Fiber, Cellular, or Cable... Which internet provider is best for you?
With so many options for internet today, which one is right for you? I cover the differences between cable, cellular and fiber internet in the article and video.
I often get asked, and see this question all over community groups. What is the best internet service for the money? Well, I had three different providers for a while at my home and wanted to talk about the results. Below, is a Youtube video I created talking about the results, or continue reading for links and information.
Where to Start?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is who and how are we using the internet. The providers available in your area will differ, but usually there is a Fiber, Cable, and Cellular option in most major towns. You can start at the providers’ sites to see what is available at your home address.
How much speed do I need?
For Fiber and Cable providers, they are quick to say you need x amount if you have so many devices. From my years of experience, I have found they often over-sell what you need. The biggest performance gains come from your network hardware. If your house is larger then 1000 sq ft, you should consider a Mesh Wi-Fi like the Orbi below. I used a version of this router for testing and will be making a future post on it. Also, look at hardwired options via ethernet when available.
How do you use your home? How many people, devices, TV’s, Servers, etc. I have a high demand home. I run my business from the house with servers that constantly back up to the cloud. We have three kids that homeschool and use their devices to stream video learning. When my network goes down, it causes quite a problem. So when I speak on the below options, I speak from experience.
What is different from each provider for various price points?
T-Mobile has a very simple rate plan, unlimited data, and your speeds are dictated by your location and signal strength. I currently pay $50 a month for this service and can get up to 450Mbps down and 60Mbps upload.
Xfinity has lots of plan options. I chose my speed based on a well hidden page that I found, which shows test results for the different tiers. Here is the link for that if you want to check it out, and below is a screen capture of the table. When I signed up for Xfinity, I chose the now Superfast plan which was 600Mbps. It was the first one to go to 20Mbps upload speeds, from the chart, and had better latency. This is where I would suggest most people start as Uploads speeds are important for working and schooling from home.
My experience with Ziply Fiber is the most recent, but I also have history with them at my previous home. Last year, when we moved, Ziply was not available and fiber would not be as readily available as Xfinity. My experience with fiber has been great. My biggest issues were with billing problems, that eventually were resolved. Eight years ago, when I first had Ziply (Frontier at the time), I was on the 50Mbps down 50Mbps Up plan. They still offer something similar, and honestl,y it would be sufficient for most houses with the proper network. I currently am on the gigabit plan, mainly for testing purposes. The only time I really push my speeds is when I am downloading large games for the computer or Nintendo Switch, or Xbox.
For your Fiber provide,r the biggest thing you need to consider is how to connect to your home. They will often install the fiber in the garage and then you will need to connect to your router via ethernet. I hope to write individual posts on each service, but for your speed selection, I would say for Ziply, the 200/200 plan is a great spot for most households.
The Results
Speed Test comparing Xfinity(Cable) to T-Mobile (Cellular) to Ziply (Fiber)
Here is a summary of what I experienced.
T-mobile
T-Mobile is a great simple-to-deploy option for a less demanding home. I still have T-Mobile as a backup internet solution. I have a router that I use at home that will automatically switch to the back up if the main internet goes down. The plusses from T-Mobile are no data caps and great speeds. The negatives that I found, were a higher latency, which refers to the time it takes a page to respond to the request. This made our online gaming very difficult for action games like Fortnite. I additionally didn’t like, that I could not put the router into a modem (Bridge) mode. It also seems like it prioritized the Wi-Fi over the Ethernet ports. I had higher speeds from my phone than my wired computer.
Xfinity
Xfinity was a great improvement over my T-Mobile for gaming and stability for the whole home. However, depending on your needs and plan, Xfinity has a 1.2GB data cap. You can pay extra for no cap, but that adds to the cost. For improved stability, I would recommend a router like the above mentioned Orbi over the one they provide. I would also suggest purchasing a docsis3.1 modem to save you lease fees once you are out of the initial contract. Here is a link to the unit I currently recommend.
Ziply Fiber
Disclaimer: Only choose Ziply over Xfinity if it is Fiber. Ziply offers DSL, which is not suggested unless that is your only option.
In my opinion, if Fiber is available, this is the route most customers should go. I will do a follow up article about optimized router placement , but the Fiber connections that I have worked with generally have the lowest latency for the fastest gaming. Fiber will offer the fastest speeds currently for both upload and download. They even have plans beyond Gig if needed. At my previous home I had some billing issues initially, but once resolved I had reliable service until my driveway got repaved and they clipped my fiber. That is how I ended up with T-Mobile as a back up.
If you are considering Ziply Fiber please consider using my Referral Link to sign up and we both get a $50 bill credit.
Summary
As I mentioned above, choose the plan and service based upon your house size and home address. I would also suggest only using the service providers router if your house is low demand, and a small square footage. As I work on more recommended hardware items, I will link to that article here.
If you have any questions , feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
Faster Internet without Upgrading your Plan.
2020 /2021 have been trying years for everyone, it was also very trying on your home router. Depending on your situation you may have felt the bandwidth crunch more then others. But I am going to talk about a few things that can help improve your overall experience.
WiFi is the future, but wired is still king. What do I mean by that? Most devices now days are WiFi only, but the ones that do have the option of using ethernet are usually higher bandwidth devices. As WiFi technology improves the need for wire to every room will go down, but for now that piece of category cable is still vital to the best performance.
The biggest problem with WiFi is the more devices on the WiFi, the slower the speeds become. However if your home has Cat5 or greater, chances are it can be used to hardwire your important rooms to the network. The ethernet backbone is full bandwidth, allowing maximum connectivity and stability.
Do you have a wire can that looks like the left image?
If your home was built in the 90’s or beyond, chances are you have some sort of Cat5 in the walls. We can assist in making it active to improve performance.
How do you get it to work? Well if you live in the greater Bellevue / Seattle / Everett area, you give us a call. If you are looking for DIY, you need to determine how the wire was terminated. Many older homes had Cat5, but it was used for phone lines, so re-termination will be needed.
After the terminations are completed, we use a network tester to ensure the wires are pinned out properly. Once you have verified the wires are good, you can move on to the network hardware.
We have many levels of network hardware that we use, however in the example above, and most of last year, we chose EERO as our go to brand for it’s performance and stability. We used the EERO Pro 6 as it has the highest bandwidth capabilities, and you can wire the backlink over the ethernet.
Next you need a network switch. Determine how many ports you need, most houses will need an 8 to 16 port switch. The switches come in all sizes and flavors (POE, Managed, .) Most house will benefit from the Netgear 16 Port business class GS116.
If you get your internet via a cable company (Xfinity, Spectrum, Wave..) you will benefit from purchasing a cable modem. I have started to use the Arris S33, which is the latest iteration of the Docsis 3.1 standard. The modem will add stability and can save you money on your monthly bill.
Thank you for checking us out. I hope to put out more content and product testing going forward.
Jeremy Fitch
Northwest Home Automation