Best Fiber Optic Internet
Based on In-Depth Reviews

The physics behind fiber optic internet: simplified

There’s a lot of physics behind the proper explanation of what fiber optic internet is and how it works, but it essentially all comes down to light and its capacity to travel across glass tubes, transmitting data from one end to the other—in the case of residential fiber optic internet, from your ISP to your personal network. 

The process is possible by keeping light from being deflected or dispersed, or refracting. To accomplish this, the glass core of a fiber optic cable—the part where light travels through—is coated by a covering layer, or cladding, that has a lower index of refraction than the core. The index of refraction is the measurement of how light passes or bends through a medium, therefore a lower refraction index means a lower possibility of light passing through. If a light beam is transmitted through a glass cable tube that is not covered by cladding, it would simply disperse. 

Cladding alone is not enough for fiber optic transmissions to work. The angle at which light beams travel also comes into play. For light to stay inside the glass core, there must be total internal reflection. Total internal reflection happens when light strikes the surface of the glass at an angle that causes it to bounce continually, reaching the other end without dispersing.

There are more scientific terms and formulas that go behind the phenomenon that is fiber optic technology but if you want the gist, that’s it: light reflecting through a glass tube transmitting data from your ISP to your modem so you can search, download or stream whatever you want.

Pros of fiber optic internet

Higher bandwidth capacity

The bandwidth is the data transferring capacity of a connection. The higher the bandwidth of your plan, the more data can travel from the ISP to you. Don’t confuse it with speed though. While bandwidth is the maximum amount of data your connection can deliver, speed is how fast, or slow, that data gets to your devices. With more bandwidth capacity, higher speeds can be achieved. 

Fiber has a higher bandwidth capacity than other broadband connections, especially ones that rely on copper such as DSL and cable. According to the Fiber Optics Association, fiber has the capacity to carry around 1,000 times more data than copper for a distance over 100 times longer. The Electric Frontier Foundation says the bandwidth capacity might be about 10,000 times more than with a typical coaxial cable—a type of copper cable equipped with a covering to help with interference and environmental damage.

Not susceptible to interference

Since fiber transmits light and not electrical currents, it’s immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio-frequency interference (RFI), or even lightning and power lines like other broadband connections might be. The copper in DSL and cable connections on the other hand are designed to conduct electricity, making these connections vulnerable to interference that might hinder speeds even if your plan has a high bandwidth capacity. 

Satellite internet is also susceptible to interference since data is transmitted through the air and not through a shielded cable. Just like your Wi-Fi connection suffers due to distance or thickness of walls in your home, bad weather, overgrown trees, and skyscrapers can affect satellite signals. 

Less attenuation

Attenuation is the rate at which a signal’s strength decreases as it travels. Signals traveling through copper cables weaken much easier and at shorter distances than through fiber. It’s not unusual for signals through fiber to travel up to 60 miles more than through copper without weakening.

Types of fiber optic internet connections

Now that you know that it’s light through glass that makes fiber optic internet possible, let’s move on to understand how these connections reach your home.

According to Chris Bastian, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, fiber optic cables are at the core of the network operations for all telecommunications, cable and wireless companies. Although these providers all implement fiber into their operations, what changes is how close the fiber is to the consumer.

“There's still a good portion of fiber at the backbone, as the core, of the network with all those network operations. It's just a question of how close that fiber gets to the end-user, ... how close the fiber has been built to connect end-to-end with the consumer,” explained Bastian.

There are four main types of connections:

FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) or FTTP (Fiber-to-the-Premises)

Both FTTH and FTTP refer to fiber optic internet cables that run directly from an ISP to an optical network terminal (ONT) installed on your home. The ONT picks up and converts the transmitted light, the data, to electricity so it can be understood on the receiving end as an Internet, telephone, or TV connection—depending on your subscription. It’s the only connection that runs a fiber optic cable directly to the consumer.

The other three fiber connections types won’t run directly to your home. Instead, fiber optic cables will reach a nearby location and from there on copper cables do the rest. That distance in which data travels through copper and not fiber is known as the “last mile.” The “last mile” is the final stretch of a network, the part where either a fiber or copper cable comes into your home and gets you connected to the Internet.

FTTN (Fiber-to-the-Node or Neighborhood)

With FTTN, fiber optic lines are connected to the existing copper network near your home. The fiber runs to the neighborhood node—the ISPs network transmission equipment. From there on a copper cable transmits the connection to your home.

Since your network equipment won’t connect directly to fiber, there’s a possibility speeds won’t be as fast as with a FTTH connection. Reductions in speed can be due to copper being prone to interference from power lines, for example, and attenuation, loss of signal strength due to distance. After all, the further you are from the neighborhood node and the longer a copper cable must be to reach your home, the weaker the Internet signal becomes as it travels.

Also, since multiple homes around your neighborhood might be connected to the same network node, speeds usually become slower during high traffic hours—the time of the day when many users around your area are connected to the Internet.

FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb)

FTTC works similarly to FTTN but the fiber runs even closer to your home. While an FTTN connection might be more than 1,000 feet away from you, with FTTC the fiber cable reaches the nearest curb—up to a telecom pit, pole, or street box.

After FTTH, FTTC comes closest to a direct fiber connection without actually entering your home. Since the copper cable from the curb to your home might be shorter than one from a neighborhood node, speeds won’t necessarily suffer as much attenuation—loss of signal strength. They still might be prone to interference though.

FTTB (Fiber-to-the-Building)

With FTTB, fiber runs directly to a building, where the ISP’s transmission equipment is placed. From there, copper cables will reach individual apartments or office spaces, for example.

Is FTTH better than other fiber connections?

Most existing networks from ISPs are made up of copper and, to upgrade to an FTTH network, they’d have to spend a staggering amount of money. The question then becomes, how can these companies push fiber closer to the consumer while still using all, or most, of the equipment that is currently in the ground? The answer is exactly what FTTN, FTTC, and FTTB connections are doing: blending fiber with copper. 

To maximize the capability of that small bit of copper that’s left between the fiber cable and your home, ISPs may use equipment such as DOCSIS 3.1. According to Chris Bastian, this technology is available today to approximately 80% of US homes and it allows ISPs to offer 1Gig speeds, just like fiber. He also mentioned that the next generation of DOCSIS, the recently released 4.0, will support speeds of up to 10Gigs per second.

“Today, many operators are going to choose the fiber to the home (FTTH) option. But if you have millions and millions of these existing metallic drops (copper cables), you build fiber as far as you can. That's practicable and not cost-prohibitive. And then you invest in the protocol (DOCSIS) that's giving you the fastest speed,” explained Bastian.

Tom Huasken, senior engineering and applications advisor at The Optical Society (OSA), agrees: “The reason to keep using copper cable is if it’s already in the ground and you want to extend that investment a little longer by upgrading it instead of installing all new fiber cable.”

Fiber Optics and 5G

Over the past years, mobile operators like Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint have been increasingly betting on 5G’s capabilities. These companies tout their plans to expand their 5G network along with the fast internet speeds it will bring to mobile users. As it turns out, it’s not all a marketing talk.

Compared to 4G, 5G will reach connection speeds up to 100 times faster and support more devices simultaneously whilst still maintaining reliable speeds. It will also have lower latency—the time it takes for data to travel from a service provider to you.

5G’s capabilities are so promising some believe it could drive consumers frustrated by slow speeds and expensive internet plans to leave their current ISP behind. Others insist wireless connections like 5G won’t ever be a match for wired broadband.

Huasken thinks that these technologies won’t compete and that they both have their benefits, “A wired (in this case, optical fiber) connection is always better from a bandwidth and reliability standpoint. But wireless has the big advantage that it’s not tethered to a specific place; the wireless receiver can be mobile or at a remote station.”

It all comes down to the users needs. “In principle, there can be cases where 5G might replace a wired connection, but I think that distracts from what really is going on. They aren’t really competing. And there will still be wired connections,” said Hausken.

Although the 5G-versus-wired-broadband debate might continue, the fact is both high-speed connections depend on each other to keep up with the rising demand of the Internet of Things. To be even more specific, 5G’s existence and deployment depends greatly on fiber optic cables.

5G needs fiber, lots of it

To pave the way for a successful 5G future, mobile operators need to install a new grid of small cell sites. Instead of large-scale radio towers like the ones used for 4G, small cell sites are made up of wireless equipment small enough to be placed on light poles. By installing lots of these, mobile operators can increase their network’s capacity—more antennas means it’s much less likely for any one of them to get overwhelmed.

Now, other than better distribution, small cell sites need to provide fast speeds and handle massive amounts of data. This means that the grid must be connected with fiber optic cables. 

Hausken considers fiber essential to maximizing 5G’s capabilities. “You need fiber to deliver data to and from the 5G base station [small cell sites]. In fact, you need a lot of new fiber because the ideal 5G network needs more base stations closer to the user,” he said.

Chris Bastian also doubts 5G’s success in the long run if providers don’t upgrade or expand their existing networks. “They can deploy it over the existing cell sites. … But then, with the concurrency that 5G is claiming, it would get congested and if they only deploy 5G over their existing network of macro cells, it will quickly get congested and not meet the objectives that 5G is trying to strive for,” explained Bastian.

According to the Telecommunications Industry Association, more than 1,000,000 miles of fiber cables need to be deployed to power up the amount of small cell sites the 5G era requires.

A look into the current state of nationwide broadband internet

According to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, “the number of Americans with access to at least 250 Mbps/25 Mbps broadband grew in 2017 by more than 36%, to 191.5 million” and the ones lacking a connection of at least 25 Mbps/3Mbps dropped by 18% since 2017. With this data the FCC considers, “for a second consecutive year, that advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis.” Yet, these numbers seem to be deceiving.

Turns out the FCC’s data collection and processing practices have been questioned before. Even one of their very own Commissioners, Geoffrey Starks, made a dissenting statement about the latest Broadband Deployment Report saying, “The rosy picture the report paints about the status of broadband deployment is fundamentally at odds with reality.” Jessica Rosenworcel, another fellow Commissioner, shared Starks’ sentiment saying, “This report deserves a failing grade. … Time and again this agency has acknowledged the grave limitations of the data we collect to assess broadband deployment.”

Other than criticizing the FCC’s poor data collection and processing practices, both Commissioners were commenting on what was possibly the biggest mistake on the 2019 Broadband Report (mentioned above) latest report: admitting erroneous data from Barrier Free, an internet service provider that claimed to serve 940 Mbps/880 Mbps speeds for every household in the census blocks in which it operated, according to Stark. This data accounted for an error margin of about 62 million people that Barrier Free stated they offered high-speed internet to, but didn’t necessarily.

With insiders and experts scrutinizing the accuracy of the FCC’s data, it may well be argued that the exact population with access to reliable high-speed Internet access—or more than one ISP to choose from—could be much lower than current statistics show. This is even more so in the case of residential fiber optic internet accessibility since updating already existing network infrastructures, as well as deploying new fiber networks, can be prohibitively expensive to both ISPs and the government itself.