Should You Invest in a Fibre Upgrade in Deeside?
From Flintshire to Snowdon summit, the rollout of ultra-high-speed internet fibre in our corner of the world is increasingly approaching near total completion. Boasting capabilities far beyond those of older internet connections, fibre aims to set a new standard in home internet. On the other hand, it’s also not a technology that many of us fully understand.
Breaking down the key aspects, we want to look at what fibre in Deeside and the surrounding areas really brings to the table. Is it worth investing in, when might you need it, and could it be safe to ignore?
What Does Fibre Do Differently?
The big differences that fibre offers over older plans are that it features lower latency and higher bandwidth. Latency is the amount of time it takes for a signal to make a round trip. The higher the latency is, the longer it takes any website or online system to respond. Fibre reduces this time slightly, but latency from a slow server on the other end can still be a concern.
Bandwidth is where the much more profound advantages appear. This refers to the amount of data that can be sent and received, often measured in megabits per second. Older ADSL connections feature a maximum speed of 50 Mbps. For reference, this would download an old 700 megabyte movie in around 2 minutes. Fibre, offering speeds up to 1,000 Mbps (or one gigabit), would download this file in five seconds.
Source: Pixabay
Should You Upgrade?
If the speed talk seems confusing, we can break it down further by looking at use cases. For this, you’ll need to look at the total bandwidth a connection has, and then divide that by the number of simultaneous active users and their data demands.
First, consider a 40 Mbps ADSL connection as an example. From here, let’s look at uses with low data demands, such as playing online casino games like bingo slots. These games, like Sweet Sweet Slingo and Fly X, require less than 10 Mbps for flawless play on desktop and mobile systems. In this case, a 40 Mbps ADSL connection would be more than enough to handle internet demands.
On the other hand, consider if the same 40 Mbps connection was shared by four people who enjoy ultra-HD streaming on services like Netflix or Hulu. These recommend around 15 Mbps per stream, though 20 Mbps is probably on the safer side. Either way, four people engaging this way would exceed what a 40 Mbps connection offers, meaning a slower experience for everyone.
What this essentially means for users in Deeside is that we need to weigh our expected uses against the bandwidth that fibre offers. While few of us probably need to chase a gigabit connection, something like 200 Mbps could help deliver the speed for everything we need for many years in the future.
Source: Pixabay
Ultimately, the best way forward for users is to look at how much modern fibre plans cost, and weigh them against your existing bills. It’s common for ISPs not to tell you of faster and cheaper replacements that appear, so it might be possible to get a faster fibre plan for less than your existing ADSL connection. Plus, with many companies fully subsidising your first fibre install, there’s never been a better time to explore this option for yourself.
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