Is Fiber Really Better Than Cable?

I recently upgraded my home internet from cable to fiber, and got the gig speeds that come with it. I used to have Xfinity's cable internet, at about 300 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds. And it worked fine! But when fiber internet came along, I wanted to see what an upgrade could do for me, especially on the upload side. So now I've got those gig speeds! That's 1,000 Mbps download AND upload speed. And it's sweet! But how much of that do my everyday activities actually use? I pulled out my router's mobile app and measured it to find out.

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[nathanbraun]

yes it's better. as long as no one cuts the fiber line, it will always work. unlike with copper lines

[dennisp]

As a general rule of thumb you want to get a internet speed that allows for every member of a household to have at minimum access to 25mbps. This will allow everyone to do as they please. 2x that amount per person if you live in a house that is all about streaming and where each user is using multiple devices at a time i.e a 4k Netflix stream while browsing their phone or gaming while downloading large files in the background. Anything more than that and its just convenience but not necessary for a good experience. Their are obviously outlier scenarios but as a general rule of thumb that is the easiest way to figure out the kind of internet speed one should get for themselves and their family

[RavenholmZombie]

I went from 7 Down - 1 Up Mbps DSL to 100/100 symmetric fiber and it is absolutely amazing!

[TechxGremlin]

I Love My AT&T 1000 Mbps! Not Everybody needs 1000 Mbps But I Will Always Enjoy Having Fiber. Some People Drive Hondas And Some People Drive BMWs, They Both Will Get You From Point A to Point B But I Prefer To Drive In Comfort.

[UMG-Melons]

I've been paying $80.00 a month for DSL with speeds of 9.5 mbps down and .85 up max so having fiber would be a dream and probably cheaper.

[ksk]

Please note that for the most home smart devices you have mentioned like security cameras and lights, they don't necessarily use the internet (Except for sending metric data to manufacturer's server or download software updates). When you access security camera footage via NVR or the camera itself while staying at home, the bandwidth consumption is being done within the LAN network, meaning the camera video footage data gets delivered from the camera/NVR to your smartphone or computer via your router. So here the quality of the router matters more than your internet bandwidth. The exception is if somehow the camera uploads the footage to a remote cloud server and your phone downloads it from that server, in that case internet bandwidth is consumed. This applies for most of the smart devices we use in our home.

[CRASS]

In my neighborhood in SW Florida, Frontier is offering gig fiber for $69.99 which is over 3 times as fast and half the price as my current service through xfinity. I’m switching . Mostly it’s because after the recent hurricane, internet was out for over 2 weeks because the cables weren’t underground

[mikeo]

I love my gig speed, I have had fiber with AT&T now for 4 years in OKC and I would not want anything else. I work from home, for a for a huge technology company. It makes sense for virtual meetings, transfer of files, not to mention, when the husband is off work, the daughter is home from school and everything is running on the network. I can look at my network pull and yeah I may be fulling at any giving time 37-150GB an hour but really its about just knowing you have the power and the speed. I pay $89 a month and have for the last 4 years because I TV, and wireless. You just can't beat that cost, and it is more reliable than that of the only other real GIG competitor in our market Cox, which isn't Fiber, and is double. I would never go back because the day I did, would be the day I finally got that one YouTube video that made me famous, and I won't get my locked in grandfathered $89 GIG price again.

[mektr]

For me: upgrading to fiber will hopefully resolve many issues I have with my upstream when live streaming with cloud service overlays while in VOIP and gaming simultaneously, but the hardest hit area is my VPN and running multiple remote desktop sessions. I currently have 1000down/50up cable connection and doing speed tests depending on time of day it can be as fast as 920down or as slow as 500down. The speed fluctuates a lot depending on time of day. My upload get effected as well. I frequently have remote desktop sessions hang or drop out and have to reconnect which really hinders workflow. I also play an alpha game that gets frequent large download updates to it so having the 10+gig dl finish quickly saves time and gives me time to check out the latest patch.

And in todays world: multiple work from home + multiple remote learning on the same connection is becoming the new normal and far more common these days. On the gaming side: granted the speeds are not as important while playing, however the ping is. High ping on a PvP game can mean the difference between getting the kill and getting killed. Fiber is going to be superior to other broadband forms but that doesn't mean you need the fastest connection fiber has to offer. most fiber providers will offer 50, 100, 250, 500, and gig symmetrical connections.

[pmizz]

One thing I really haven’t heard discussed much is reliability. Since so many, including myself are working from home even small little outages from cable can really throw a wrench in your workflow. Yes there is sharing that you mentioned but signal frequencies fluctuations can cause cable to become unstable. Something I am currently experiencing. Cox is installing Fiber in my area (phoenix) right now... My primary hope is that I get an upgrade in reliability. You have windows to work these days when you are also trying to deal with home schooling and keeping the kids fed and entertained. Connection issues in those windows

[qazwsxzwharp]

Gig internet is totally worth it. Price difference vs 100 Mbps is usually only a few dollars per month.

[brandonlord]

What it was for me is the cable service so runs me has data caps. With 3 phones two tablets a ps5, Xbox x and other smart devices the fiber company offers a lifetime price lock and no data caps so I’m paying way less than what cable was charging me for a god

[Thronnos]

Another big thing to keep in mind, especially with gaming, is that bandwidth for downloading. A 100mbps connection trying to download say a 8 gig game, or even something monstrous like COD with its 15+ gig file size can take hours. Especially on digital only consoles where space is a commodity. This is where that higher speed is incredible

[robertfletcher]

Smart home devices wouldn't use any Internet bandwidth if you are only controlling and monitoring them within your own WiFi network. If you need to access them away from home, however, you would be using upload bandwidth. On a different note, a great reason to have increased upload speed is if you have a media server like Plex that has content you want to view away from home. With only 5 or 10 Mbps upload, you can pretty much only watch the content in 720p. This is a reason I would go to fiber, but it's not yet available in my area. :(

[rfink]

You need to remember, if your internet goes down, fiber or coax, how long is it going to take the company to get someone out to fix it. Some companies may take a day or two to get a tech out while some companies get on the problem right away. I have Spectrum cable internet and it is extremely reliable, if ever it goes down they dispatch right away so I'm very satisfied with 370 mbps which is plenty fast.

[scmizzit]

If fiber wasn’t cheaper in my area than cable I wouldn’t have bought into it. I pay $110 for 250d and I forget the up with Comcast. Fiber on my area is going for $70 for a gig up and down.

[loriwillard]

We upgraded to 1GB Fiber and have more TV buffering than we did with 50mb coax. And it is costing twice the price. It seems to be much less forgiving with getting through the whole house than the wifi on coax was. There are typically only about 6 devices (printer, tv, computers, cell phones and tablets) online at the same time. And even though some are connected they may not be doing anything. There are no smart-home devices (doorbells, light bulbs, cameras, etc). I work from home and see a lot of internet not available periods of time. We are moving back to coax - possibly with a Private Direct Connection if available.

[dennisp]

200/200 is a pretty good spot to be at if you have fiber. If you have to rely on cable than getting the faster speed from them is a must for the higher upload speeds as it asymmetrical so for the example of Comcast 300/10 is a good reasonable spot to be at

[paulcosteines]

The title Is Fiber Better Than Cable is a little misleading as to the true topic of the conversation. Its really about whether or not people need that much more upload speed. I would like to have expanded on how you get the synchronous speeds and whether or not converting to a fiber connection allows this and what are some of the other added benefits such as latency, jitter....etc.

[jeon]

If you are a research Scientist who needs to download data from their cloud server and then analyze the data at home and upload their data back to the cloud. From my experience some of these data files can be rather large and require large upload speed.