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One of the more important numbers governing your online experience might as well be 404-ed on many internet providers’ sites. You might not like learning that upload speeds at the cable providers responsible for most Americans’ connectivity far lag download speeds.

That should not be an issue for users who typically consume more online than they create – a scenario that many providers say dominates their usage. For people working from home since the onset of the pandemic, a slower uplink can degrade their digital time, especially if a home sees multiple video-chat sessions in such apps as Zoom (which recommends uplinks of 2 megabits per second).

At the websites of the five largest cable operators, upload speeds almost never get the same billing as download speeds; at worst, you may need to look up a technical support document.

Comcast, the nation’s largest internet provider with 27.8 million residential broadband customers, doesn’t list upload speeds if you check for its Xfinity service at an address or order service at its site. Comcast closed the Amazon storefront that provided those details four years ago.

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A network management document includes a table of upload speeds that range from 768 kilobits per second on its slowest plans to 35 Mbps on its 1-gigabit-per-second service, the fastest it sells online. That document is more than a year old, and spokesman Joel Shadle said Xfinity’s minimum upload on new connections is 3 Mbps.

Spectrum, the second-largest provider, also doesn’t list upload speeds if you check for or order service. A network disclosure page says they run from 4 to 35 Mbps, and a rate card page will reveal which ones are available at a given street address. 

Fortunately, checking for service availability from Cox's home page leads to a list of speed tiers that feature downloads and uploads; the latter start at 3 Mbps and top out at 35 Mbps. A separate note about speeds and data plans reports that in some areas, Cox offers symmetric services with 500 and 940 Mbps down and up. Spokesman Todd Smith said it provides those speeds where it’s newly built out service. 

Shopping for Altice’s Optimum-branded service from its home page shows only download speeds. A separate page listing its speed tiers offers upload rates behind a “Details” link: 35 to 50 Mbps, aside from some markets – “select areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut,” spokesman Ashwin Bhandari emailed – where it offers symmetric 940 Mbps connections.  

Finally, Mediacom Cable lists its upload speeds next to its download speeds – even in the same type size! They start at 5 Mbps and max out at 50 Mbps. 

Cable operators – the dominant broadband option in America, holding almost 70% of the market in Leichtman Research Group’s count – are working to roll out modest upload speed increases in the short run. A more comprehensive set of system upgrades, in limited trials at such firms as Comcast and Mediacom, hold out the promise of fully symmetric connections to match those of the fiberoptic services that remain out of reach of most Americans. 

Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington. To submit a tech question, email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.

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