Fiber optic internet
Fiber optic networks are the latest and greatest way to get a healthy dose of internet to your home or business.
You may be asking yourself – what is fiber internet? Why do I need it, and what difference does it make? Is fiber optic faster than cable?
Here are the answers to those questions.
Fiber optic internet makes remote working more viable
If you only use the internet to browse social networks and stream Netflix, an occasional connection failure is not the end of the world. It’s annoying, but you won’t lose money or get in trouble with your boss.
However, with more and more workers around the world opting for remote working from home, having a stable and reliable internet connection is more important than ever. If you keep getting dropped out of important meetings due to a weak and overcrowded network, the chances of you keeping your job are slim to none.
Fiber optics are the most stable and reliable way to connect to the internet. The speeds are unprecedented, and that downtime is virtually zero. If your livelihood depends on a good internet connection, investing in a fiber optic connection is a sound decision.
Lightning fast downloads
Huge files are dragged off the internet and planted straight on your hard drive within seconds. That’s what fiber optics allow for.
Installing the newest AAA game from Steam? You won’t even have the time to take a bathroom break, it will already be installed.
Making an offline library of movies, songs and other media files? Within minutes you can download so many TV shows that you would need three lifetimes to watch them all.
Upload speeds are becoming just as important as download speeds nowadays. If you’re an aspiring streamer, a fiber connection guarantees no interruption or throttling during your sessions.
Live in the clouds
Cloud based file sharing is the cornerstone of today’s internet. It looks like this type of file storage is here to stay.
Cloud applications are indispensable for any type of work, remote or not.
A fiber optic connection eliminates the difference between storing files on your own hard drive vs. using a cloud drive service. Any file can be accessed within seconds.
Enough bandwidth for everyone and everything
Even in a residential situation, if everyone tries to stream high quality video at the same time, a DSL connection can encounter issues. The amount of information is just too much for its capacities.
With a fiber optic connection, you will never encounter this problem. Everyone in your household will be supplied with enough bandwidth and bask in the glory of a full speed, uninterrupted connection.
If your business has an office with multiple computers, having enough bandwidth for everyone is essential. That way, the productivity of your team will not depend on the whims of an unstable connection.
Stable and reliable – no throttling
Consider your internet service provider’s plain old cable internet offer. When they describe their speeds, they say things like ‘up to 20 megabytes per second’. They need that ‘up to’ part because if there’s too much activity on the network, your ISP decreases your connection speed. This is called ‘throttling.’
Fiber optic connections are much less susceptible to overloads. Throttling is next to impossible with a fiber optic connection.
What are fiber optics?
Fiber optics are the latest innovation in – cable technology. Yes, it’s just a new type of cable.
A regular old DSL cable is just a plain old one – copper wires and insulation. A fiber optic does not have copper wires.
A fiber optic cable has strands of glass running through it. These strands are usually not wider than a strand of human hair.
The information is not being sent through electrical impulses, like in a regular cable. Light actually travels through it. This is where the ‘optic’ comes from in fiber technology.
Fiber optic technology sends its ones and zeros via a laser. Isn’t that fascinating?
What are the advantages of fiber optic cables compared to copper wire cables?
In telecommunication, cables are used to move information long distances. Efficiency is the name of the game here.
Efficiency in this case means:
- The speed of the data transfer through the cable
- The amount of data that can be transferred, otherwise known as the bandwidth
- The energy efficiency – how much energy is transferred to heat, and thus lost and dissipated
Fiber optic cables are superior to regular copper wire cables in every way.
As we’ve mentioned before, fiber optic cables use laser impulses to carry information. Thus, speed is the speed of light – you can’t get much faster than that.
Fiber optics can carry approximately 100 times more information than standard, copper wire cables. This enormous increase in bandwidth translates to much higher speed for your downloads.
Fiber cables are rated anywhere from 250 megabytes per second up to 1 gigabytes per second.
Copper wire cables invariably lose energy by turning electricity into heat. This impedes the speeds and bandwidth they are capable of achieving, as well as create risk from fires.
Due to the fact that light travels through fiber optic cables, those problems are circumvented with this incredible technology. The information can be relayed over much greater distances without losing strength.
Because of the great distances, the information can traverse, there is no need for signal boosters required by conventional cables. This is, again, an eco-friendly win – overall, less equipment is used.
We’ll just highlight one more advantage of fiber optics. Signals sent through copper wires can be interfered with by other electromagnetic signals. For example, this happens when many cables are bunched together.
Due to the nature of the way the information is relayed, fiber optics are much less susceptible to interference. That means the signal is stronger, needs less protection, and can be arranged in a much more efficient way.
Conclusion
If you’re a business owner, there’s no doubt about it – your business will benefit greatly from a fiber internet connection. You will gain access to more tools. Your connection will be much faster and more reliable. This will result in a much more productive team, and your business will grow.
If you’re looking to install a fiber connection in your home, it’s also a sound investment. Your upload and download speeds will allow you to browse and use the internet without any hiccups.
Moreover, it’s an investment for the future. As fiber cables become more and more widely adopted, so will the services that actually use the insane speeds become more ubiquitous.
By installing a fiber connection now, you’re making sure that you’re on the cutting edge of the developing technology.
