fiberhome
Fiber Enabled Homes Are The Future
As web applications grow in size and consumers’ bandwidth needs keep increasing, expected to triple over the next 5 years[1], consumers will increasingly experience frustration with their existing Internet service.
With today’s consumers often dealing with fuzzy or constantly buffering streaming video today, the average household should be asking themselves if their Internet can keep up in the coming years.
Fortunately, there is an option for households that are looking to future proof their house and take advantage of blazing fast bandwidth speeds today. That answer is fiber.
The Internet of the Future is Here Today
It’s difficult to understand just how much more powerful fiber is than the average cable and DSL connections that consumers have. Here is a graphic, provided by the Fiber to the Home Council’s Primer[2], that will help you to get a picture on how big the differences are.
As you can see, fiber is many times more powerful than even the next most powerful connection type.
But what does all of this bandwidth power mean to you?
The truth is that fiber is so powerful, that we can not yet realize the full range of benefits provided by the increased bandwidth. But, it is not hard to imagine how increased bandwidth can provide better access to educational material, conveniences such as smart houses, and many more possibilities such as these:
No more buffering: Buffering is the curse of the Internet. How many times have you been watching a video on YouTube or somewhere else on the web, only to have the the video freeze up and force you to wait for the video to resume? In an article by Slate[3], Farhad Manjoo describes how five high-definition YouTube videos were loaded at once with no delay at all, even when selecting a random point in the video to start from. While you likely have no use in streaming 5 high-definition videos at once, this is a powerful demonstration of fiber.
Improved access to doctors: Telehealth is a relatively new practice where doctors are able to provide remote examinations and monitor their patients vitals in real time. Your doctor having instant access to vitals could provide the early detection necessary to fend off life-threatening conditions, such as stroke.
Hassle-Free instant backups: Computers have become integrated with our lives and now carry everything from precious childhood photos to a critical business presentation. Many companies have begun providing online backup services in recent years. And while these services provide a convenient and secure backup solution, they are notoriously slow, often times taking several days to do a full backup. Fiber will allow you to have nearly instant backups which gives you peace of mind in knowing that all of your files are instantly backed up.
The Bottom Line
Not only can fiber greatly enhance your Internet experience by delivering first-class bandwidth today, but it will allow you to take advantage of tomorrow’s innovations that will require large amounts of bandwidth.