It's amazing to think of how far internet speeds have come...and how far they may go in the years ahead.

When home internet was first introduced, it was carried over phone lines (who could forget that infamous screeching and buzzing sound). Then cable companies began piggybacking internet connections along the same copper cable lines they use to provide TV signals. As the internet has continued to evolve, consumer demand for more speed and bandwidth has rapidly increased. Today’s fiber-optic networks are the first purpose-built to meet the needs of today’s internet user and the only infrastructure with the capacity to grow with the internet into the future.  

The advantages of fiber are many.

1. Exponentially more download bandwidth – Your internet speeds depend on how much data the infrastructure can handle. A fiber-optic cable has approximately 10,000 times more bandwidth than a traditional copper cable. This can be attributed to fiber’s method of transferring data via pulses of light along glass fibers, each smaller than the width of a human hair. Because light is faster than electrical pulses, fiber is capable of transmitting much more data per second.
2. Faster upload speeds – Videoconferencing via applications like Zoom and WebEx, along with large file uploads, and online gaming, all rely on upstream bandwidth. Because copper lines are limited in the total amount of traffic they can carry, providers have been forced to allot the majority of available bandwidth to download streams at the expense of upload streams. As a result, many cable companies can offer high download speeds, but fall behind when it comes to upload speeds. altafiber’s 100 percent fiber network, on the other hand, can provide upload speeds more than 14x times faster than those of its major competitor operating on a hybrid fiber-coax network.
3. Resistant to electromagnetic interference – Electrical currents carried along copper lines are susceptible to the constant electromagnetic interference in the air caused by radio signals, cell towers, power lines, lightning, and the sun, to name a few. This interference degrades the current signals, which reduces bandwidth. Since fiber-optic cables do not conduct electrical currents, their signals are not susceptible to this interference.
4. Better at carrying information long distances – All data signals weaken the further they have to travel. Fiber only loses 3% of its signal over distances greater than 100 meters, compared to copper, which can lose up to 94% of its signal over the same distance.

Building the last mile is going the extra mile

The superiority of fiber is no secret. Every network engineer is aware that fiber is the future of communications and nearly every internet provider has already begun to incorporate fiber into the backbone of their networks to some degree. But when it comes to the customer experience, investment in the “last mile” – the lines that connect a customer’s house or business to the rest of the network – is what makes all the difference.

Building out the last mile with fiber is a challenge for providers because of the costs associated with installing single lines to individual homes. As a result, many providers have opted to focus their fiber investments only on the cores of their networks and continue to rely on the existing copper lines to deliver that critical last mile to customer homes. While this approach may strengthen the network as a whole, the speed they can deliver to customers is still restricted.

As a result, the availability of fiber to the home (FTTH) is limited for most customers in the United States, even in the largest cities. Only 21% of Chicago residents have access to fiber to the home (FTTH). Greater Cincinnati residents, however, can count themselves among the more fortunate. For the better part of the last decade, altafiber has invested nearly $1 billion in building out our fiber network, including the last mile. Approximately 85% of Greater Cincinnati enjoys fiber to their homes and businesses, making Cincinnati one of the most fiber-dense metro areas in the nation. As altafiber further invests in fiber expansion, local access to fiber internet will continue to grow.

Those companies who have invested in building out fiber to the home have essentially made an investment in the customer experience, both now and into the future.

What does the future look like with fiber?

Although the internet has been around for decades, it’s still just getting started. One thing is for certain, our consumption of data is going to continue to grow and along with it will our need for higher bandwidth (both upload and download). Streaming is quickly becoming the preferred method to consume high definition audio and video, the audience for online gaming is broadening, smart home and other internet-enabled devices are flying off shelves, and practical applications for virtual and augmented reality are being explored. Fiber is what will make all these – and whatever might follow – possible.

Equipment upgrades have made high (download) speed internet over copper cables possible, but we are reaching the physical and fiscal limits of upgrading a technology that is quickly becoming outdated. On the other hand, we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible with fiber. altafiber has a 2 Gig internet offering that opens up a whole new level of connectivity for consumers, and further sets us apart from our competitors. But 2 Gig is just the start. In a lab setting, researchers have managed to achieve speeds of approximately 100 terabits per second (equal to 100,000 gigabits per second), in a single fiber-optic line. It’s practically impossible to imagine what that type of bandwidth could allow in the future.

As recent history has shown, the ways people are using the internet are quickly evolving. Internet providers who haven’t invested in fiber to the home yet won’t be able to meet the bandwidth demands of customer needs in the near future. So, the next time you are in the market for a new internet service provider, you might want to consider one whose network is built for the future and choose Fioptics from altafiber.

For more information about the power of fiber internet, click below.