The short answer: for a day of video calls and typical office work, you need at least 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. Most superfast FTTC connections provide this. If you have a heavy day with back-to-back calls, large file transfers and a household sharing the connection, full fibre is worth getting. The upload speed difference is where it is most noticeable.
Why upload speed matters for remote work
Most broadband advertising focuses on download speed. For remote workers, upload speed is equally important. When you are on a Zoom or Teams call, your camera and microphone data is being uploaded continuously. When you share your screen, send large files or use cloud storage that syncs in the background, all of that uses upload bandwidth.
On a typical FTTC connection you might get 70 Mbps download but only 15–20 Mbps upload. That is fine for one person on calls. The problem arises when you are uploading large video files, running a screen share during a call, and someone else in the house is also on a call — all simultaneously. On full fibre, upload speeds of 50–500 Mbps mean upload is never the bottleneck.
What speed do video calling apps actually need?
| App | Download (per call) | Upload (per call) | Group calls (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom (1:1 HD) | 1.5 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps | 3+ Mbps down / 3+ Mbps up |
| Microsoft Teams | 4 Mbps | 3 Mbps | 4+ Mbps down / 3+ Mbps up |
| Google Meet | 3.2 Mbps | 3.2 Mbps | 3.2+ Mbps down / 3.2+ Mbps up |
| FaceTime | 1 Mbps | 1 Mbps | 3+ Mbps |
These are the apps' own minimum requirements. In practice, you want double these figures as a working minimum to avoid dropped frames and poor audio when the connection dips.
How many people are sharing the connection?
This is the key question. If you live alone or only work from home occasionally, any superfast connection is fine. If you have a partner also working from home, children doing homework or streaming, and background cloud syncing happening, you need to add up the total simultaneous usage.
Example household: two adults on video calls (3 Mbps up each = 6 Mbps), one child streaming 4K (25 Mbps down), cloud backup running (5 Mbps up). Total: around 30 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload at the same time. An 80 Mbps/20 Mbps FTTC connection handles this comfortably. A 150 Mbps/150 Mbps full fibre connection handles it with ease.
Wired vs wireless for your work machine
If you are having problems with dropouts or latency on calls, connecting your laptop or desktop to the router via an ethernet cable makes a significant difference. Wi-Fi is convenient but introduces variable latency and occasional drops that can disrupt calls. A £5 ethernet cable eliminates these entirely for the device you use for work.
If your router is in another room, a powerline adapter (around £30–50 for a pair) can run a wired connection through your home's electrical wiring without needing to run a cable through walls.
What broadband type should remote workers choose?
If full fibre is available at your address
Get full fibre. The price premium over FTTC is small, typically £2–5 per month for entry-level FTTP (100–150 Mbps). The improvement in upload speed and connection stability is meaningful for daily video calls. You do not need gigabit — 100–300 Mbps full fibre is more than enough.
If only FTTC is available
FTTC is fine for most remote workers. Aim for the highest FTTC speed available (usually 76–80 Mbps download, 19–20 Mbps upload). Make sure you are getting the speeds you are paying for — check with an ethernet-connected speed test.
If only ADSL is available
ADSL is a challenge for remote work. Upload speeds of 0.5–2 Mbps make video calls unreliable. Consider 4G or 5G home broadband as an alternative — it often gives much better upload speeds in rural areas where ADSL is the only fixed-line option. Mobile broadband is also useful as a backup connection if your primary line has outages.
What you do not need
You do not need gigabit broadband for working from home. 100–200 Mbps full fibre is entirely sufficient for any amount of remote work. Gigabit broadband becomes useful if you regularly transfer very large files (multiple gigabytes) and need them to move fast, but for calls and typical office tasks it provides no noticeable benefit over a 100 Mbps connection.
You do not need a dedicated business broadband line in most cases. Residential broadband from a standard provider works well for remote work. Business broadband offers guaranteed speeds and faster fault resolution, which matters for businesses — but for an individual working from home, a good residential FTTP connection is almost always sufficient.
Frequently asked questions
My video calls are choppy but my speed test looks fine. What is the problem?
A few possibilities: your Wi-Fi connection is introducing packet loss or variable latency (try a wired connection to test this), your VPN is adding overhead, or there is congestion on your local network at peak times. Also check that your router's Quality of Service (QoS) settings are not deprioritising video call traffic. Many modern routers prioritise video calls automatically.
Will my employer's VPN slow things down?
Yes, VPNs add overhead and can noticeably reduce your effective speed, particularly upload. On a FTTC connection you might lose 20–40% of your speed through a corporate VPN. On full fibre the raw speed is high enough that even with a 40% reduction you have plenty of headroom. If VPN performance is a consistent problem, raise it with your IT department — some VPN configurations are more efficient than others.
Is it worth getting a business broadband package instead of residential?
Only if you need the service level guarantees. Business broadband typically comes with a guaranteed minimum speed, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for fault resolution (often same-day or next-day), and static IP addresses. For a single remote worker, a standard residential FTTP contract from a reliable provider is almost always adequate and significantly cheaper.