Speed advice online is often vague or pushy. The FCC publishes two plain guides that put real numbers on it. Both call themselves rough guidelines, and so does this page. They help you add up your own household instead of guessing, and they show why a plan sized for a crowd may not matter to a couple that streams one show at a time.
Takeaways
- The FCC Household Broadband Guide sorts needs into three bands: Basic, Medium and Advanced. Advanced means more than 25 Mbps.
- The FCC's Broadband Speed Guide gives a minimum for each activity: for example Ultra HD 4K video needs 25 Mbps, and HD video needs 5 to 8 Mbps.
- Add up the activities that happen together, not the ones that happen over a whole day.
How much internet speed do I need?
The FCC's Household Broadband Guide sets out three bands: Basic service at 3 to 8 Mbps, Medium service at 12 to 25 Mbps and Advanced service at more than 25 Mbps. It lays them out in a grid of one to four connected devices against light, moderate and high use. One device in light use sits at Basic. Four devices in high use sit at Advanced. The guide says plainly that its figures are rough guidelines, not based on surveys or experiments the FCC conducted.
For almost any family of two or more, the grid points to the Advanced band. The three High Desert plans, up to 500, up to 800 and up to 1 Gig down, are above that band as advertised maximums (hdiss.net, read 10/15/26).
What does each activity need?
The FCC's Broadband Speed Guide lists a minimum download speed for one activity at a time. The figures below come from the guide and its PDF, and they are minimums, because the guide says extra speed can improve performance:
- Standard-definition video needs 3 to 4 Mbps
- HD video needs 5 to 8 Mbps
- Ultra HD 4K video needs 25 Mbps
- A game console connecting to the internet needs 3 Mbps, and online multiplayer needs 4 Mbps
- Working from home (telecommuting) needs 5 to 25 Mbps
- Downloading files needs 10 Mbps
The guide covers the download side. Cameras, video calls and backups also send data up, which is covered in our guide on download versus upload speed.
How much do I need for 4K streaming?
The FCC speed guide puts one Ultra HD 4K stream at 25 Mbps. Two 4K TVs on at once is 50 Mbps by that arithmetic, and a third brings it to 75. That alone is well past the Advanced band, and still far below the up to 500 Mbps on Bronze. Streaming also adds to your monthly data use, which is a different question from speed. The data transfer limit guide covers it.
What about a family of five?
Here is an example, built only from the FCC's figures. Two people stream 4K video, each needing 25 Mbps for 50 in total, one works from home on video calls (5 to 25 by the guide), a teenager plays an online game (4) and a phone downloads a large update (10). By the FCC's figures the sum is about 69 to 89 Mbps of download at the same moment. A household that busy is still a fraction of any High Desert plan's up-to speed, and it is also why a plan with room to spare is comfortable on an ordinary evening.
Your numbers will differ. Count the screens, the calls and the cameras that run together at the busiest hour, which is usually the evening. The plan picker on this site's home page does the same arithmetic with the FCC's figures.
What about working from home?
The FCC speed guide lists telecommuting at 5 to 25 Mbps, because it depends on whether you are on email and documents or on live video with screen sharing. In the places this site covers, working from home is common: 17.5 percent of workers in Storey County do, and 12.7 percent in Douglas County, against 11.9 percent for Nevada (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B08301). If your income depends on the connection, think about upload and steadiness as much as the top number.
Do I need Gold for a big house?
Not because of the FCC's figures. A busy home's sum stays far below the up-to speed of any of the three plans, so the step from Bronze at $50 a month to Silver at $75 or Gold at $99 is about headroom more than about need. Headroom is worth something when many devices wake at once, when you move big files, or when you want one plan for a house plus a shop. It is a judgment call, and the person who calls you back will talk it through with no sales pressure.
To start, send your street address with the check form or call 775-575-9593. A person looks at the path from the nearest tower to your roof, and then you can choose a plan.
Sources
- fcc.gov/consumers/guides/household-broadband-guide (FCC Household Broadband Guide; table confirmed on the State of Indiana mirror https://www.in.gov/indianabroadband/resources-for-individuals/household-broadband-guide/ crediting the FCC, 2020; read 10/15/26)
- fcc.gov/consumers/guides/broadband-speed-guide (FCC Broadband Speed Guide, read 10/15/26)
- fcc.gov/sites/default/files/broadband_speed_guide.pdf (FCC Broadband Speed Guide, read 10/15/26)
- hdiss.net/ (plan cards, read 10/15/26)
- api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs5 (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B08301, retrieved 2026-10-02)