If my memory serves me right, in ADSL, different frequencies are assigned to the Upload and the Download stream .. hence your upload and download speeds do not affect each other.Also, in most cases, the upload frequencies are a smaller in comparison to the download frequencies ( due to the assumption that people download more than they upload )Hence, using the 256 Kbps plan, though I get a download of about 30 - 31 Kbps, my uploads are at max, 8 - 10 Kbps