The internet comes to our homes through coaxial cable lines, phone lines, and wireless. While services like 5G home internet continue to gain popularity thanks to their low prices and low cost of entry, this technology isn’t ideal for activities like online gaming and large downloads. Fiber, more often than not, offers higher speeds and lower latency than other internet options and is still rapidly expanding across the country.
If you’ve tried to livestream on a cable connection, you quickly realized that having a high download speed doesn’t mean you’ll have a fast upload speed. Many gigabit cable internet plans have upload speeds under 40Mbps. For most people, download speed is more important than upload, so it makes sense that cable companies use their resources this way. Our need for fast internet, including upload speed, continues to increase, with people working from home, kids learning from home, and streaming being more popular than ever.
Most of the time, but not always, fiber internet has symmetrical upload and download speeds. A gigabit plan on fiber should be able to deliver around 940Mbps down and up as long as the network isn’t too congested. Providers are required to tell customers about the actual speeds they should get with their connection in an easy-to-read nutrition label.
When it comes to the equipment you need to stay connected, fiber is a bit simpler. Most people only need an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) that can be paired with an off-the-shelf Wi-Fi router, like one of the best Wi-Fi routers. An ONT is a compact device that turns the outside fiber connection into Ethernet so that you can connect your router. A lot of the time, the fiber provider provides one free of charge. If you only have Ethernet coming out of your wall, your ONT could be installed outside your home, but for many, it will be inside the house.
This setup gives you the freedom to upgrade your router for better performance. With most cable providers, you’ll need to buy a compatible modem to use your router or rent a gateway from the provider. With 5G home internet, you’ll use the provided router. It has the hardware needed to connect to the 5G network.
Cable internet providers haven’t given up, and most are upgrading their networks to meet newer DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 4.0 standards. Even so, they’re only playing catchup to fiber providers that offer very fast speeds. AT&T Fiber, for example, has 5Gbps available in many cities across the country, with Frontier offering 7Gbps and GFiber taking that up to 8Gbps.
5G providers typically offer speeds under 1Gbps. While impressive for the technology, they can’t keep up with fiber. Any modern broadband connection should be fast enough if your internet usage is light, for example, if you mostly stream HD video and browse the web.
Some people stick with a cable company for internet because they’re also signed up for cable TV. If you bundle these services, you can often get plan and equipment discounts. However, if you do the math, the savings aren’t as great as they seem. If you have a solid fiber option in your area but want TV, there’s a chance you can save over cable with a streaming TV service like YouTube TV, Sling, or Fubo. Even DIRECTV has a streaming TV service available.
Beyond the price, streaming TV can be nice, since it works on devices like smart TVs, tablets, phones, and game consoles. Since you can use Wi-Fi with a downloaded app, you don’t need to order a specific box or run new wires through your home to watch TV. You can even stream some movies for free right away.
For most people, an internet connection of 100Mbps or higher is fine for anything from large downloads to streaming 4K video. Realistically, most of what we do online doesn’t use much bandwidth all at once. However, your bandwidth could be spread too thin if you add family members to the mix. While fiber offers incredible speeds with multi-gig options, most of us don’t need them. Keep in mind that as we continue to move more of our lives online, our internet needs will also increase.
Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/reasons-to-choose-fiber-optic-internet/
