When you upload a video to YouTube, you are uploading. Downloading and uploading are usually represented as different speeds. Most casual users only have to worry about the downloading speed, but telecommuters, those dependent on telemedicine, and most businesses need higher uploading speeds as well. One of the many things that makes fiber optic Internet superior is that it provides symmetrical speeds , meaning its download and upload speeds match.
DSL and other types of Internet, only offer asymmetrical speeds , where download speeds are faster than upload than upload speeds. Price: Cable Internet is one of the most affordable Internet options. Sharing is Not Caring: Cable can reach download speeds of Mbps still only a tenth of fiber but more than DSL , but cable Internet is shared from a central node where the ISP meets the local coaxial network.
This means anywhere between homes have to share a single node. Sharing like this often leads to low speeds during peak use hours. To manage this, companies have been throttling users Internet, meaning they slow down your bandwidth after you have used a certain amount. The idea behind this is to give everyone sharing the node an even amount of service, but can often be frustrating for consumers.
Cable companies have also been known to put caps on how much data your household needs, and then charge you extra for additional data. This wireless means fewer materials are needed, bringing down the overall cost of purchasing, building, and maintaining.
It also means no fallen cables resulting in loss of service. If you live up a mountain, have very few neighbors, or are so far off the beaten path your mail comes by carrier pigeon, Wireless maybe your only option. Usually, even the most rural areas will have some sort of tower near enough to gauge a signal.
Congestion : Fixed wireless has the potential to meet fiber optic Internet speeds, but circumstances prevent the radio waves from ever catching up to the photons. You already know that Wireless degrades with distance, bringing the speed down with it, but there is a greater issue at hand. As with a cable connection, fixed wireless users share bandwidth across their local network, so when many people are accessing the network at once, the speed slows.
If everyone is on at once, you are getting 10 Mbps at best. Whereas if you are paying for a Mbps network of fiber, that speed is just for your home alone. In 3,,, people worldwide accessed the Internet. In the U. Every year these numbers grow, and the Internet becomes more and more important to our everyday lives, on an individual, and societal level. Broadband makes it possible to stream movies and shows to your Smart TV.
Entertainment and Connectivity: We have all become used to having the world at our fingertips. We may browse recipes, check the latest stock information, video chat, stream a movie , download music, or play interactive online games. With fiber optic Internet, ISPs are able to provide enough bandwidth to do all of those things at once, without having to sacrifice service quality. Connect every aspect of your home so it runs seamlessly from your smart device.
You can also monitor and protect your home remotely using Smart Home Security. Telecommuting: Fast access to the Internet makes it possible for professionals to telecommute. Working remotely allows people to live wherever they want, without having to sacrifice career opportunities. Distance Learning: Educational and enrichment opportunities for every age group are quickly becoming the norm at colleges, adult education programs, and even as virtual elementary schools emerge. Symmetrical speeds, once again, are a key part of this process.
They allow students to quickly upload their assignments from home. K Education: Aside from the obvious access to information for studying, children and their parents can always be engaged in the educational process through educational web portals. These portals provide an interface to communicate with teachers and administrators, real-time access to assignments and grades, and numerous educational resources.
Access to Health Care : Telemedicine has made advances that allow for the digital transfer of information that once required traditional telephone technology. Today, high-speed fiber connections allow health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients in remote locations using telecommunications technology. Fiber optic Internet provides seamless video connections, so patients in remote locations can access medical experts quickly and efficiently without having to travel.
Independent Living for the Aging or Disabled: Aging in place and independent living are quickly becoming more important to us as the population ages. The most affordable home automation products are cloud-based and Internet-dependent. A wide array of products from voice-activated devices to panic alarms can have a profound impact on quality of life for senior citizens, the disabled, and the people who care for them.
Broadband is an important tool for government, big and small. Access to reliable, high-speed Internet allows live streaming of municipal, state and federal proceedings — either in real time or more importantly on demand. Government websites and social media provide a continuous stream of information to the public as well as forums for public participation.
Citizens can pay taxes online, register vehicles, procure hunting, fishing, and pet licenses, and with the click of a button, communicate via email with elected officials and staff. Many government entities have employed a messaging system that allows citizens to use any smart device to alert officials about everything from dangerous potholes to emergency situations they might witness.
The plan suggests that:. Broadband can also provide the public with new ways of calling for help and receiving emergency information. Energy and Environment: Transportation and power generation are 2 of the biggest impacts on global warming.
Both Smart Grid technology for electricity generation and distribution and metering, and improved transportation management can develop efficiencies that will greatly reduce emissions and ultimately the carbon footprint.
Hi-speed fiber internet connectivity is integral in both cases. Libraries: Particularly during economic downturns, libraries become a haven for the public, providing computers and internet access, books and movies for inexpensive entertainment, and assistance with online job searching.
Regardless of the economic climate, libraries are automated to the point that users can download digital media from home, reserve and renew books online, and access a myriad of web-based enrichment and educational tools.
Not surprisingly, according to some studies, the greatest positive economic impact is likely to be realized in rural underserved communities. This assertion is quite logical when one considers population density, income and education demographics, and the current economy in rural America. Rural America, simply put, has the most room for economic growth. Across the country, municipalities are working on building reliable broadband in their area so their communities can be competitive in the modern economy.
Whether they are looking to the FCC for help or turning to their local ISPs for partnerships, municipalities are still taking on an extremely costly and complicated project.
With thousands, if not millions of dollars being invested, municipalities need to consider the longevity of the Internet medium they choose. Whether you are an ISP, a municipality, when it comes to building fiber infrastructure there are challenges, and concerns. Here are five to be sure to consider:. There are two ways to build fiber infrastructure, and each come with their own challenges to consider:. Building new poles is not just an issue of cost, which is very high, but geography and local policy.
Once you find that perfect spot, local regulation is going to determine whether or not you can actually build it there. Even municipalities working to install community networks have to consider existing utility infrastructure when putting up new poles. The upside of installing or owning poles is that they can be leased out in the future. Buried cables can be dangerous if not properly labeled. No matter which technique is chosen there are going to be some recurring challenges and concerns.
Not checking can be life-threatening if someone ends up accidentally digging up anything with high voltage. Ultrafast broadband services with limited availability, such as those from Sky and BT, also dispense with phone lines in favour of 'full-fibre' technology. If fibre optic broadband is available in your postcode, switching to it is easier than you may think. All you need to do is choose a package and sign up.
If your home's never had a fibre connection before, an engineer may need to visit to install the right equipment in your phone socket - but that's the extent of any hassle, and it's done at no extra cost to you. Once your home has an appropriate socket, all you need to do is plug in your new router and wait for the new fibre service to go live.
Speed can be affected by a range of technical and environmental factors. The speed you receive where you live may be lower than that listed above. You can check the estimated speed to your property prior to purchasing. Fibre-to-the-cabinet FTTC is the most common set-up for fibre broadband. Fibre cables run from the exchange to the cabinet on your street, which then connects to your home via the old copper phone line. Fibre-to-the-home FTTH , meanwhile, means the entire line is fibre from the exchange all the way into your building.
It allows for even faster speeds, but is only available in a few places - and can be very difficult and expensive to install. BT offers FTTH connections in certain circumstances, and you'll find packages available from niche, regional providers too.
Again, one provider that works a bit differently is Virgin Media. If you have Virgin Media broadband, the lines between the exchange and your street cabinet are fibre optic, but between the cabinet and your home is a coaxial cable.
Although they're mostly made of copper, coaxial cables can send data way faster than standard phone lines. That's how Virgin Media can offer average speeds of Mbps. Fibre broadband is a very useful thing to have, as it's much faster and a lot more reliable than ADSL.
It means more devices can connect at once and still get decent speeds, videos barely buffer at all, and files download nice and quickly. On the downside, it's more expensive than ADSL - and it's not available everywhere. It also takes longer to install and go live in the first place, especially if your home hasn't had a fibre connection before. That depends on your circumstances. Fibre broadband also known as full fibre or FTTP is the latest and greatest type of high-speed broadband.
Fibre optic cables are made up of lots of tiny reflective tubes inside. When you perform a task online, light bounces and pulses through the tubes to push your data through the network — so your data literally travels at the speed of light! As the speed of your broadband service is determined by how quickly your data can travel through the connection, the quicker data can be sent, the faster your broadband connection will be.
Note: Wondering what we mean by data? Whenever you complete an action online like sending an email, streaming movies, online gaming or simply browsing the web — data needs to be sent across the network in order for you to do what you enjoy online. The faster your data can travel, the faster your speeds, and the faster you can do everything you love online.
FTTP is a full fibre broadband connection which uses fibre all the way, unlike fibre to the cabinet, which is a hybrid broadband connection using part fibre and part copper cable. With FTTP, pure fibre optic cables are installed all the way from the exchange into your home. The fibre cable will usually enter your property through the same point as your telephone line, which then connects to a modem to reach the signal.
Fibre to the cabinet on the other hand uses fibre optic cable ONLY to the cabinet, and then copper wire delivers the connection into your home or business. That means, the FTTC service still relies on the use of your telephone line to deliver the connection. An engineer will prepare an ultra-lightweight fibre cable by splicing it ready for it to go into a fibre optic network.
There are three elements inside an ultra-lightweight fibre cable, each with 12 fibres. Here, our engineer is finding the correct fibres to fuse together — to make sure that the fibre optic light is travelling down the right fibre.
The outer coating is colour coded so you know which fibre it is. Fibre has to be sparkly clean, so our engineers will wipe down the exposed fibre with an alcohol wipe.
Here our engineer is lining up the fibre in the clamps in the fusion splicer — this holds it in position ready to be fused together. The fibre optic cable is now capable of providing ultrafast connections to multiple premises.
From here, the cable will run directly into your house to deliver your ultrafast internet connection.
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