What Is The Best Internet to Binge Netflix These Days?
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot about life as we know it. It seems our lives before the global health crisis is just a distant memory. Staying at home, working, or studying remotely, going out only for essential groceries and medicines. This is the new normal for now.
But that means, with more people staying at home, on-demand entertainment services like Netflix are seeing more traffic than ever before. Between that and how many people are on the same network at home, you may have been experiencing some disruptions with your Netflix experience. If so, you might be thinking if you have the best internet for Netflix or not.
What is the Best Internet for Netflix
In Europe, especially Spain and Italy, the coronavirus has hit extremely hard. Both countries have gone into lockdown, causing millions of people to confine themselves at home. Netflix servers for Europe began seeing more users at the same time than usual. This prompted the streaming giant to reduce its server traffic considerably to prevent its networks from overloading. If the same thing happens in the United States, you can expect to lose your ability to watch content in HD as usual. You will more likely stream content in SD, regardless if you have the best Cox internet service you have. With that being said, this blog explores:
- What Netflix Recommends
- The Impact of Quarantine and Top-Rated Netflix Shows
- The Best Internet Plans for Netflix
- Is Satellite Internet a Good Idea?
- The Bottom Line
Let’s examine these areas in more detail below.
What Netflix Recommends
Netflix recommends a minimum internet speed of 3Mbps to use its service effectively. On paper, this looks good enough, but the ground realities are very different. For one thing, the recommendation is for SD viewing only and will not be enough if you want to stream in HD. More importantly, Netflix’s recommendations don’t take into account multiple users on the same network and their activities. The recommendation is just for one device on the network, excluding other activities that might be happening at the same time like browsing, downloading, or uploading. In practice, 3Mbps will just not be the best internet for Netflix.
The Impact of Quarantine and Top-Rated Netflix Shows
We are living in unprecedented times. The internet infrastructure in place has never seen this kind of traffic before. More people stuck are indoors, bored, and looking for entertainment. Top-rated Netflix shows like The Tiger King and Money Heist have attracted millions of new users to the OTT streaming platform. While this certainly means good news for the company’s subscription portfolio, can their servers handle this volume of traffic? Or will we see a traffic reduction on US servers as well? Only time will tell.
The Best Internet Plans for Netflix
With 3Mbps, you are likely to experience severe buffering issues, especially with other users on the same network. However, you will need a better service for an uninterrupted experience. The thing is, the best internet for Netflix can vary based on two factors:
- Where you live.
- How many users are in your home.
If users on your network are working from home, playing online games regularly, and downloading/uploading large files, you require higher speeds. A cable internet plan with around 100Mbps in speeds should be enough for most cases. However, if you really prioritize speeds and buffer-free experiences for all users, you can always try a fiber connection from Centurylink internet if available in your area. Speeds up to 1Gig should be enough for even the heaviest of internet users.
Is Satellite Internet a Good Idea?
In most cases, using satellite internet for streaming HD content is a bad idea. That’s because satellite internet is usually more expensive than cable internet, and almost always comes with data caps. And you don’t get the speeds that you can expect from a service like Spectrum internet either. Satellite internet typically has internet speeds between 12Mbps to 100Mbps. They also cap their data at between 10GB to 150GB. It just doesn’t seem very cost-effective to use a satellite internet plan for streaming Netflix.
The Bottom Line
Our final take on it is quite simple. You can get by on Netflix with a 3-5 Mbps connection if you don’t mind buffering or SD content, and being unable to browse or download. 25Mbps allows you to browse and download content, while still getting 1 single buffer-free SD experience. A 100Mbps connection, on the other hand, is perfect for multiple SD and HD streams as well as other internet activities. Once again, it is all about where you live and how many people live with you. But 100Mbps is your best bet.
