Why are we limited to 10 Mbps and why is this the best solution?

Users sometimes ask the question “Why is the download speed limited to 10 Mbps?”. In this article we will try to explain why.

What does 7-10 mbps even mean?

A speed of 7-10 Mbps allows you to transfer up to 1.25 megabytes per second. Okay, let's give an example.

Full HD (1080p) requires 5 to 8 Mbps. So 7 to 10 mbps is plenty of bandwidth to spare. You will watch videos in good quality and you won't notice any speed limit.

All other tasks: parsing, online gaming, browsing sites - require even slower speeds. A standard request for parsing a page takes from 20 to 100 KB, which is a fraction of a megabit. This means that even at maximum server load you will use only a fraction of a percent of the channel speed.

Technical reasons for the speed limit

Now let's look at the technical reasons for the speed limit. Why do we consider 10 Mbps to be an ideal balance? 

First, the higher the proxy speed, the higher the load on communication channels and server resources. 

Too high a speed can lead to congestion, overload and network instability, especially with mass usage. 

In other words, a 10 Mbps limit keeps the Internet stable for all users.

Besides, if the main task is data parsing, surfing, online gaming, and not streaming Netflix in 4K, a speed of 7-10 Mbps will be enough for these tasks.

The myth of fast internet

Your home internet provider may promise 100 and 200 and 500 mbps. The problem is that you won't see them.

All applications and sites put a speed limit to reduce the load on servers. This is how RuTube does it.

You open a video. RuTube lets you download a piece of video at high speed. After you have a small amount to watch, the download speed slows down. 

The video loads enough to watch it without any lag. The download speed can vary from 1 to 5 Mbps.

Here's the loading bar when watching a video. It fills up gradually. You are not downloading the entire video.

RuTube regulates the speed, which makes the limit of up to 10 Mbps imperceptible to the user.

Most people do not need speeds higher than 7-10 Mbps. Services do not need to risk system stability for the sake of unlimited downloads.

We try to allow users to solve tasks without sacrificing connection stability.