I live in an apartment where I pay for internet. Before the upgrade, I had cable with 500mbps download and 20-30mbps upload. They recently switched us to fiber, offering 100mbps down and 100mbps up, claiming it’s better for people working from home. The IT admin said ‘100mbps is necessary for video calls’, but I know that’s not true. Now, my download speeds rarely reach 80mbps, whereas I used to get over 450mbps. Is 25mbps upload enough for most users? And can a fiber connection with faster download speeds be just as stable for someone working from home?
Fiber is usually more reliable, and it’s nice to have 100mbps upload if you’re backing up files. But yeah, losing some of that download speed is a bit frustrating.
Symmetrical speeds are better for certain tasks, especially working from home. Fiber is generally more stable too. The weird part is that fiber is usually faster than 100/100 on the basic plans. It’s possible they are sharing the bandwidth among multiple units, or maybe there are other issues. Hard to say without more info, but you might want to ask some questions to get more details.
@Charlie
I had a similar situation. For years, I begged for fiber in my area, but they wouldn’t upgrade. Then they started advertising gigabit fiber, but it wasn’t available in my neighborhood. I switched from a slow 20/0.756 to 1000/50 cable. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better, especially once everyone started working from home. Then, a year later, they offered me fiber, but they wanted $200/month for 70/20. That was their ‘best’ option. I passed on it. I really envy people with faster speeds at lower prices!
@Sarah
Yeah, I’m spoiled with AT&T’s 1GB speed, and Google’s been rolling out up to 8GB in my area. I try not to take it for granted.
Charlie said:
@Sarah
Yeah, I’m spoiled with AT&T’s 1GB speed, and Google’s been rolling out up to 8GB in my area. I try not to take it for granted.
I would jump on that at any cost! I’m so jealous!
@Sarah
I live in the largest city in my state, so I expected better speeds. Even in rural areas, I had more stable 100mbps on broadband. It’s frustrating when they promise faster speeds with fiber, but I lose 400mbps in the process.
@Ashwin
I hear you. The same thing happens in my state. Big cities still struggle with fiber. It’s either cable or poor fiber if it’s available. Feels bad, man.
@Sarah
I get 1000/1000 fiber for $20/month here in Hungary. It’s nice to finally see something good about my country!
@Charlie
They won’t give me more details except to say, ‘this is better, deal with it.’ I explained that large file downloads are now really slow, and it messes with things like streaming or using PCVR. I mentioned that we used to have faster downloads, and asked why we can’t have a faster download with slower upload, which would still be fine for most people. They replied with:
“The new 100mbps fiber service is more reliable than the old cable service, even though it might not be as fast for downloading large files like games. It’s still better for most users because it’s stable, and the 100mbps upload is good for video calls.”
I was pretty annoyed with their response and sent a pretty frustrated email. I get that it’s more stable, but I don’t think 100mbps is enough for someone living in a city center. It’s 80% slower than what we had before. Nobody I know gets 100mbps on fiber anymore.
@Charlie
It depends on how your fiber network is set up and how it connects to your area. They can’t offer you 1Gbps if the connection to your neighborhood is much slower.
@Charlie
Symmetrical speeds are better for some situations, especially working from home. I had 60/25 fiber, but then switched to 1000/50. I haven’t noticed much change in upload speeds, but the download speed is a huge improvement.
They may have misrepresented the benefits. I see where you’re coming from, but in general, fiber is more reliable than cable. I remember when I had cable at home, it would cut out all the time. Fiber doesn’t seem to have that problem. Upload speeds are also much more important now, which could be why they pushed for the upgrade.
@Campbell
I get it, fiber is more stable, but it’s frustrating to lose so much download speed. Dropping from 450mbps to 80mbps feels like a huge loss, even if the connection doesn’t cut out as much.
It’s better for some people and worse for others. It really depends on your needs. It’s not about one being universally better than the other.
I heard my cable provider is going to offer symmetrical speeds soon, which should be nice.
A good option could be getting multiple internet connections if possible. If your landlord allows it and it’s affordable, having DSL and cable can be a great backup. You could use one for work and the other for entertainment. Plus, you reduce the chance of service interruptions from one provider. Fiber is generally more stable, but cable might still be better for heavy downloading.
@EmilyWilson
Unfortunately, they don’t let us add our own service. They likely charge a flat rate for internet, and it’s probably more profitable for them. But I get the idea—it would be great to have a backup service.
It sounds like they’re using one fiber connection for the entire building. 100/100 is decent, but you could probably get your own fiber line if you pay for it.
It’s a trade-off. Fiber is more reliable, but if your cable never went out, this change might not feel worth it. If you’re downloading large files or playing games, you’ll notice a huge difference. But for video calls and streaming, fiber should be just fine.