fiber vs cable

[Justinh]

Which is the preferred technology for an Internet connection, fiber or cable? I think fiber usually offers symmetric UL/DL, but that is not an issue for me. Why would someone prefer one technology over the other? (price not being a factor)

 

[Tech9]

Get the fiber if available in your area. I would trade 200/200 fiber for my 500/30 cable any day. Symmetrical line is better, the latency will be lower, the connection will be more reliable, the equipment to your place will be perhaps newer.

 

[Treadler]

Which is the preferred technology for an Internet connection, fiber or cable? I think fiber usually offers symmetric UL/DL, but that is not an issue for me. Why would someone prefer one technology over the other? (price not being a factor)

Fiber is more reliable, seldom (if ever) has issues.

 

[tiddlywink]

Reliability, symmetrical speeds, latency improvement, no data cap, usually cheaper, 2/5/8/10Gbps tiers available, etc.

The only bad thing about fiber is quite a few ISP's mandate you use their ONT/Gateway.

 

[tgl]

Symmetrical line is better,

Yeah. Many people underestimate the importance of upload speed, but it does matter. Visiting a typical web page involves dozens to hundreds of request/reply cycles, so the requests have to go through quickly if you don't want a perception of lagginess.

... the equipment to your place will be perhaps newer.

This. In the city where I live, the cable plant is decades old, and it had a thoroughly earned reputation for flakiness even when it was new. I've had fiber service (Verizon FiOS) for over a dozen years now, and never had any problems that seemed to trace to the wiring. The first-generation ONT that they originally gave me had its share of issues and needed periodic rebooting, but the newer ones have been solid as a rock.

 

[tgl]

The only bad thing about fiber is quite a few ISP's mandate you use their ONT/Gateway.

Can't say about other fiber ISPs, but Verizon gives out separate ONT and router boxes, and they are totally cool with it if you'd rather bring your own router. I don't know if they'd be happy if you wanted to bring your own ONT, but I can't see a reason to want to, either. The ONT is basically just a modem and has no functionality that you should need to mess with.

 

[AntonK]

I'm in the northeast US, where Frontier is a common fiber ISP. It's easy to find negative info about them on the web, but any opinions here?

 

[bluzfanmr1]

The large cable providers are finally moving to symmetrical speeds to better compete with fiber. I was about to switch to AT&T fiber but the other day Spectrum went live with symmetrical speeds. I've never had fiber before but I believe latency is way better on fiber. It's not enough of a difference to matter to me at this point and I'm happy to have 500/500 now instead of the 500/20 I had.

 

[aex.perez]

Having used both (not to mention DSL back in the day 1Mb/256K), and now on 1Gb symetrical fiber. It has been very reliable over the last few years, can only remember one outtage (lighring strike), even made it through a few hurricanes. On Cable had an outtage every few months back in the day, one good rain is all it took. Sure now my downloads far exceed my uploads (streaming). Though the past few years, Zoom and others like it sure do appreciate the Symetrical UP/DL when it came to video confrences/remote sessions/over all voice/video quality and the like. But both have gotten a lot better in the last few years overall, but your specific area would have it's own issues if any. That last mile, always gets us

 

[tiddlywink]

Can't say about other fiber ISPs, but Verizon gives out separate ONT and router boxes, and they are totally cool with it if you'd rather bring your own router. I don't know if they'd be happy if you wanted to bring your own ONT, but I can't see a reason to want to, either. The ONT is basically just a modem and has no functionality that you should need to mess with.

Looks like Verizon uses NG-PON2. ATT switched from GPON to XGPON/XGSPON and eventually to 25G-PON. ONT/Gateway combo is forced.

VP Explains Verizon’s NG-PON2 Fiber Broadband Roadmap - Telecompetitor

The Verizon NG-PON2 decision was driven by the company's previous experience having to upgrade BPON to GPON just four years later, said Kevin

www.telecompetitor.com

NG-PON2 is more costly than XGS-PON, a consideration that has driven AT&T, Frontier and other providers to deploy less costly XGS-PON, even though that technology is also less future-proof.

AT&T Delivers 20 Gbps Using 25GS-PON on its Production Network

The AT&T 25GS-PON test supported symmetrical 25 Gbps speeds. An AT&T exec told us in an interview that previous 25G PON trials only

www.telecompetitor.com

I have no clue what residential customers will do with 25G/25G let alone Verizon believing 40G/40G will be in demand any time soon.

 

[Justinh]

I have no clue what residential customers will do with 25G/25G let alone Verizon believing 40G/40G will be in demand any time soon.

Bragging rights. Or a new AWS-competitor startup in a garage

 

[tgl]

Looks like Verizon uses NG-PON2.

AFAICT they are still in the early stages of upgrading from GPON to NG-PON2. The new spec will let them offer better-than-1Gbps service, but you can't get that yet in most places (including where I live).

I have no clue what residential customers will do with 25G/25G let alone Verizon believing 40G/40G will be in demand any time soon.

You missed that they're using the same fiber network for residential and business customers. I agree that few residential customers will want better than 10G anytime soon, but business is a different story.

Thanks for those links BTW, very interesting.

 

[tiddlywink]

AFAICT they are still in the early stages of upgrading from GPON to NG-PON2. The new spec will let them offer better-than-1Gbps service, but you can't get that yet in most places (including where I live).

You missed that they're using the same fiber network for residential and business customers. I agree that few residential customers will want better than 10G anytime soon, but business is a different story.

Thanks for those links BTW, very interesting.

Verizon VP: NG-PON2 will make future fiber upgrades easier

Verizon bucked an industry trend when it decided to go with NG-PON2 rather than XGS-PON for its next-generation fiber upgrade, but an operator executive told Fierce that | A Verizon VP told Fierce it’s “not unreasonable” to assume that its NG-PON2 system will eventually be scalable to at least...

www.fierce-network.com

Smith noted NG-PON2 also features an integrated broadband network gateway (BNG) capability for subscriber management which “allows us to get one of the routers that we use today in GPON out of the network.”

A forced ONT/gateway sure looks to be in your future with NG-PON2 on Verizon. If you are lucky, there will be a passthrough mode.

 

[tgl]

A forced ONT/gateway sure looks to be in your future with NG-PON2 on Verizon. If you are lucky, there will be a passthrough mode.

[ shrug... ] The 2G service that they're deploying in New York right now has a separate ONT still. Who can say what the future holds, of course.