Fiber vs T1 for internet, which is better?

[Lil'John]

Title states it but to clarify:
I'm moving into the middle of nowhere and could potentially get Fiber or T1 for acceptable internet usage. Satellite and cellphone hotspot are not acceptable.

DSL and cable(Comcast) are not available.

The T1 is a 1.5M connection while the Fiber is 10M. The cost difference is not quite double.

I am currently using Comcast @ 10M.

More than likely I'll be eating the cost of install which I've been told is close to $1000USD.

What is the downside to fiber?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What is the downside to fiber?

Quite frankly, not much, assuming the ISP providing it is competent.

 

[nerp]

Fiber would be the better connection as long as the provider is reliable. What's the cost difference?

 

[Lil'John]

Would fiber be "future" proof?

nerp, T1 was ~$350 while fiber was ~$550.

 

[mxnerd]

1.5M is not going to work for most users. Work harder and get fiber.

 

[Lil'John]

mxnerd, I've talked to a neighbor(half mile away) that is currently doing the 1.5M T1. He has minimal complaints and he runs a computer based business.

I won't say money isn't an issue but this bill would be my "mortgage"

A lot of my concern is whether there is any known issues I should worry about.

 

[Gryz]

T1 is *always* 1.544 Mbps. That's the definition of T1.

In theory you can do T1 over fiber. Not sure if that ever happens. T1 is a term from old technology, previous millenium. But if it's T1 over copper (as it usually is), then all you have is 2 copper-wires. And for long-distance, (longer than a few hundred meters) copper is always the limiting factor. Even when technology improves in the future, your copper-wires will always limit you to lower speeds.

If you have fiber, then there is no physical limitation anymore. The speed of the connection will be determined by the equipment you attach to both ends. You can attach cheap routers and have 10 Mbps. Or you can attach very expensive stuff, and get 10 Gbps. There is no limitation because of the wires themselves anymore. Equipment can be expensive, but digging a few kilometers to lay new wires will always be more expensive.

In other words, if you have fiber to your house, you're good for the next 10-20 years. Or longer.

If you get a T1 line, you'll probably be limited to 1.544 Mbps for the next 20 years. Until someone starts digging and puts in fiber.

And imho, 1,5 Mbps is already rather slow today. No TV over your line, no Netflix, no larger torrents or Usenet. Even webpages will load a bit slower, because 1.5 Mbps will be impacting the page-load times. I'm on 6.5 Mbps ADSL myself, limited by distance. I hope one of these days my Telco will implement new DSL technologies, so I can go to 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps. Because 6.5 Mbps is starting to be a hinderance some times now. 1.5 Mbps must be even more terrible.

 

[Lil'John]

Thanks Gryz.

Good point on the T1 clarification. I would be dealing with "old school" twisted pair copper version.

The one complaint my neighbor has with their T1 setup is due to what I'll call submerged cable syndrome. Basically, if the junction box is full of water the connection is bad/fails. My parents had a similar issue with regular DSL.

 

[mxnerd]

The one complaint my neighbor has with their T1 setup is due to what I'll call submerged cable syndrome. Basically, if the junction box is full of water the connection is bad/fails. My parents had a similar issue with regular DSL.

I used to have same issue with my cable. Just have to call Charter again & again complaining, the tech finally came over and seal the junction box properly.

 

[JackMDS]

The one complaint my neighbor has with their T1 setup is due to what I'll call submerged cable syndrome..

That means that whatever they are using the Internet for 1.5M connection is Good enough for them.

If 1.5M is good enough for you then choose whatever is cost effective for you.

 

[nerp]

I personally would go for the gigabit since 1.5m would cramp my style. But I do a lot of streaming and often have a lot of data flying in and out at the same time. Plus I've got several people on my network with me.

 

[Jaskalas]

T1... no streaming HD... no bueno!

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Was checking dates to see if this post was from 15 years ago.

If you have the burnable cash around, then the fiber is the obvious choice over T1.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I also thought I'd warped into 2001. T1? 10M fiber? What is this? I'm on 200M unlimited fiber and I'm exiled at the bottom of the world.

 

[Gryz]

I'm on 200M unlimited fiber and I'm exiled at the bottom of the world.

You are lucky. In many places in the world local ISPs, PTTs and Telcos try to sell services with the lowest cost possible. That means they are all very hesitant to dig up roadsides to put in new cables.

If you have copper to your house, and you live far from any physical facility (where they put their equipment) it is getting less and less likely that you'll get fiber.

The EU is pushing for all EU-citizens to get some minimum Internet-speed. I believe the minimum for all subscriptions should be 25 Mbps. In stead of digging fiber, ISPs are looking to use a combination of their old networks and 5G. So in the worst cases, you'll have a few Mbps over your old copper-wires, and if your application needs more bandwidth, they'll send the additional 25 Mbps over 5G. I hate the idea. It will be bad for latency. It will be less reliable. They might not even make that 25 Mbps. And load-balancing is always a PITA. (It's hard to send traffic over the best link. Current solutions are simple and not optimal).

Another solution might be G.Fast. The idea is that ISPs dig fiber relatively close to homes. Then they place a modern G.Fast DLSAM there. I've seen one as big as a pizza-box that can connect 16 homes. The great thing is these pizza-boxes don't require power ! They use very little power (20W or so), and the power they need they get via the copper-wires to the home-routers. At a distance of 80 meters, you can get 1 Gbps over old copper phone-wires ! Awesome. However, it still requires the ISPs to dig fiber to each street or each cluster of houses (say every circle of 200 meters diameter needs one of those boxes).

From what I read hear, and heard elsewhere, the situation in the US isn't much better. There's not guarantee you'll be able to get fiber inside a city or village. And if you're outside a village, you'll have as little chance of getting fiber as in the rest of the world.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thank God, I've got fiber AND cable internet available to me.

I would have had DSL as an option too, but the telco (Verizon) basically phased out new copper subs, because they put in fiber into this complex.

 

[Genx87]

afaik the only thing going for T1 is the circuit monitoring. But I see no reason why fiber circuits cant be monitored in the same way. Fiber of course has a massive advantage in throughput.

 

[Lil'John]

Good info. Thank you.

From the info I've gathered for my situation, I've got the main fiber trunk that goes between two small towns on my street

I've got an order in for fiber and I still have a "back out" option if the install cost is too wild. I had a neighbor who did T1 and his house is further from the road and it cost him $1,000usd.

The fiber made the most sense for potential future proofing... odd saying that with regards to anything computer

While the cost I'll pay isn't really in the consumer pricing for internet($100 or less), I'll pull it from the "I'm not buying a new car" monthly payment fund

 

[ylin0811]

There is really no point to go with T1 nowadays unless you plan to use it for voip. Symmetrical 1.5 mbps just won't do for today's internet services.

Fiber is probably your best choice, as it offers the following:

1. Speed
2. Easier to troubleshoot and restore in case something goes wrong. The only exception is the fiber cut.
3. Cost is probably lower than a T1.

The only thing you get with a T1 is the SLA for reliability, which is critical for phone services. That's it.

 

[bruceb]

By all means, go with fiber, especially if you expect your internet needs to grow in the future.

 

[sdifox]

Fibre. They can easily up the speed later. Not so with T1.