Yes, I know, people use download bandwidth far more than they need upload bandwidth. But I don’t get why it isn’t comparable anyway. Why is it always so much lower?
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Because, why would an ISP dedicate more of his limited ressources than necessary?
Back in the day when streaming (as in broadcasting to twitch etc), file sharing, or even high-performance online gaming wasn’t a thing for everyone and their grandma yet, there was no need for large upload capacity. ISPs would dedicate only so much bandwidth for upload as was necessary for basic web-browsing. At transport level the necessary acknowledgement packets that tell a server that you received (downloaded) a specific piece of data are round about 15-20 times smaller than the actual data packets that you receive. That’s where the familiar up/downstream ratios like 500/50 or 400/25 mbps come from.
Today, as upload-heavy use cases emerge, ISPs offer optional upload packages, but still the most users don’t need them.
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