Thanks SG. As mentioned, I was not having problems with receiving streams originating within the U.S. with the slower speed. Netflix was fine at the slower speed. So was XBMC, along with VLC on the PC which I forgot to mention.

The problem I was having with the slower speed, was receiving overseas high band width streams consistently without drop outs and slow connection times to their servers. The band width capacity of their servers come in to play too. But, now using a higher speed at my end, has improved the connection time and consistency of the connection with the receivers.

Here in the U.S., as long as the major providers continue to use high band width capacity servers, a slower speed should suffice.