We get this question almost as often as we get asked what business internet even is. Someone calls in, tells us their office feels slow, and asks whether they need 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, or something bigger. The honest answer is that the number on the plan matters less than what your team is actually doing online, and a lot of businesses end up paying for speed they don’t use, or worse, running on a plan that was never going to cope in the first place.
Here’s how to actually work it out.
A quick starting point by team size
These are rough guides, not gospel, but they’re a fair starting place before you look at what your team actually does day to day.
A solo operator or a team of two or three usually gets by comfortably on 50 to 100 Mbps, assuming light cloud use and the occasional video call.
A small office of five to ten people doing daily video calls, cloud file sharing and general admin work typically wants somewhere between 100 and 300 Mbps.
Once you’re past ten employees, or your team leans heavily on large file uploads, cloud backups or several simultaneous video calls, it’s worth looking at 500 Mbps or a full gigabit plan.
Businesses running multiple sites, heavy data transfer, or systems that genuinely cannot tolerate downtime usually move past NBN business plans altogether and look at dedicated fibre or enterprise Ethernet instead.
What actually eats your bandwidth
Speed requirements are almost never about one big number. They come from adding up a handful of everyday activities.
Basic email and web browsing use very little, generally under 5 Mbps per person even with several tabs open.
A single video call on Teams or Zoom typically needs somewhere between 3 and 5 Mbps for both the upload and download side. That number matters more than people expect, because a call is a two way stream, not just something you’re receiving.
Cloud based tools like Microsoft 365, file syncing and shared drives can pull an extra 3 to 5 Mbps per active user, more if several people are uploading large files at once.
VoIP phone calls are lighter than most people assume, usually under 1 Mbps per call, but they’re extremely sensitive to inconsistent connections, which is why a phone system on a poor connection tends to cut out before anything else does.
Point of sale systems, security cameras and backup jobs running overnight all add their own quiet drain, and they’re the ones businesses forget to account for until an overnight backup slows everything down the next morning.
A simple way to work out your number
A rough formula that holds up well in practice is this. Take your number of staff, multiply by roughly 5 Mbps for combined video and cloud use, then add 20 percent on top for peak times and future growth.
An eight person office doing regular video calls and cloud work would land around 40 Mbps for daily use, and adding the buffer brings that to roughly 50 Mbps as a sensible floor, not a ceiling. Businesses often go higher than the bare minimum on purpose, because a connection sitting right at the edge of what it needs tends to struggle the moment two people jump on a call at the same time.
Why upload speed gets overlooked, and why it shouldn’t
Most people compare plans by download speed alone, because that’s the number providers put in bold on their websites. For a business, upload speed usually matters just as much, sometimes more. Video calls, cloud backups and file sharing all depend on how fast you can send data out, not just pull it in.
A lot of NBN plans are asymmetric, meaning the upload speed is a fraction of the download speed advertised. A plan boasting 100 Mbps download might only offer 20 Mbps upload, which is fine for browsing but gets uncomfortable fast once three people are on video calls at the same time. If your business relies on either of those, it’s worth asking specifically about upload speed rather than trusting the headline number.
A situation we see more often than you’d think
We worked with a small design studio in Sydney who had upgraded their plan twice, chasing a bigger download number each time, and were still getting complaints about laggy client calls. The actual issue had nothing to do with download speed at all. Their upload was capped low, and between video calls and constantly syncing large design files to the cloud, they were maxing it out most afternoons. Once we matched the plan to what they were actually sending, not just receiving, the problem disappeared without needing the biggest or most expensive plan available.
It’s a pattern we see a lot. Businesses chase a bigger number instead of the right number, and end up paying for speed that was never the actual bottleneck.
When it makes sense to go bigger than the minimum
If your business is growing, adding staff, or planning to lean more heavily on cloud tools over the next year or two, it’s worth building in headroom rather than buying exactly what you need today. Upgrading a plan later is usually straightforward, but if you’re on a connection type with limited availability in your area, it pays to plan ahead rather than assume you can simply bump the speed up whenever you like.
You can check what’s actually available at your address through NBN Co’s business coverage checker, since the technology available varies a lot between suburbs, and that availability affects both your ceiling and your upload speed more than most people expect.
Getting the right fit, not just the biggest plan
The goal isn’t to buy the fastest plan on the page. It’s to match your connection to what your team actually does, with enough room to grow without paying for capacity that sits unused. If you want a broader look at how business grade connections differ from home plans in the first place, our earlier guide on what business internet actually is covers that ground.
We help Sydney businesses work this out properly, including checking upload speed, VoIP reliability and how your phone system is actually affected by your connection, rather than just recommending whatever plan has the biggest number attached. If you’re not sure whether your current speed is actually the problem, get in touch with our team and we’ll help you work out what your business genuinely needs, or take a look at our business internet page for how we approach it.
FAQs
How much internet speed does a small business with five employees need? Roughly 100 to 300 Mbps is a reasonable range for five employees using regular video calls and cloud tools, though the exact number depends on how many people are online at the same time and how much uploading happens during the day.
Is download speed or upload speed more important for a business? Both matter, but upload speed is the one businesses tend to overlook. Video calls, cloud backups and file syncing all depend heavily on upload speed, and a plan with a low upload allowance can bottleneck a business even if the download number looks impressive.
How many Mbps does a video call actually use? A single video call typically uses around 3 to 5 Mbps for both sending and receiving. That number multiplies quickly once several staff are on calls at the same time, which is where a lot of offices run into trouble.
Do I need gigabit internet for a small office? Not usually. Gigabit plans make sense once you’re past ten employees, dealing with large file transfers regularly, or running multiple demanding applications at once. Most small offices are well served by something well under that.
Why does my internet feel slow even though I have a fast plan? It’s often an upload speed issue rather than a download problem, particularly if the slowness shows up during video calls or cloud syncing. It can also be caused by too many devices competing for bandwidth at once, or ageing network hardware inside the office itself.
Should I upgrade my speed now or wait until it becomes a problem? If your business is growing or planning to rely more on cloud tools, it’s worth building in some headroom now rather than upgrading reactively, especially if your connection type has limited availability in your area.
