An asymmetrical Internet connection is an Internet connection which has a higher data transfer rate for downloads than for uploads. In more technical terms, the downstream of an asymmetrical Internet connection is faster than its upstream.
In the past, nearly all consumer-level broadband Internet connections were asymmetrical. One reason for this is that the number of Internet-based services which involved the uploading of large amounts of data to Internet servers were few and sparsely used.
The advent of social media, personal video broadcasting services like Youtube and cloud-based services has led to increased demand for fast upstream speeds. Today, a number of Swiss broadband plans and particularly plans using optical fiber connection provide symmetrical transfer rates – meaning the upstream and downstream speeds are identical.
If you regularly upload large amounts of data to Internet servers or transfer data from your device to remote devices via the Internet, then a symmetrical Internet connection may drastically reduce the time it takes to accomplish these tasks.
More on this topic:
Symmetrical data connections explained
Swiss broadband Internet plan comparison
