2Mb/s vs 10Mb/s upload

I know the 10Mb upload speed is useful for those who upload alot of data but is 2Mb enough for those who mainly download? I know data flows both ways when downloading but I don't know what ratios are involved.
Would someone with 2Mb upload speed be lacking in any performance if they don't upload lots?
What download speed could a 2Mb upload speed handle?

Cheers.

In order of your Qs: Yes, No, Any!

As long as you are not downloading while sharing via P2P or torrents.

When you are just downloading the only upload traffic is the very short instructions to the servers you are using and ACKnowledgements of your receipts.

Since our upstream went from about half a meg to about 1.5 meg I have noticed the difference. Email is more responsive with attachments. I do upload a fair bit, faster upstream would be useful, so I'd take the 10meg if it were available especially if I got into something like photography and had galleries of stuff to publish.

If on the other hand like most people (though it will change slowly) you mostly download - e.g. the ratio is 99% down to 1% up - and you just browse and send emails, then it will make little if any difference.

2Mb/s is quite a lot of upload ability for most, 2Mb/s download is still a lot for some! Unless you send massive emails or 'pull' from your home network (ala slingbox) then I would have thought 2Mb/s would do most people.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Since our upstream went from about half a meg to about 1.5 meg I have noticed the difference. Email is more responsive with attachments. I do upload a fair bit, faster upstream would be useful, so I'd take the 10meg if it were available especially if I got into something like photography and had galleries of stuff to publish.

That's an advantage of running your own mail server at home. The upload to my server is near instant. The upload to the remote server is of no interest to me

In reply to a post by has2bok:

Would someone with 2Mb upload speed be lacking in any performance if they don't upload lots?

I will add another no. There would be no discernible difference.