Stop chasing download speed. Know your peak hour.

Download speed is not a question of "more is better." What you actually need depends on three things: how many people share the connection, how much data your work and daily life require, and what your schedule looks like — specifically, what happens at peak hour when everything runs at once.

The right question to ask

Before looking at the wifi speed in a rental description, work out what your peak hour looks like. For some nomads that's mid-morning: calls are stacking up, a standup is running, cloud tools are syncing in the background, and someone is sharing a screen. For others, work starts later in the day to match different time zones, or shifts into evenings or nights, while the shared connection is used for streaming by the rest of the building. Think about what's happening at once during your busiest hour, not across the whole day.

What your peak hour might look like: three examples

These aren't fixed categories — most nomads sit somewhere in between. Use these as a reference point for working out your own peak load.

Example A: solo nomad, developer or independent worker

One person on the connection. Standard remote work: code pushes, cloud tools running, the occasional video call. No simultaneous streams or calls. In the evenings, a film or series.

What this typically needs: 25-50 Mbps download. 25 Mbps covers a full working day comfortably. 50 Mbps adds headroom for 4K streaming in the evening. Anything above that is headroom you will rarely use.

If you work late shifts or across time zones, the same numbers apply — the timing of your peak hour shifts, but the load doesn't change significantly for a solo setup.

Example B: nomad couple, one with frequent video calls, one doing online editing or async work

Two people on the connection, but not always simultaneously active. One has back-to-back calls in the morning; the other is editing, uploading files, or doing research. Calls don't always overlap. In the evenings, one stream running, possibly both.

What this typically needs: 50-100 Mbps download covers this comfortably as long as calls don't overlap regularly. When they do — both on calls simultaneously, both screen sharing — the connection starts to feel tight below 100 Mbps. A rental advertising 40-80 Mbps can work well for this setup on most days. When the calls overlap, you'll notice.

If one of you works mornings and the other works evenings to cover different time zones, your peak hours may not overlap at all, which means your effective load is closer to a solo nomad setup than a dual-worker one. If your situation involves heavier overlap, shared building connections, or simply more devices running at once, the family example below is a better reference point.

Example C: family with children

Two adults working remotely, children streaming, gaming, or attending school online. Multiple devices active simultaneously, often across different rooms and at unpredictable times.

What this typically needs: 100-150 Mbps download covers most nomad family setups comfortably. Three simultaneous streams alone approach 75 Mbps. Add two working adults and the number climbs quickly, but in practice most families don't hit their theoretical peak load every hour of the day. 100 Mbps handles a typical family day well; 150 Mbps means nothing ever feels slow, even when everyone is online at once.

A practical check before you book

The number in a rental description is a starting point, not an answer. What matters is whether that connection holds up during your specific peak hour, with your specific mix of calls, streams, and devices running at once. Once you know what your peak hour actually looks like, the number becomes much easier to evaluate.

On blankbase, both download and upload speeds are verified for every listing before it goes live. The number you see reflects a tested connection, not a host's estimate of what "fast" means.

To work out your own peak hour, here's what common tasks actually consume:

• HD video call (one-on-one): 1.5-3 Mbps download
• Group video call (HD, multiple participants): 3-5 Mbps download
• Screen sharing during a call: add 2 Mbps on top of the call
• Streaming HD video (one screen): 5-8 Mbps
• Streaming 4K video (one screen): 25 Mbps
• Music or podcast in the background: under 1 Mbps
• Web browsing with multiple tabs: 5-10 Mbps
• Cloud gaming: 35-50 Mbps per session

Add up what's running simultaneously. That's your real requirement. If you don't want to do the maths yourself, our wifi cheat sheet breaks down the numbers by work type. [tinyurl.com/Wi-Fi-Guide]

FAQ

Is 100 Mbps enough for two people working from home? It depends on whether your calls overlap. If your schedules are staggered or one of you works mostly async, 50-100 Mbps is genuinely enough. If you're regularly on calls at the same time while screen sharing and syncing files, 100 Mbps starts to feel tight. That's the point where a tested 100 Mbps connection and a claimed 100 Mbps connection start to feel very different.

What if the rental only lists one speed number? Assume it is the download figure, since that is almost always what hosts advertise. The upload speed is the one worth asking about separately, since that is what determines call quality on your end. More on that in our upload speed article. [link to upload speed article]

What's the easiest way to work out what I actually need? Think about your busiest hour rather than your average day. Count what's running simultaneously: calls, streams, cloud sync, other devices. That number is your real requirement, not a rough headcount of how many people are travelling with you. Our wifi cheat sheet breaks it down by work type if you want a quick reference. [tinyurl.com/Wi-Fi-Guide]