Five reasons to choose fiber Internet over traditional networks – WRAL Tech Wire

This article was written for our sponsor, Ting Internet.

Having a reliable and secure Internet connection is more critical now than ever. With work-from-home and remote learning, theres never been more demand on your home network. Fiber Internet gives customers speeds and dependability that standard copper connections simply cant match.

Fiber-optic Internet is a relatively new technology, and many people may not know why switching over will save you time and give you more peace of mind. Here are the top five reasons to make the switch to fiber from a traditional network so you can enjoy blazing speeds and unparalleled stability.

Standard copper networks often have massive disparities between upload and download speeds. You might have decent download speeds with brutally slow uploads, making telecommuting or uploading videos a frustrating task.

Todd Rubin, Regional Manager for fiber optic provider Ting Internet, says by bringing fiber directly to the home (FTTH), latency is greatly reduced because of faster communication with the server, also known as ping.

Latency is how fast data is transmitted, says Rubin. Its measured in milliseconds, and the average ISP has latency speeds between 30 and 50 ms. With fiber optics moving at the speed of light, latency can be significantly reduced. So if youre transmitting, uploading, and downloading your files, its going to go a lot quicker.

With Ting Internet, upload and download speeds mirror one another, reducing tasks that would take 10 to 20 minutes on a copper connection down to mere seconds. Additionally, symmetrical speeds help support the growing number of devices attached to home networks, including smart home features, without compromising your connection.

Copper networks can be thrown offline for a variety of reasons. They werent made with a forward-looking approach. In fact, the wires were initially designed for voice calls, so theres a limit to how much they can transmit.

Its not just the devices youre using at the moment, says Rubin. You also have your TV, your different smart home appliances, your security system. All of those things are working simultaneously and all need to run seamlessly without interruption or lag.

Outdated systems are also susceptible to outages from inclement weather or large temperature fluctuations and become bogged down when theres high demand. Fiber networks like Ting Internets wont go down during severe weather and can handle as many users as you can throw at it. While copper wires have limitations, the only things keeping fiber from being faster are the devices that use it.

Coaxial Internet connections can be tampered with relatively easily. With a simple splice, bad actors can gain access to copper Internet connections. A fiber network uses light to transmit data, which makes stealing much more difficult. Splicing into fiber connections is exceptionally complicated, adding an extra level of security to your network.

The true potential of fiber-optic Internet has yet to be reached. As technology evolves with routers and devices getting faster, fiber lines will meet the challenge. Data travels through the glass at lightspeed, and as increased rates become the norm, fiber lines can get even faster.

Currently, Ting Internet offers 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) symmetrical speeds, which is the top speed available to consumers. As technology evolves, this could be on the lower end of the speed spectrum. Fiber Internet will speed up as fast as devices allow, while copper lines will need to be updated or replaced outright to have a chance.

Because fiber Internet will meet future demands, you wont have to worry about future upgrade costs.

Fiber transmits communications with pulses of light through glass strands. Because of this, its basically the speed of light and an extremely efficient process, says Tim Herzog, Ting Internet senior manager of field operations. To this date, nobody has ever put enough through it to max its capacity. So its only limited by the electronics that provide light to the glass.

This article was written for our sponsor, Ting Internet.

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Five reasons to choose fiber Internet over traditional networks - WRAL Tech Wire