15 Mbps is the holy grail for 4K video

20 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Different online video companies put it differently, but the net result is the same: if you want to watch 4K streaming video – aka ultra high definition – you need a broadband connection that reliably delivers 15 Mbps and has enough head room to support whatever other Internet traffic is passing in and out of your house.

A story by Rob Pegoraro in USA Today provides a run down of the 4K bandwidth recommendations from the two big dogs in the over-the-top video game…

  • Amazon says “you need an Internet connection of at least 15 Mbps to watch videos in UHD”.
  • Netflix recommends “an internet connection speed of at least 25 megabits per second to stream Ultra HD titles”. But it also says you’ll burn through 7 gigabytes an hour of your data cap. Taking rounding into account, that’s the same as saying you need a steady stream at 15 Mbps over the course of that hour.

Given that Internet service providers don’t really promise to deliver a particular service level – typically, speeds are offered up to a certain level – a 15 Mbps download package won’t cut it. So Netflix’s 25 Mbps recommendation is a little more realistic, assuming you’re the only person in your home and you turn everything else off.

That rate coincides with the Federal Communications Commission’s 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up standard for advanced services capability.

It’s also where the market is heading. Big cable companies, which typically offer download speeds starting at 60 Mbps and frequently climbing to 200 Mbps or more, own 61% of U.S. broadband subscribers. Telcos, which have a 34% market share, struggle to get to 25 Mbps on even recently upgraded and well maintained copper systems.

With 4K television sets expected to be in half of U.S. homes by the end of next year, the gap between cable and telco market share, and the gap between cable-rich urban and telco-monopoly rural areas – will continue to grow.