Fast Cable Speed vs A little slower Fiber Speed

[icewolf461]

Hi. I am currently with an ISP that uses cable broadband. My package is 30Mbps download and 3Mbps upload. I have been with them for about 6 years, but just this month they have had service interruptions twice. And I really need my internet to always be working as I am a college student. I am thinking of switching to another ISP who offers fiber but the package is 25Mbps download and 15Mbps upload.

What do you guys think? Should I switch? Is fiber more reliable and faster? Your input is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

There is no way to predict how much outage you are going to get. Even if you had a direct fiber run between the ISP and your house it could get cut by someone digging with a backhoe.

Mostly it depends on the ISP and how good there customer service is. Almost all ISP are rated some of the worst companies for customer service.

Technically it is hard to say which would be faster. There are multiple ways to implement fiber systesm. The majority work similar to cable companies in how they share the last mile. Pretty much until you get to the fiber systems that can really run at 1g speeds you will not see much difference between cable and fiber.

If there have only had 2 outage in the last couple months but have been good before that it may be better than moving to a company you know nothing about.

 

[kanewolf]

The "last mile" infrastructure doesn't matter as much as other aspects to reliability of an ISP. Either coax or fiber can be very reliable.

 

[Solandri]

If you need reliability, the usual solution is to add a second backup Internet source. This can be as simple as knocking on your neighbor's door and asking for their WiFi password (assuming their Internet is not down as well).

Using your smartphone as a hotspot is a good alternative too. Cellular carriers tend to charge a lot for data, but accessing a few web pages so you can get your schoolwork done should take less than 100 MB. Unfortunately most carriers disable the hotspot built into Android. There are a few apps which let you do it without rooting (you may need to plug the phone into the computer with a USB cable). But generally, you need to root your phone to re-enable this capability. (They disable it because they want you to pay for a hotspot plan. But IMHO this is unethical and should be illegal. You're paying them for x GB of data each month. It is none of their business if you use that data for your phone or for your computer. It's like a supermarket trying to charge you extra for the milk you buy if you want to use it in cereal, instead of drinking it straight.)

 

[jsmithepa]

I would not go to the trouble of switching ISP if you been using them for that long and are overall happy with it, unless you want to try them out anyway, there is no guarantee that they will have better uptime.

As already mentioned, if you want guarantee, have a backup like a cellular link.

 

[icewolf461]

If you need reliability, the usual solution is to add a second backup Internet source. This can be as simple as knocking on your neighbor's door and asking for their WiFi password (assuming their Internet is not down as well).

Using your smartphone as a hotspot is a good alternative too. Cellular carriers tend to charge a lot for data, but accessing a few web pages so you can get your schoolwork done should take less than 100 MB. Unfortunately most carriers disable the hotspot built into Android. There are a few apps which let you do it without rooting (you may need to plug the phone into the computer with a USB cable). But generally, you need to root your phone to re-enable this capability. (They disable it because they want you to pay for a hotspot plan. But IMHO this is unethical and should be illegal. You're paying them for x GB of data each month. It is none of their business if you use that data for your phone or for your computer. It's like a supermarket trying to charge you extra for the milk you buy if you want to use it in cereal, instead of drinking it straight.)

I think I'll switch and use my neighbor's WiFi as a backup 😛 Thanks

 

[jsmithepa]

I think I'll switch and use my neighbor's WiFi as a backup 😛 Thanks

Assuming your neighbor isn't using the same ISP as you and this is not a block/zone-wide outage.