We Are So Gullible Regarding Fiber Internet

After years of having only a single option for internet service in our area, two – count them: TWO – new providers have moved into our neighborhood in the past few months. Both of those providers boast that they provide fiber internet and in their marketing push the idea that fiber automatically means faster internet. I call BS.

In all honesty, I truly considered switching to one of the fiber providers early on, but then really began to think about what I would be getting for my money. I realized that it was just hype and that the whole “speed” thing is essentially marketing: all aroma and no substance.

To be fair, yes, fiber can be faster than copper. In fact, it can be many times faster. BUT there are a couple of caveats that go with that statement and a few things to consider before buying into the “fiber is faster” marketing hype.

And, to be honest, I think most people over-buy their service anyway. I’ll explain that in a bit.

You’re Gonna Pay For It

How much are you paying for your internet now for whatever “speed” you are currently getting?

As we all know, the price of internet service varies, usually increasing as the “speeds” increase. The prices I saw in my area are pretty much all the same. That is, for a given download speed the prices were comparable. So, you can get faster internet, but the price is going to increase. And that’s true whether you’re using fiber or copper. To get speeds that exceed what’s available for copper you’ll be paying some, let us say, exorbitant prices.

At least for download speeds the cost per GB doesn’t seem to be that different regardless of what provider I us or what physical medium they’re providing. Where I do think there is some difference is in upload speeds. From what I’ve seen the fiber providers (not all of them, it seems) provide symmetrical service, meaning that the upload and download speeds are the same. Traditionally internet service has been asymmetrical – upload speeds are generally some relatively small fraction of upload speeds. I’ll talk about the benefits(?) of symmetrical service shortly.

All in all, then from a cost perspective I don’t really see a difference. The whole idea that I’m getting “faster internet” is true, only if I pay more. And I can do the exact same thing without fiber.

That brings me to my second question:

What Does “faster internet” Even Mean?

Here is a hard reality: There’s no such thing as “faster internet”. I know, shocking, isn’t it? But it’s true. There is the perception of increased speed. That is, while there are some actual differences between how fiber and copper transmit data, the perception of increased speed is not so much the result of the physical properties of fiber v copper, but in the bandwidth provided by the two. The wider the bandwidth the more data that can be moved in a given period of time. And that leads to the perception of it being faster.

But that leads me to a more practical question: Why do you need faster internet?

I mean, think about it: how do you use the internet? Most people use the internet to surf the web, stream music or videos, and so forth. Any reasonably fast internet connection will serve those needs quite well. While there might be some minor differences in speed in loading an image or video initially, those differences, by and large, will not be large enough to be noticable. We’re talking millisecond differences. Can YOU perceive a couple of milliseconds difference? I can’t.

Some people believe (and I suspect the marketing contributes to this) that you need more speed if you’re streaming to multiple TVs, playing online video games, doing ZOOM calls, and so on all at the same time.

Well, I’ve had two TVs streaming, a laptop streaming Youtube videos, a Microsoft Teams meeting with video, and downloaded files and used less than 10% of my 400 MB download stream. The fact is that none of those services require a significant amount of bandwidth.

The only time I’ve found a need for higher speeds (bandwidth) is when I’m downloading extremly large files (on the order of 100 GB in size). These do take some time and having more bandwidth would be nice. But again we’re not talking about inordinate amounts of time. I might save a minute, maybe two, in download time. Have we become so impatient that we can’t wait an additional two minutes for a file to download?

And this is why I said earlier that most people over-buy. They don’t understand how efficient the process is and so believe that buying more ‘speed’ prevents bottlenecks. But to me that’s like buying a huge John Deere tractor to mow your quarter acre yard. It’s just overkill.

But Aren’t There Some Benefits to Fiber?

Absolutely. I’m not opposed to using fiber. In fact, I haven’t ruled it out. I’m just being mindful of what I’m actually getting.

One of the biggest benefits is that fiber is immune to electrical interference. This can be a significant issue. In running ethernet cable, it’s important to avoid running it alongside electrical cables as they can induce current in the ethernet line (the wires in an ethernet cable are twisted at different rates to help mitigate this.) Bad connections in a house can also cause static and other interference on the line. This can cause all sorts of problems with your internet performance. Fiber, being light rather than electricity, is immune to such issues. This means cleaner signal to your computer.

This also means that things like thunderstorms won’t cause issues.

If you do needs lots of bandwidth (think large apartment buildings, for example) fiber can be a godsend for ensuring adequate service. For the average person or home, though, the bandwidth issue is, in my view, irrelevant. There are exceptions.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the benefits of fiber is that most fiber providers offer symmetrical service. This means that upload capacity and download capacity are essentially the same. For probably 99-plus percent of people this is irrelevant: Most people don’t upload huge files and video conferencing doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth. For some very small percentage of people having a lot of upload capacity can be beneficial. For example, if you are a creator who regularly uploads large video files having more upload capacity means that you can upload those videos more quickly and efficiently. Similarly, if I host my own website and that site gets a significant amount of traffic having more upload capacity means that I can serve more users more quickly.

But you also have to keep in mind that most providers’ Terms of Service (TOS) prohibit home users from hosting a webserver.

One last thing to consider: The benefits of fiber with respect to electrical interference goes out the window in most cases because the fiber only goes to the demarc – the point where the cable enters your home. From there, everything is typically copper. And that is where most of your electrical interference is going to occur. So, while having fiber to your home is great, you don’t really get the full benefit unless you can run fiber to each of your devices. And that’s not going to happen anytime soon. The technology might be available, but is both expensive and impractical for the home user.

My point in all this is that I think that if you’re considering fiber internet, take the time to understand what your actual needs are and how the switch to fiber will meet those needs. Don’t over-buy thinking you’re getting something that is really not a benefit to you and may cost you more in the long run.