Yeah, I upped my internet speed (at a premium of about $12/month) for two main reasons:

so that I could get better quality streaming netflix movies on my tv with the xbox 360 and so that I can easily download/surf the net on a desktop, a laptop, and play games (ps3 or 360) all at the same time... at 3mbs down I could not do this.

So for me, the added speed is not to get a really fast connection on one device, but a decent connection on multiple devices at the same time.

Good point on multiple users.

Here is what I usually tell people. Bear in mind there are lots of other factors that can be added in but basically, I personally feel...

For someone who is just mostly using email, general browsing and occasionally sharing pictures via emails or Facebook and such...
1.5 MB is actually probably fine with 3MB preferable if you are heavier on the picture sharing.

For somebody who wants to download music or spends a lot of time on Youtube.
5MB means you can download a song or even an album without having to go take a long coffee break. Of course, it again depends much on the source. If you are using systems like Bit Torrent, it is much more likely that your final speed will be effected by bottlenecks, location, or even how many other people are sharing and downloading the same file.

For somebody who 'downloads' entire movie files. (Note: not reffering to streaming video) ....
You will never have enough speed. Even with a fast connection, you are looking at going away for a nights sleep, or a short nap at best, before you get the whole file. So more is better, but if you are going to leave it overnight anyways, does it matter all that much?

If you plan on watching streamed movies (Netflix, etc.)...
I honestly don't know much about this because we have no such service available in my area. I can tell you that the IPTV service we offer requires 7.5MB for two SD TVs, 9.5MB for three SD TVs, or 9.5 MB for one HD TV and one other SD.

There are options out there that offer 10MB and even beyond service but Honestly, even when I use my access at work that is infinitely better than 10MB, I still don't see much improvement from my 7.5MB service at home. The bottlenecks don't care how big the nozzle at the end of the pipe is.

I want much, much faster, even though my speed just doubled.

I'm still doing well.

wow your download is incredible but your upload sucks in comparison (although it really is just your super high DL speed that makes the upload seem small!)

This is from work. I can't believe how fast Ajax's download speed is.



This was to a server in DC, but the download speed sucked.

Comcast sucks!

It sure doesn't suck down the data, though.

(from work at my head-shrinking office)

Cavalier is a local company. This looks better when I remember that I'm only paying for 3/0.5M DSL.