10 BIG BENEFITS OF BRINGING FIBER TO OUR COMMUNITies

Speed

Fiber-optic internet speed can reach over 1 Gbps. That’s 40 to 100+ times faster than the services currently offered in our area (DSL or satellite). As a quick example, the list below shows how long it takes to download a two-hour movie on fiber-optic vs. other services.

• Fiber-optic internet speed 1 Gbps: 40 seconds

• Cable internet speed 100 Mbps: 7 minutes

• DSL speed 25 Mbps: 30 minutes

• 4G LTE speed 35 Mbps: 25 minutes

Fiber internet is known as symmetrical: the same upload speed as download speed. That makes sharing photos and files easier and more reliable than ever.

Latency

Internet latency is the time it takes for a request to go from a source to a destination on the internet (measured in milliseconds). If you have a satellite internet service provider, you’ve endured a noticeable delay after you attempted to visit a URL. Your staring at static page, then all of a sudden, the page loads all at once. Satellite services send large packets of data to space and back, which accounts for this delay. Although they can advertise fast speeds, the service seems MUCH slower due to latency. This is very obvious if you’ve ever tried to do voice-over-IP with a satellite service; there is just enough of a delay to throw off your conversation.

Although latency exists in every network due to distance and speed, fiber’s latency is mostly undetectable. With fiber, latency is not an issue. Take a look at the average latency results below:

• Fiber-optic latency: 10 ms or less

• Cable latency: 100 ms or less

• DSL latency: 100 ms or less

• Satellite latency: 500-700 ms

Reliability

We’ve all had it happen. You’re watching The Incredibles with the kids and suddenly Bob Parr’s face gets blocky and he freezes in mid air. Is it a diabolical freeze ray? No, it’s your slow internet connection.

The truth is that your internet connection should be fast enough to stream video without interruption, but peak traffic congests the bandwidth. That’s where the benefits of fiber-optic internet get obvious. Fiber-optics can handle more users and more data at consistently higher speeds.

Another bonus – fiber-optic internet doesn’t need energized lines, so it’s not as prone to outages. As long as the fiber-optic cable stays intact, it can keep delivering your bits and bytes even when the lights are out; even through those heavy snow storms that come in from the south!

Accessibility

Every year, the Internet becomes more and more important to our everyday lives on an individual and societal level. Fiber-optic speed provides enough bandwidth to access these emerging online services simultaneously:

• Smart Homes and Security: Smart home technology is one of the fastest growing markets connecting every aspect of your home so it runs seamlessly from your smart device (speakers, TVs, thermostats, plugs, light automation, video doorbells, refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers and more).

• 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.

• Telemedicine: Telemedicine allows health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and even treat patients remotely. Much faster fiber-optic internet speeds make telemedicine more reliable, thanks to higher resolution video chats. It can help the elderly and those with disabilities live more independently as well.

• Telecommuting: Fast access to the Internet makes it possible for professionals to work from home. Symmetrical fiber speeds make uploading content to/for work just as easy as it would be sitting in the office. And video conferencing is no problem for fiber internet, even when you have dozens of participants.

• Education: Aside from the obvious access to information for studying, children and their parents can 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.

No Throttling OR DATA Caps

Like a highway at rush hour, DSL and satellite connections get jammed during peak traffic hours. They simply can’t keep pace with our mushrooming internet needs. Internet providers use “throttling” to prevent this. At peak times, your ISP may lower your speed from 25 Mbps to 10 Mbps or lower to ration their service. Fiber- optic internet speed doesn’t throttle because it’s less susceptible to overload.

Many internet providers also place restrictive data caps on how much data you can use each month and drastically slow down your connection or increase your fees when you go over your allotment. There are no data caps on the fiber internet service from Highline, so you can use as much as you need with the same great speed you expect and no surprise add-on fees at the end of the month.

Connect Multiple Devices

Gone are the days of a single home computer. We now have multiple devices in our homes – laptops PCs, tablets, phones, smart speakers, and devices like smart locks and thermostats. As our internet use increases, our need for reliable and fast data transmission does too.

Fiber-optic’s steady signal, low signal loss, and ten times more bandwidth means we can connect with multiple tablets, laptops, and several phones at once. Even with different people streaming music and video simultaneously, fiber-optic internet can handle the load.

Higher Quality TV

Just bought a 4K TV or thinking about buying one? Sales of Ultra High Definition 4K TVs reached over 108 million in 2019. The resolution standard (8k) is already available. Those TVs pack four times more pixels into the same real estate, which makes for much crisper pictures. But it also needs lot more bandwidth from your internet connection.
DSL, satellite, and even cable connections struggle, at times, to deliver 4K internet streaming. Fiber-optic internet service won’t have any trouble streaming high-quality 4K TV and movies.

Better Gameplay

For gamers, if you love playing Fortnite or League of Legends, you may already know fiber-optic internet speed is the holy grail of gaming connections. It’s not that gaming uses mega bandwidth, in fact, compared to high-quality video streaming, gaming sips a tiny fraction of the data at less than 1 Mbps.
So what’s the problem? Consistency. A tiny hiccup at the wrong moment can get you killed in your game. There are lots of little hiccups in a satellite or DSL connection all the time. Thanks to fiber-optic internet, the smooth and constant flow of data means whenever you twitch your mouse hand, the game obeys.

Increased Property Value

Studies show that the impact of fiber on property values can be more than 3-6%. On a $600,000 home, that’s a $18K-$28K boost! Today, people are shopping for more than just curb appeal. They’re looking for a quality Internet connection as well.
Supporting Links:
Fiber Broadband Association, Computer World, Ting Blog, Fios Verizon

Future Proof

Global internet traffic has exploded. Cisco predicts in it’s Visual Networking Index White Paper, that today’s internet traffic will increase threefold over the next five years. In fact, Internet speeds of just two or more years ago, are no longer acceptable for today’s increasing demands. Not only is fiber the fastest service available today, but fiber has the capability of future-proofing through dark fiber. Dark fiber, optical fibers that are part of a fiber cable but are not currently being used, can be a great asset. When new technology becomes available that requires more data transmission, fiber-optic lines may already be able to accommodate the unforeseen demands of the future.