Compare Your Internet Speed to a Fiber Connection

If you're like most people, you don't really think about the speed of your internet until it becomes a problem. When your web browsing, uploads and streaming begin to lag, when you start getting complaints from employees – it’s time to pause and consider whether your internet connection is fast enough for your business needs. How your business uses the internet will determine the type of internet connection you need. Here are some comparisons that will help you decide whether you need a cable or a fiber connection.

How Bandwidth Impacts Your Business

One of the best ways to understand bandwidth is to think about how quickly water moves through hoses of varying sizes. A swimming pool will fill up very quickly if you're using a fire hose. However, you might be left waiting around a day or two for the pool to fill up if you decided to use a garden hose instead. 

Bandwidth is similar in that greater bandwidth allows you to upload and download data much more quickly across multiple users and devices than lower bandwidth. In fact, you may hear your technology experts refer to needing a "faster pipe.” This essentially means that more bandwidth is needed for your team to move data and large files more rapidly.

Cable Speed vs Fiber Speed

A fiber connection is one of the fastest available commercial connections, allowing you to send and retrieve data much more quickly than cable or DSL internet. Fiber connections provide lightning-fast upload and download speeds to businesses and consumers. If you need ultra fast streaming to upload and download large files, stream movies or video conference with employees, these comparisons between cable and fiber connections will help you decide which option is right for your business.  


File size: The movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has a file size of 6.83 GB

Cable internet: at 45 Mbps, the movie would download in just over 24 minutes

Fiber at 1 Gbps: the same movie would download in slightly over 1 minute

Fiber at 10 Gbps: the movie would download in a light-speed 6.52 seconds 

There is a dramatic difference in download times based on the speed of service. Of course, not every business has a need to download a high-definition version of Lord of the Rings – your files may be much smaller. This is why it's important to fully vet and understand the needs of your business. 

To get a sense of what speeds you’re working with, conduct an internet speed test. It could be that you don't strictly need a fiber speed for your business if you aren't moving around large files. However, a graphics or video-intensive business with multiple employees would see an impressive boost in speed and productivity from changing to a connection that boasts a faster speed. 

Large Files

File size: a complex, layered infographic is approximately 4MB in size

Cable internet: at 5Mbps, the file would take approximately 5 seconds

Fiber at 1 Gbps: 0.03 seconds

Fiber at 10 Gbps: 0.003 seconds

As you can see, fiber is a premium offering that provides for quick collaboration and productivity when you're dealing with large files and streaming services. This is particularly useful for organizations who specialize in graphics or videos or who require higher bandwidth to accommodate multiple employees and devices. If your business would benefit from increased upload and download speeds and the capacity to serve your entire team more efficiently, a fiber connection may be the way to go.