WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640 So your local internet service provider promised you blazing fast internet, 00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:09.200 and while they've delivered in the sense that you have no issues streaming all the 4k 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:15.440 Netflix you want, you're still waiting around seemingly forever when you have to upload a video 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:23.200 or a photo. So why is it that upload and download speeds are often so different, like, you know, 00:00:23.200 --> 00:00:28.560 driving in the reverse direction during rush hour? So it's like this, visualize the internet 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:35.360 connection coming into your house as a pipe that's only so wide. In other words, there's a limit to 00:00:35.360 --> 00:00:42.160 how much data it can carry at one time. Your ISP sections off the pipe to accommodate different 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:48.880 services. For example, if you have a DSL connection, part of the pipe will be reserved for phone service, 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:54.240 while another part is dedicated to internet data. And if you have cable or fiber, that same pipe 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:59.360 might also be carrying a cable TV signal. You can learn much more about that right up here, 00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:04.960 but the gist of it is that service providers pull this off by using different frequencies 00:01:04.960 --> 00:01:09.120 for each type of data so that your Apple Music Stream doesn't conflict with your 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:13.600 Charlie Brown Christmas special that you're watching on cable. And because the pipe can only 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:19.840 let so much data through at once, your provider has to make decisions about how much of it to 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:25.280 dedicate to each service. And in the case of internet, that section of the pipe actually 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:31.680 gets further divided into upstream and downstream data. But even though there's only so much space 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:37.280 in the pipe, it's not like the providers out there are hurting for bandwidth. For example, 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:43.120 let's say that your internet signal comes over a plain old copper cable, a relatively new standard 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:48.240 called DOCSIS 3.1, which is a revision of the base DOCSIS standard that allows a broadband 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:55.600 connection over old school cable TV pipes supports up to 10 gigabits per second downstream 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:02.480 and 1 gigabit per second upstream by packing more data into each frequency. So there's clearly 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:09.280 plenty of headroom in that old copper wire. So why the slow upload speeds? Well, when home 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.520 internet first started becoming widespread in the mid 1990s, user-generated content like the photos 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:22.320 and videos that we're constantly sharing on Facebook or Google Drive or Bumble, well, they 00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:27.840 weren't really a thing. And you're probably mostly sitting there looking through GeoCities pages on 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:34.320 Internet Explorer 3.0. So at most, you were maybe uploading small JPEGs as email attachments. 00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:40.960 And the idea that we are downloading far more than we're uploading has stuck around to this very 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:47.120 day. And that's actually still true to a great extent. You might watch plenty of 4k videos on 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:54.080 Amazon Prime, but how many of you are uploading 4k video to social media? Probably not nearly as 00:02:54.080 --> 00:03:00.400 many. So while internet providers do allocate more bandwidth to upload these days, 10 or 20 megabits 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:05.840 per second is pretty common right now, it's still quite a lot slower than the accompanying 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:10.480 download speeds, which are increasingly pushing into the triple digit range, sometimes even on 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:16.400 lower priced plans. So when you've got multiple devices attempting to upload data at the same time, 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:21.440 you can quickly saturate such an upstream connection. But that doesn't mean things will 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:28.160 stay that way forever. As customers increasingly demand a fat upstream pipe for high-res video calls, 00:03:28.160 --> 00:03:33.840 streaming their video games and uploading files to cloud storage, ISPs are taking notice. And the 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:41.760 new DOCSIS 4.0 standard supports 10 gigabits per second, both up and down. Also, many fiber to the 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:47.520 home connections offer symmetric connections already by default, where just as much of the pipe is 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:53.520 dedicated to uploads as it is to downloads. It's also easier for the fiber providers to do this 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.040 because light can carry so much data over a distance than copper. You can find out more about that in 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:03.440 this video. So hopefully no matter where you're getting service, you won't have to wait too 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:08.400 much longer for a better upstream connection than that kid who's trying to climb up the down escalator 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:15.040 at the mall. So thanks for watching guys. Like, dislike, leave a comment. If you have a suggestion 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:18.640 for a future Fast as Possible, don't forget to check out one of our other videos. We make lots 00:04:18.640 --> 00:04:22.160 and lots of videos around here. I promise at least some of them are good.