Fiber internet versus Cable broadband.

[Replicant 7]

AT&T is laying down Fiber cable throughout the city of where I live! Yes!! So how many of you AH guys have fiber internet service? How many have Cable broadband? I have Cox cable broadband, the tier I have with Cox is 250 download which I never have gotten that at most 90 to 100 max! Plus only 1.280 gb use total. If I go over Cox would bill me 10 bucks more pre 50 gb over the 1.280 I'm allotted. I pay $74.38 monthly. My oldest Son lives in another City and Parish, his has AT&T fiber internet. When I go visit him, sometimes I'll bug off of his internet service my cellphone internet usage is phenomenally fast! What's you AH guys thoughts on the advantages between the two?

 

[everettT]

AT&T is laying down Fiber cable throughout the city of where I live! Yes!! So how many of you AH guys have fiber internet service? How many have Cable broadband? I have Cox cable broadband, the tier I have with Cox is 250 download which I never have gotten that at most 90 to 100 max! Plus only 1.280 gb use total. If I go over Cox would bill me 10 bucks more pre 50 gb over the 1.280 I'm allotted. I pay $74.38 monthly. My oldest Son lives in another City and Parish, his had AT&T fiber internet. When I go visit him, sometimes I'll bug off of his internet service my cellphone internet usage is phenomenally fast! What's you AH guys thoughts on the advantages between the two?

Fiber is the way to go, without a doubt. Full duplex up and down at gigabyte speeds and you'll never look back.

 

[Replicant 7]

Fiber is the way to go, without a doubt. Full duplex up and down at gigabyte speeds and you'll never look back.

That's my thought on Fiber. I was riding around yesterday where I live, and saw a lil sign for AT&T said, "AT&T Fiber coming soon". Those lil signs, you know the ones that politicians use to stick in the dirt? Well they are all over this city. Well I was out looking for homes for sale. Went into another neighborhood and a contractor crew was laying down Fiber cable! You know those big orange spools of cable, they are digging and drilling and pulling the cable through. I stopped and ask one of the crew members he shook his head yes when I asked if they were laying down Fiber cable. Cox's is the only broadband cable provider within the city limit. They have had a Monopoly in this City for over 40 + years. Now outside the city limits depends there's Suddenlink, umm satellite of course but that's it.

 

[lovinthehd]

For a long time we had a fat fiber cable coming into town but reserved for city use and maybe an outside provider....at first we got a community subsidized (Emerald Broadband) provider getting some use of it vs the previous dsl-only via the "phone company" (varied with merger)....now a cable provider has access to the fiber feed, but doesn't use fiber to each home (not worthwhile I'd think)

 

[Replicant 7]

For a long time we had a fat fiber cable coming into town but reserved for city use and maybe an outside provider....at first we got a community subsidized (Emerald Broadband) provider getting some use of it vs the previous dsl-only via the "phone company" (varied with merger)....now a cable provider has access to the fiber feed, but doesn't use fiber to each home (not worthwhile I'd think)

Funny you mentioned, for "city use" that is exactly how Fiber was 1st introduced to this city I live in. Chris I really gotta Lolo, about this, Fiber thing. About a month or so ago on the local news they had a little article of Fiber coming to this city but only to the downtown area. Here's the thing about that news article. The city of Lafayette has its own Fiber network it's call LUS, aka Lafayette utility services, it was reported that LUS was gonna be running the underground Fiber cable to this City, downtown only, that is owned by the city of Lafayette the Fiber service that is, also, LUS in-corporates their local trash disposal alone with a tie-in with their electricity that's mostly supplied by Slimco. See where I'm going with this, a Monopoly. Well back to AT&T Fiber, being laided down all over this lil city of about 40K + residence within the city limits. There was No local news announcement or even a post up in the local news rag in the city of AT&T running underground Fiber. All of a sudden about 3-4 weeks ago quietly, those little AT&T Fiber signs started popping up all over the area. I'm guessing since AT&T has billions on top of billion's and AT&T not willing to give in to anyone's GOT when it comes to a Monopoly on communications. Now when will Fiber be available to the average Joe consumer here? that's another question to be answered. I'm sure businesses, hospitals, first responders will get Fiber first. Oh and of course the local government civil services, City Hall, law enforcement.

 

[MontrealJazz]

Like @everettT said full duplex is the show stopper. When you get the taste of it there is no turning back. Here in Canada with residential Bell Fibe we have access up to 1.5gb connections. It translate with 936mb/s on an iPhone…Not bad!
This day and age with the family, kids and us both on video conferencing with stupid 4K hdr cameras…You need the upload capabilities…You might not see it but others will see it immediately…The question I get the most on Teams: Why do I see you so clearly compare to others on the call? Well that’s Fibe magic!
That is simply not possible with cable…
To see whats coming in the near future, with the same Bell network, same infrastructure outside, different router/modem inside but If I connect through a business account I can get 10gb full duplex up and down…That is wicked fast and its just the beginning. So unless science comes with a breakthrough protocol for copper cable (Not anytime soon) light speed fiber is winning.

 

[Cos]

I have metronet by me 74.99 1GB Up/Down, will NEVER go back to cable + 75 for Hulu Live TV Bundle no adds (Disney+ ESPN+). Need my UFC fights.

 

[Wardog555]

Fibre is by far the best connection you will get.
Here I am with 900mb download speed.

And I remember the days of dial up when you couldn't use the phone at the same time!

 

[Replicant 7]

Fibre is by far the best connection you will get.
Here I am with 900mb download speed.

And I remember the days of dial up when you couldn't use the phone at the same time!

Those in remote areas, there where many who couldn't get internet untill satellite became available. It was still better than nothing. If you had, DSL hard line phone service. Believe it or not as big as AT&T is there are areas still with no hard line service even in it's hay-day before cellphone tower's and satellite.

 

[highfigh]

For a long time we had a fat fiber cable coming into town but reserved for city use and maybe an outside provider....at first we got a community subsidized (Emerald Broadband) provider getting some use of it vs the previous dsl-only via the "phone company" (varied with merger)....now a cable provider has access to the fiber feed, but doesn't use fiber to each home (not worthwhile I'd think)

I think that a large part of the reason is that, not only would they have to spend a lot just to get the cable to the house, they would also need equipment that accepts fiber WAN connection. Short Copper wire works great for high speed, but only if it's in good condition- this would serve to find out whose cable fits that definition.

Spectrum is raising the national minimum speed to 300Mbps, according to the tech support person I spoke with yesterday and even though the customer who needed their modem swapped is now paying for 500Mbps (based on the recommendation of someone at Spectrum, they're not going to see that unless they plug directly into the modem with a computer because he has a death grip on Apple AirPort network devices and Apple ended development of these almost 6 years ago, so they do what they do, which falls short of everyone else's hardware. The last Airport Extreme was only good for 802.11n and that tops out at about 200Mbps, on a good day. The Extreme was good for 802.11ac, but even that's not going to do better than about 300Mbps.

I think a lot of people will be disappointed when they sign up for Gigabit because the rest of their networks need to be upgraded and they won't be very willing to spend what it takes.

 

[MontrealJazz]

Those in remote areas, there where many who couldn't get internet untill satellite became available. It was still better than nothing. If you had, DSL hard line phone service. Believe it or not as big as AT&T is there are areas still with no hard line service even in it's hay-day before cellphone tower's and satellite.

The noise of my first 1200b modem trying to establish a connection still haunts me to this day!

 

[MontrealJazz]

I think that a large part of the reason is that, not only would they have to spend a lot just to get the cable to the house, they would also need equipment that accepts fiber WAN connection. Short Copper wire works great for high speed, but only if it's in good condition- this would serve to find out whose cable fits that definition.

Spectrum is raising the national minimum speed to 300Mbps, according to the tech support person I spoke with yesterday and even though the customer who needed their modem swapped is now paying for 500Mbps (based on the recommendation of someone at Spectrum, they're not going to see that unless they plug directly into the modem with a computer because he has a death grip on Apple AirPort network devices and Apple ended development of these almost 6 years ago, so they do what they do, which falls short of everyone else's hardware. The last Airport Extreme was only good for 802.11n and that tops out at about 200Mbps, on a good day. The Extreme was good for 802.11ac, but even that's not going to do better than about 300Mbps.

I think a lot of people will be disappointed when they sign up for Gigabit because the rest of their networks need to be upgraded and they won't be very willing to spend what it takes.

I can’t speak for your reality but here with bell the router comes with wireless wifi 6. On the wired side it comes with 5 x1gbps & 1x10gbps. I use the latter one to feed my switch but most people are happy with that kind of speed on wifi. Off course you have to have the device to benefit from it but its available.
For the nut job like me with HTPC and SAS drive with a fiber switch, everything is wired and I’m just glad that the technology is available! What you are saying is true, not everybody would benefit, you do have the proper devices or its completely useless.

 

[Replicant 7]

The noise of my first 1200b modem trying to establish a connection still haunts me to this day!

I loved that Twilight zone noise! I'd smoke me a big blunt, use my dial up and hang up and repeat! I'd wait, listen some more, wait more, I could swear I heard, some alien being saying, we are out here and coming for you earthlings! .

 

[Cos]

The noise of my first 1200b modem trying to establish a connection still haunts me to this day!

1200 was blazing compared to my first 300b modem on my Commodore 64

 

[Replicant 7]

AOL, DSL, man those where like the analog days of audio. Who had the old rotary phones with DSL? Any of you guy's had one for DSL? I can't remember if I used one or not for DSL. Any bets on @TLS Guy aka Doc used one? I got 10 bucks on Doc that he did use a rotary phone for DSL. @gene may have also, he still rocks a VHS player, plus Doc is analog King of the Hill here on AH.

 

[j_garcia]

I am not sure it matters anymore. I have had fiber, I now have cable again because where I now live that's what is here. In this area, cable is faster than fiber unless you want to pay a lot. They bumped us up to 1.2gb and I get around 900 average. 40 up consistently.

We have 5G UW here too, I get about 200 down 5-10 up on the phone.

 

[HackMan55]

I install cable net, get one gig down, 50 up. More than enough for me, but if someone needs higher upstream, fiber probably a good option.

 

[Replicant 7]

I am not sure it matters anymore. I have had fiber, I now have cable again because where I now live that's what is here. In this area, cable is faster than fiber unless you want to pay a lot. They bumped us up to 1.2gb and I get around 900 average. 40 up consistently.

We have 5G UW here too, I get about 200 down 5-10 up on the phone.

I get 1.280g download 250mb 75 bucks a month,but they gave me a 25 buck discount is really 100 a month without the discount. My cable speed? Is good not fast but good, the experts say 100 is considered fast. I have my 4K tv, AVR, 4K player, hardwired. One Sony 40" LED Wi-Fi hooked and use Wi-Fi some when using cellphone. No PC or laptop use, but that will change soon still debating if I want to go with desktop or a laptop again. Had a 10" tablet just didn't like the tablet not that it wasn't good it was. Just didn't like using a tablet. Plus router/modem is a COX. I'm thinking buying a cable router/modem. If they wouldn't have given me that 25 buck discount I would've gotten my own router/modem. You save about 10 bucks a month owning your router/modem a good one can run you 200 bucks or more. The more ethernet ports and speed of one you need the more they cost. In reality 75 a month isn't bad for what I have, wouldn't mind having unlimited but that's where COX gets you. That would cost me about 100 more on top of the 75 I pay already. And their fastest speed cost even more I'd pay another 100 more for that, they call it their gigablast service.

 

[MontrealJazz]

AOL, DSL, man those where like the analog days of audio. Who had the old rotary phones with DSL? Any of you guy's had one for DSL? I can't remember if I used one or not for DSL. Any bets on @TLS Guy aka Doc used one? I got 10 bucks on Doc that he did use a rotary phone for DSL. @gene may have also, he still rocks a VHS player, plus Doc is analog King of the Hill here on AH.

I loved that Twilight zone noise! I'd smoke me a big blunt, use my dial up and hang up and repeat! I'd wait, listen some more, wait more, I could swear I heard, some alien being saying, we are out here and coming for you earthlings! .

My first compter was a Tandy TRS80 with a cassette tape for programs. I think I exaggerated the speed of the modem… Apparently it was 300b…lmao Yup had the dial up rotary beige phone…I remember my parents yelling at me so they can use the phone! I guess I’m not that young anymore Good walk down memory lane! I got rid of my Sony beta video player A couple years ago. Had kids souvenirs all digitized before I can’t do it anymore! So when you look at it we came a long way!

 

[Replicant 7]

My first compter was a Tandy TRS80 with a cassette tape for programs. I think I exaggerated the speed of the modem… Apparently it was 300b…lmao Yup had the dial up rotary beige phone…I guess I’m not that young anymore Good walk down memory lane! I got rid of my Sony beta video player! Had kids souvenirs all digitized before I can’t do it anymore! So when you look at it we came a long way!

What a coincidence my first computer was a Tandy also. It wasn't hookup to DSL or cable. I had just built my 1st home back in 89. We had a Hardline but AT&T didn't offer DSL they kept telling me it was coming but it never happened. Cable got to us first by 96. By that time Tandy desktop was long gone.