Serial Port]

There is no point in replacing my 1080 TVs until they die.

I hope you mean the TV's.