28. 4. 2026 | ← Back to blog
When the IT manager asks about connection conditions, they usually focus on three figures: download speed, price and SLA. Upload is often at the end of the list or missing entirely. Yet it is precisely Symmetrical internet for businesses - that is, a connection with identical upload and download speeds - is decisive in today's operations. This article explains why, using specific examples from business practice in Prague 1.
Symmetrical connection means that the data upload speed is the same as the download speed. The 500 Mb/s symmetrical tariff provides 500 Mb/s in both directions, without limits, without hidden conditions, guaranteed.
Asymmetric connection is the opposite: download is significantly higher than upload. A typical cable tariff "500 Mb/s" has an upload of 50 Mb/s, i.e. One-tenth the value. DSL usually has an even worse ratio.
Why does only fibre offer symmetry as standard? Because optical fibre transmits data via light impulses. There is no physical reason why one direction should be slower. Asymmetry in cable and DSL connections is a deliberate operational decision by operators who redistribute shared capacity where customers notice it most, i.e. On download.
Modern corporate IT cannot exist without cloud backups. Microsoft Azure Backup, AWS Backup, Google Cloud Storage, Veeam Cloud Connect or simply backing up to OneDrive or SharePoint. It is all pure upload. And the volume of backed-up data grows year on year.
Concrete example: a company with 20 employees, each with a workstation and 200 GB of data. The daily change increment is typically 2-5% of the total volume, i.e., 80-200 GB of new or modified data per day. With an upload speed of 50 Mb/s, transferring 200 GB takes over 8 hours. The backup will not finish by morning and will overlap with working hours, blocking other traffic.
With a symmetric 500 Mb/s tariff, the same transfer takes less than an hour. The backup runs at night without anyone noticing its existence.
Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, all video conferencing platforms require a decent upload speed. Your camera sends the video to other participants, your microphone transmits audio, and screen sharing sends the entire monitor content. All of this is upload.
A simple 1:1 call in standard resolution requires approximately 1-2 Mb/s upload. A group call with 10 participants and a shared screen may require 8-15 Mb/s. An office with 30 employees on calls simultaneously needs 240-450 Mb/s upload just for video conferencing.
With an asymmetric tariff of 200/20 Mb/s (download/upload), an office can handle at best 5-10 simultaneous calls before quality begins to degrade. With a symmetric 300 Mb/s tariff, you gain three times the additional headroom.
The VPN tunnel operates bidirectionally, but the upload speed on the client computer limits overall performance. When an employee works from home via VPN accessing the company server, data from the server travels out through the office connection (which is the office's upload) to the employee's remote computer.
If an office line has an upload speed of 20 Mb/s and 10 employees work via VPN simultaneously, each receives an average of 2 Mb/s. Access to the company ERP, opening files on a network drive, working with databases, everything will lag and slow down. Not because the internet is slow on download, but because the upload cannot keep up.
Symmetrical fibre solves this problem. 300 Mb/s upload for 10 remote employees means 30 Mb/s per person, sufficient capacity for smooth remote access without restrictions.
Business IP telephone PBXs, Teams Direct Routing, SIP trunks, all IP telephony generates upload traffic. An HD voice call (G.722 codec) requires approximately 80-100 kbit/s in both directions. A video call via an IP PBX needs 500-1 000 kbit/s.
A reception handling 10 parallel calls requires 1 Mb/s for telephones alone. For a company with 50 employees using both voice and video conferencing, tens of Mb/s of dedicated upload are needed just for communication, excluding backup systems, cloud applications and VPNs.
A symmetric tariff meets these requirements as a matter of course. An asymmetric tariff requires careful planning of QoS rules, traffic prioritisation and acceptance of compromises.
Josefov and Staré Město are home to companies in sectors where symmetry is not an advantage but a necessity.
Law firms and legal practices. Online access to data boxes, sharing large contracts and documents via secure channels, video conferencing with clients and courts, all depend on stable, fast upload speeds.
Architectural studios and designers. Models, drawings and presentations in gigabytes. Uploading to client portals, backing up project inspections, collaborating with suppliers via cloud platforms. An asymmetric connection with 20 Mb/s upload is a daily frustration.
Financial institutions and commercial companies. Real-time access to exchanges and trading platforms requires low latency and stable bidirectional connectivity. Any outage or slowdown in upload speed can have a direct financial impact.
Media and production companies. Video files, audio recordings, graphic assets, production companies upload gigabytes of data daily. With asymmetric upload speeds, editors spend hours waiting for transfers to complete.
Choosing the right speed depends on the number of users and the nature of work. General rule of thumb:
For every user with video conferencing, cloud backup systems and VPN, allow for at least 10-15 Mb/s upload. A company with 20 employees should have at least 200-300 Mb/s symmetrically, ideally with headroom for peaks and future growth.
Precise sizing depends on specific software equipment and work processes. We are happy to assist with analysis and selection of a suitable tariff, contact us at +420 775 654 499 or internet@pvip.cz. You can check the availability of symmetric fibre for your address at our homepage.
For a more detailed comparison of technologies, we recommend the article Optical Internet vs. WiFi vs. 5G for businesses and an overview of company benefits in the article Office Internet Praha 1 with SLA 99,9 %.
We provide fast and stable internet, fair prices and reliable communication. You can sleep soundly.