Coax cable-
Made with a copper wire, shielded by metal and other components with the intention of protection from signal interference.
Commonly used for TV, phone and data.
Internet speeds can be slower for download, upload and more susceptible to “traffic congestion.”
Fiber-
Made with individual strands of glass fibers within a protective casing.
Commonly used for large amounts of data over long distances.
Download and upload speeds are generally faster than coax cable.
Internet traffic doesn’t get as congested, even when a lot of active users live nearby.
Better positioned for the technology tomorrow.
There are two options for wired high-speed Internet: coax cable and fiber. For many online activities you’ll have a similar experience whichever one serves your home or business. However, fiber does offer some notable advantages over cable, such as increased speed and reduced traffic congestion. These are important features, especially when you’re trying to stream movies or when your neighbors are all online at the same time.
Download Speed- the ability to receive from the internet
While our fiber can handle much higher than 1 Gbps speeds, we offer residential packages that include download speeds of up to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps). Although it’s possible for coax to provide 1 Gbps, often companies can only offer up to 500 Mbps.
What does this mean? The higher the speed, the faster and more reliable you can download from the internet. This includes activities such as running software programs, downloading documents, streaming entertainment, etc. The number of devices in your home can also impact your speed, the more devices you have, the longer it takes to obtain information from the internet. Therefore, the higher your service speed, the greater your ability to run more devices simultaneously in your home.
Upload Speed- sending information to the internet
Upload speed affects your ability to send data to the internet, such as social media posts, emails or videos, and here’s where you’ll see the biggest difference. For coax cable, the download to upload ratio is typically fixed at 10/1. This means when a coax cable provides 100 Mbps download, it can only offer 10 Mbps upload.
Fiber from Central Access, however, offers a symmetrical download and upload speed – meaning that, if you can download at 200 Mbps (which is Central Access’ lowest speed), you can also upload at approximately 200 Mbps. With this significant increase in upload speed, more products can send data to the internet simultaneously, such as Wi-Fi-enabled appliances and security cameras, better quality for video calls and faster capability to send information when working from home.
In addition to faster speed, fiber offers a decrease in “traffic congestion,” or the number of people in a certain area using the Internet at the same time. When many people who live close to each other are using the same main cable from their provider, the speed to each home will decrease as there is a limit to the data that can travel across the coax cable. Fiber is designed to allow much more “traffic” or data to travel through the individual strands of fiber running directly to each home, so there is less congestion.
A good analogy would be to think of fiber as a six-lane interstate while coax cable would be a two-lane county road. Even though both roads can be used for travel, once the number of cars increases, traffic on the county road slows down a lot quicker.
For more information about the great benefits of fiber, contact our office at (888) 706-4754.
Central Access is a locally-owned fiber based internet service provider serving communities in central Alabama. As a subsidiary of Central Alabama Electric Cooperative, our mission is to provide reliable, lightning-fast and affordable internet service to rural Alabamians. To find out if you’re eligible for service in our area, visit www.centralaccess.com and enter your address.