I'll assume you are referring to when you are sending something to the
internet. Typical highspeed access is all about downloads. For
example the 2mb speeds that are advertised by my provider is for
downloads, but my upload speed is only 256kbps. Much slower.
Go to this site http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ and run the
test then take the results to you ISP to make sure you are getting what
you pay for.