When people talk about high speed internet, what are they really talking about?
When you’re researching for a business high-speed internet connection, undoubtedly the price is a huge deciding factor. Fiber will cost more than most types of internet connections. But let’s take a step back from thinking just about the price and see what each connection offers at a glance.
DSL
Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, is a connection that is always on and uses a line separate from your phone — as opposed to dial-up. This connection uses a router to transport data and uses a range of connection speeds — between 128k and 8 Mbps. Mbps, short for megabits per second, is a measure of data transfer speed.
Cable
This internet connection is made through a cable mode and operates over cable TV lines. Since these cable lines support a broad bandwidth of data, cable internet users can still get what they need.
Wireless
A wireless connection — most of the time referred to as a Wi-Fi connection — doesn’t use a line or cable to connect someone to the internet. Instead, the connection uses a radio frequency that is always on and can deliver at high speeds.
Fiber
A fiber connection is a cable network made of fiber optics — a hair-size glass. It doesn’t rely on traditional cable or phone lines. Instead, Fiber uses a line made of glass cable. As one of the fastest internet connections, it can deliver speeds 1Gbps or more.
A note on fiber…
One of the main reasons why Fiber is more expensive is because of the current lack of infrastructure. The cables required for a fiber optic connection are not currently available in most markets, and the development of an internet connection through fiber are coming in slow. Companies and services providers must lay down new fibers and create new infrastructures to support these connections. One estimate pegs “nationwide deployment” at $140 billion, which would wipe out even Apple’s big pile of cash reserves.
Other connections, such as DSL, cable, and wireless, work on networks already established, but companies that support fiber are doing an entirely new thing. Lucky for residents and businesses, you will have access to blazing, fast internet thanks to TDS’s recent fiber expansions.
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