A lot of developers now spend their day in two apps that are both heavy internet users: a video call platform and an AI coding assistant. Each one, on its own, is fine on a modern connection. Running them together on a marginal plan is where things fall apart.
Zoom or Teams uses 3 to 5 Mbps continuously in the background. AI coding tools use short, bursty requests that need low latency — every suggestion is a request. When those two collide on a connection with limited upload, the coding tool's requests get queued behind the video stream, and suggestions arrive seconds late. To the developer, it feels like the AI is broken.
A plan with symmetric or near-symmetric speeds — cable's higher upload tiers or fiber — handles this scenario much better than a legacy plan with tiny upload. Add wired Ethernet and Quality of Service that prioritizes work traffic, and both apps stop stepping on each other. For a broader look at how AI tools are reshaping developer output, HashiCorp's analysis of how AI coding tools change developer workflows is worth reading alongside your connectivity upgrades.
