--- title: How Much Internet Speed Does a Household Need? url: https://hdiss.net/guides/how-much-speed-does-a-household-need/ business: High Desert Internet Services (HDISS) phone: 775-575-9593, 775-391-5660 email: info@hdiss.net mailing_address: Home base: 200 S Virginia St, Suite 760, Reno NV 89501 (dispatch office, not a walk-in store). Mail: Billing Dept., PO Box 11353, Reno NV 89510 hours: Office open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, seven days a week. Network watched around the clock. type: Fixed wireless internet service provider (homes and small businesses), web hosting, customer email, domain registration service_area: Northern Nevada - Washoe, Lyon, Storey, Churchill and Douglas counties and Carson City; availability is checked address by address (line of sight to a tower) plans: Bronze $50/mo up to 500 Mbps down, up to 200 Mbps up; Silver $75/mo up to 800 down, up to 200 up; Gold $99/mo up to 1 Gig down, up to 200 up; ask about the up to 1 Gig / 1 Gig ultra-low-latency service no_online_purchase: true (check your address or call; existing customers pay at https://www2.fernley.net/hdiss/onlinepay/paymentform.cfm) since: 2002 --- - [Home](https://hdiss.net/) - [Guides](https://hdiss.net/guides/) - How much internet speed a household needs # How much internet speed does a household need? Most households are well served by the FCC's Advanced band, which starts above 25 Mbps in its Household Broadband Guide, and a busy home adds the needs of each activity running at once. All three High Desert plans list up to 500 Mbps down or more, so the question is mostly how many people use it at once. A family streaming TV at home. Stock photo: Adobe Stock, not High Desert customers or staff. [Photo credits](https://hdiss.net/photo-credits/) On this page - [How much internet speed do I need?](#how-much-internet-speed-do-i-need) - [What does each activity need?](#what-does-each-activity-need) - [How much do I need for 4K streaming?](#how-much-do-i-need-for-4k-streaming) - [What about a family of five?](#what-about-a-family-of-five) - [What about working from home?](#what-about-working-from-home) - [Do I need Gold for a big house?](#do-i-need-gold-for-a-big-house) 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](https://hdiss.net/guides/download-vs-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](https://hdiss.net/guides/data-transfer-limits-and-your-usage/) 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](https://www.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](https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/broadband-speed-guide) (FCC Broadband Speed Guide, read 10/15/26) - [fcc.gov/sites/default/files/broadband_speed_guide.pdf](https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/broadband_speed_guide.pdf) (FCC Broadband Speed Guide, read 10/15/26) - [hdiss.net/](https://hdiss.net/) (plan cards, read 10/15/26) - [api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs5](https://api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs5) (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B08301, retrieved 2026-10-02) ### Talk to a person - Call [775-575-9593](tel:7755759593) [775-391-5660](tel:7753915660) Open 9-5 every day - Email [info@hdiss.net](mailto:info@hdiss.net) [Check my address](https://hdiss.net/check-availability/#check) Local since 2002 Fixed wireless from towers in Northern Nevada. Three plans, no contracts, local support, 4.8 on Google from 36 reviews. [About High Desert](https://hdiss.net/about/) ### Keep reading - [Download vs upload speed: why up to 200 Mbps up matters](https://hdiss.net/guides/download-vs-upload-speed/) - [How many devices is too many](https://hdiss.net/guides/how-many-devices-is-too-many/) - [Internet plans](https://hdiss.net/internet-plans/) - [Internet for large households](https://hdiss.net/internet-for/large-households/) - [Internet for streaming](https://hdiss.net/internet-for/streaming/) - [Internet for working from home](https://hdiss.net/internet-for/working-from-home/) ## More on choosing and understanding - [What fixed wireless internet is and how it works](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-is-fixed-wireless-internet/): Fixed wireless internet is a radio link from a tower to a small antenna mounted on your home or shop, with a router inside that shares the connection over Wi-Fi. It needs no phone line or cable in the street, only a clea - [Is fixed wireless the same as satellite?](https://hdiss.net/guides/is-fixed-wireless-the-same-as-satellite/): No. Fixed wireless is a radio link from your roof to a tower a short distance away on the ground, while satellite internet sends your data up to a dish in orbit and back down again. Both use radio and both need a clear v - [What line of sight means and why we check it first](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-line-of-sight-means/): Line of sight means your roof antenna and the tower it points at can see each other, with nothing solid in between. It is checked at your address because the path is what decides whether fixed wireless works, and a town ## Questions people ask ### Is a plan of up to 100 Mbps enough for a family? By the FCC's own figures, it covers a busy evening of several streams plus a game and a video call. The FCC says these are rough guidelines, so count your own households' peak hour. ### Does it matter if my Wi-Fi is slow? Yes. Your plan speed is the ceiling at the router. Wi-Fi in a far room can be much lower. ### Will High Desert tell me which plan to pick? Yes. When you send your address, the person who calls you back can talk through your household and the three plans.