Fiber optic vs. DSL

[GigabitXe]

So, I am debating about switching from 5mbps DSL to 70mbps fiber optic. The reason why I am thinking about changing is because my internet seems relatively slow and streaming videos has become increasingly difficult over the years. Also, my ISP only charges $5 more a month for fiber optic "if it is available". I would appreciate any thoughts/advice for what I should do.

[Electronics Wizardy]

get fiber if you can. its more than worth it for only 5 extra.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Is this even a question? Of course you should upgrade, $5 a month is nothing for a x14 increase in bandwidth. 

[NTDaws]

DSL isn't bad. I can get 50/10 in my area. Very good. Though since I got fibre I do care that I can download a 3gb Windows ISO in 2 minutes.

[Castdeath97]

6 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

DSL isn't bad. I can get 50/10 in my area. Very good. Though since I got fibre I do care that I can download a 3gb Windows ISO in 2 minutes.

What kind of magic is your ISP using, DSL where I live at best gives 4-8 Mbps, you will probably get stuck with 0.8-2 most of time.

[Epic_Nex]

I have DSL and i dread it everyday. Get out if you can.

[NTDaws]

1 minute ago, Castdeath97 said:

What kind of magic is your ISP using, DSL where I live at best gives 4-8 Mbps, you will probably get stuck with 0.8-2 most of time.

Well I live in a city, I also live close to the ISP.

 

http://www.telus.com/en/ab/index.jsp

[Epic_Nex]

1 minute ago, Castdeath97 said:

What kind of magic is your ISP using, DSL where I live at best gives 4-8 Mbps, you will probably get stuck with 0.8-2 most of time.

He says he has fibre

[Daniel644]

seriously, how is this even a question, it's an x14 increase in speed for 5 bucks a month extra, with 70 you can stream multiple 4k streams with very low load times and NO BUFFERING, like what you see with a 480p youtube video on a 5 megabit connection, except it's multiple 4k streams.

[Mr.Meerkat]

35 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

What kind of magic is your ISP using, DSL where I live at best gives 4-8 Mbps, you will probably get stuck with 0.8-2 most of time.

FTTC maybe?

I guess it's still using copper cables for the final few (hundred) meters so you can call it "DSL"?  (not really...)

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Dawson Wehage said:

DSL isn't bad. I can get 50/10 in my area. Very good. Though since I got fibre I do care that I can download a 3gb Windows ISO in 2 minutes.

I bet you can't, lol

 

50/8 = 6.25MB/s x120 (seconds in 2 minutes) = 750MB... and that is maximum, likely you won't get 50mbps all the time during the transfer, but even giving you the benefit of the doubt you are off by 4x the amount you would actually get.

[NTDaws]

40 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I bet you can't, lol

 

50/8 = 6.25MB/s x120 (seconds in 2 minutes) = 750MB... and that is maximum, likely you won't get 50mbps all the time during the transfer, but even giving you the benefit of the doubt you are off by 4x the amount you would actually get.

We managed to get it, using dual DSL lines. Then we switched to fiber optic.

[ProjectBox153]

Fiber is the best thing. I don't even have it, but I know that it's way better than DSL.

[tt2468]

1 hour ago, Dawson Wehage said:

We managed to get it, using dual DSL lines. Then we switched to fiber optic.

DSL is a poor excuse for providing internet. It's a dead technology. Simple as that. The utter fact that you have to bond multiple connections together in order to get half of an already outdated port speed standard (100Mbps ethernet) is proof of that.

 

Connection reliability is horrible, and ping is usually horrible too. 

[SageOfSpice]

Lasers, or wires.

Which sounds more like the future to you?

[NTDaws]

22 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

DSL is a poor excuse for providing internet. It's a dead technology. Simple as that. The utter fact that you have to bond multiple connections together in order to get half of an already outdated port speed standard (100Mbps ethernet) is proof of that.

 

Connection reliability is horrible, and ping is usually horrible too. 

Not everyone can afford fiber, keep that in mind, it's not dead yet. We have at least 5 more years to use it. Plus telephones still use it.

[paddy-stone]

14 hours ago, Dawson Wehage said:

Not everyone can afford fiber, keep that in mind, it's not dead yet. We have at least 5 more years to use it. Plus telephones still use it.

In the UK, fibre is slowly becoming more affordable. I  pay £35 a month for my package, including fibre/phone line and mobile. For ADSL users they can get the service for free upto 16Mbps or 24 Mbps (can't remember which), and only have to pay for calls and phone line rental... so they're getting the internet part for free basically, but it's still around £19 for the line rental. Whereas I pay the £19 for line rental and get upto 52/9/weekend calls and unlimited mobile calls/texts and 500MB data for £16 extra than just regular ADSL.You don't need DSL for telephones either, there are a lot of people switching over to using a service like VOIP, especially businesses where that saves them a ton of money compared to when they used to pay for like 3+ phone lines... I was thinking of doing the same at my home when I can get pure fibre FTTH in the future, at the moment there's not much point as we still have a phone line for the VDSL anyway. If I had the option I would switch to cable at around 200/50 I think it is, but we are over 30 miles away from the nearest area with cable. My brother lives there, and he gets 200/50? data/phone/tv and mobile for around the same price I pay or maybe £5-10 more at most.

[dalekphalm]

19 hours ago, Dawson Wehage said:

DSL isn't bad. I can get 50/10 in my area. Very good. Though since I got fibre I do care that I can download a 3gb Windows ISO in 2 minutes.

 

19 hours ago, Castdeath97 said:

What kind of magic is your ISP using, DSL where I live at best gives 4-8 Mbps, you will probably get stuck with 0.8-2 most of time.

He has a FTTN (Fibre to the Node) connection. It's what is sometimes called "Hybrid Fibre". Basically the ISP runs Fibre connections to the node/DSLAM/remote, then the connection is traditional Copper Pair DSL phone line from the node to your house.

 

It can in theory offer up to Gigabit speeds (G.Fast), but there is extremely high drop-off of performance over distance. Common FTTN DSL speeds ("VDSL"), are 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps. You don't often find speeds higher then that.

 

Traditional DSL (ADSL2+) tops off around 12-18 Mbps. Theoretically it can do up to 24 Mbps, but I've never seen that used in practice.