What is High-Speed Fiber-Optic Internet and Why Do You Need One?

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Fiber optic cable for internet illustration

Most of us know that fiber-optic internet is faster than all, but very few realize what that really is. If you are not sure if it is reliable, expensive, and how different it is from the normal internet, you are on the right page. 

In this blog, we will dive a bit deeper to understand what high-speed fiber-optic internet is and how it can benefit you for everyday online tasks. So without further ado, let us first know what that means.

What Is Fiber-Optic Internet?

This type of internet is transmitted through a fibre optic cabling that is filled with plastic fibers or thin glass. This allows the internet to travel as fast as light, making it around 20 times faster than the normal cable internet. The average speed you can expect with a fiber-optic internet connection is 1 Gbps. If you want to know if this is available in your locality, you can check with the best internet service provider in your area.

Unlike normal internet cables, due to the absence of copper wires, there isn’t anything to gum up the work in fiber internet. Cable and DSL internet uses metal wires to transmit the signals. As such metals can heat up over time, the data transmission slows down, and eventually providers slower internet speed, especially during peaks.

But if you are thinking if the fiber internet is better, the answer is yes. It’s consistent, faster, and more reliable compared to cable and DSL. Plus, it comes with many other benefits mentioned below. Consider these points to understand why you need a fiber optic internet connection at home and business.

Why Do You Need High-Speed Fiber-Optic Internet Services?

Lightning Speed

As mentioned earlier, fiber internet is around 20 times faster than cable internet and around 100 times faster than DSL. Check the following time comparison list to know how much it takes to download a 2-hour movie with all these types:

DSL (with speed 25 Mbps): Half an hour

Cable (with speed 100 Mbps): 7 minutes

Fiber optic (with speed 1 Gbps): 40 seconds

Say Bye To Throttling

Most internet service providers throttle the data to avoid outages. You may experience slower internet speed during peak times and it can be frustrating. As fiber internet is less vulnerable to overload, you do not have to worry about throttling with it.

Reliability

We all have experienced buffers while watching our favorite online videos. But why does this happen? Yes, that’s because of the slow internet. Overload during peak hours can spoil your movie time if you have DSL or cable internet. However, it can be avoided with fiber-optic internet as it is made to handle more data and users at the same time.

Symmetrical Download And Upload Speeds

Have you ever wondered why it takes only 5-10 minutes to download a movie and around an hour to upload your last League of Legends gameplay on Twitch? That’s because DSL and cable internets have different upload and download speeds. 

This is not the same thing with fiber internet. Due to no fear of overloading, the same speed is provided for both upload and download. This makes it extremely faster and easier to upload big-size files with this type of connection.

Final Words

In this era of COVID 19 pandemic, most of us are working from home, and even our kids are schooling from home. Such heavy tasks need a high-speed internet for the best and uninterrupted online experience. Fiber-optic internet is the perfect option in this case and to get that, you have to pay just $10-$20 more than your current plan. 

The benefits mentioned above are not limited — it also offers safety, connectivity for multiple devices, a better gaming experience, better TV quality, and much more.