The benefits and disadvantages of fiber-optic internet

The 7 most important benefits of fiber-optic

Surfing the internet and watching television at the speed of light and without annoying signal interruptions. This may sound utopian, but is increasingly becoming a reality. An increasing number of Belgian companies and households are connected to the fiber-optic network. The main advantages this technology can offer have been explained below.

1. High speed

Fiber-optic offer you the best available speed within the current internet landscape. Fiber-optic provides upload and download speeds ranging from 100 MB to as high as 10 GB (business) per second. These speeds are much higher than what ADSL can offer. Are you in the higher range of the high speeds that Business Internet can deliver? If so, you will be able to easily download a stack of high-resolution photos during ongoing HD-quality video calls to colleagues or customers. 

At work, you will be able to easily post a video presentation on the company website, while your colleague sitting six feet away simultaneously sends high-resolution photos and texts for the new company brochure to the designer. Although the highest achievable fiber-optic speeds may be superfluous for home use, business users can benefit enormously from speeds of hundreds of MBs or several GBs per second.

Curious about the technology behind the speed of fiber optic? Read more about this in our article 'Fiber optic speed and the technology behind it'.

3. Zero difference between upload and download speeds

Traditional wired internet always offers higher download speeds than upload speeds. Thus downloading large files onto your device takes you much less time than it takes you to upload or send them online. This is a major disadvantage in situations that require speed and quick action. For example, stock market traders who require real-time price data to avoid losing money. Or home buyers who must quickly upload a large stack of documents to their estate agent to make an offer for their dream home in time. 

Fiber-optic eliminates the difference between download and upload speeds. You can upload or download documents, photos or videos online: with the same speed. This therefore represents an ideal scenario for demanding home users as well as enterprises that need to send and receive many GBs of data every day.

In this article you can read more about the difference between fiber optic, cable and (A)DSL. This will help you to decide which solution best suits the needs of your organization.

4. Consistent high quality

Fiber-optic not only fulfils the highest Internet data upload/download quantity standards (the amount of data you can send and receive), but also offers the very best quality. This is particularly evident in the audio and video quality. You can not only enjoy television and the internet more intensely, with images and sound exploding into your living room or office building with greater clarity, sharpness and smoothness, but you can also organize more productive video meetings and calls. Fiber-optic enables high-quality conversations while your colleagues continue to work undisturbed. This is because even if you are calling or holding meetings in 4k, fiber-optic will have enough bandwidth left over.

5. Freedom of choice

Internet providers can freely use the fiber network. Which means you have the freedom to take out a business or private fiber-optic subscription with different companies. All-in or internet-only? Data limit or no data limit? Unlimited music streaming and TV viewing via the internet? You can decide it all yourself, based on your wishes and the requirements you set for your connection and capacity.

6. Energy-efficient and sustainable

Fiber-optic is more energy-efficient than a traditional internet connection. The reason? Unlike the copper cables used in traditional internet connections, a fiber-optic cable uses light rather than electricity to communicate (link to blog 'All you need to know about fiber-optic'). Thus, companies in particular can make substantial savings on their energy bills. Although private individuals might save a few tens of euros per year, the savings for medium-sized and large companies often amount to thousands of euros. Copper power cables are also not ideal from an environmental point of view. They can swell, causing heavy metals to end up in the soil.

7. Fiber-optic eases digitization processes

Fiber-optic Business Internet facilitates the continuous exchange of data and connects people, organizations and commercial buildings. Citizens, governments and businesses can join forces and contribute together to a smarter and more efficient use of resources. Fiber-optic Business Internet thereby helps usher in the transformation to the digital society of the future.

The disadvantages of fiber-optic

Does fiber-optic guarantee the perfect internet picture or does this technology also have disadvantages? We discuss the two main disadvantages below.

Fiber-optic is not yet available everywhere

Availability is (still) the main disadvantage of fiber-optic. Almost every neighborhood and every business park by now has DSL - but this does not yet apply to fiber-optic. It is a new network that is literally installed for each home or business premises. Many homes and business premises do not have a connection in the neighborhood as yet. It is also not something you can enforce yourself: the municipality decides whether or not there will be a fiber-optic network in your neighborhood. The only thing you can do is inform and wait.

What happens after the fiber-optic network arrives? You may still have to wait a while before you can reap the benefits. It can take several months to construct such networks. You may sometimes also have to pay for the laying of a fiber-optic network. The charges often depend on the location. It costs more to lay a fiber-optic network in a thinly populated rural area than in an urban area, simply because of the larger number of (potential) users. The advantages offered by fiber-optic do ensure that businesses will very quickly earn back their investment.

The availability problem is rapidly diminishing. More than three million people already have fiber-optic, and this number is also growing rapidly. The number of fiber-optic subscriptions is also growing.

Cost versus benefit consideration

At first glance, fiber-optic seems more expensive than traditional cable internet. This is true for people for whom speed and bandwidth are not highly important. But at the same time, one needs to distinguish between business and private use. If your internet use is mainly limited to surfing, sending and receiving e-mails, consulting social media and watching the occasional YouTube video, it is indeed questionable whether fiber-optic is a worthwhile investment. But who uses the internet so minimally these days?

If, on the other hand, you also regularly stream videos, send and receive large files or often work from home - which is the new standard of hybrid working - then with an ordinary DSL cable you will quickly experience the limitations that make your internet connection slower and less reliable. Especially (small) business users who depend on modern digital technology every day reach this point quite quickly these days.

What does fiber-optic deliver?

Fiber-optic offers many advantages, particularly for business users and families. The stability and robustness of fiber-optic connections, for instance, provide more reliable connectivity. Fiber-optic also provides speed gains at both ends of the internet spectrum: downloading and sending large amounts of data and large files is a lot faster and easier. It also becomes easier to work in a family situation at home via the internet, while the kids watch the latest films or series on TV in HD. Fiber-optic improves productivity and cooperation for businesses. Lower upload and download times ensure a higher work output, while improvement in the quality of video meetings and calls is ensured by better audio, video and connectivity. 

Eurofiber's Fiber-optic Business Internet provides you with access to fast, flexible and reliable fiber-optic connections via an open network. Our fiber-optic cables are installed in ducts under the ground. This type of installation protects your connections against disruption and digging damage. All critical components in the quality network are implemented with full redundancy. We use data centers with the highest level of availability for active equipment. Eurofiber's quality network is implemented with full redundancy: fiber-optic routes run through different, physically separate sections. The digital registration of our fiber-optic network provides insight into how the connections operate.