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We all know the significance of the internet in our lives today. This is a well-understood fact that we don’t have to reiterate to people every time. That’s because every citizen of the world today interacts with the internet in some way shape or form.
From people of older age to young adults, and even children have access to the internet. All these people of different age groups use the internet for various purposes, people of older age group mostly use the internet to remain connected to their loved ones, millennials and adults are the most in number and use the internet for various activities like education, work, or for entertainment. While on the other hand, kids use the internet for their mental growth and to get basic education before starting a formal one at school.
As the nature of the internet is extremely adaptable, this has allowed it to seamlessly integrate into various activities of the world and mold into the preference of different types of users. This is the sole reason that today, more than 50 percent of the world’s population is an internet user, considering we are well over 7 billion in number and half of that can be roughly 3.5 billion, this number itself is enough to prove how deeply rooted the internet has become in our daily lives.
Why a High-Speed Internet Became Necessary?
However, the sudden boost in the number of internet users is also due to another very crucial reason, and that is the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic forced humanity to shut off all physical interactions with each other, as a result, people resorted to online avenues. This was the point of origin of many new technology trends that were not so new but gained the limelight during the pandemic. These included work from home, online classes, a rise in streaming, and a boost in the e-commerce sector.
All of these were more or less data-heavy activities and due to lockdowns, all these tasks were mostly being performed simultaneously in every household. This created an extra burden on existing internet connections whose speeds and data limits weren’t capable enough to keep up with all these heavy tasks. Thus many people decided to upgrade their existing internet plans.
Grants and Aids for the Internet
During the pandemic, we also saw governments providing grants and financial aid to their citizens in regards to their internet connection up-gradation or bill payments. Internet service providers also contributed their share by offering discounts and reducing costs. Cox communication was also among the providers that offered special packages and discounts while also partaking in the governmental schemes. Cox prices were economical enough that an average citizen was able to get his hands on a decent internet connection without breaking their bank, through Cox. As the pandemic is still going on, Cox keeps offering multiple promotional plans to its customers.
Since the question of upgrade already arose, many users were also confused regarding what type of connection to go with. In terms of speed, there is one and only answer, a fiber optic internet connection. There are countless benefits of fiber internet that we will explore in detail below.
Fiber Internet: The Best Option
Fiber internet technology is the fastest one to date in terms of wired internet connections. This is mainly due to the transmission medium, there are many different transmission mediums present in the country through which different providers transmit internet services to their customers. The most widely used is cable.
Cable internet uses the traditional Coax cable to send internet signals in terms of small electric currents, although, it is a good option and has become quite cheap due to the widespread cable infrastructure, still it comes with its fair share of disadvantages like overall low bandwidth and considerably slower upload speeds.
A cable connection is capable of providing up to 1Gbps of download speed and 5Mbps to 30Mbps of upload speed max. In contrast, a fiber optic cable has the ability to stretch up to 10Gbps of symmetrical upload and download speed. So not only this download speed is considerably fast but similarly, the upload speed is also the same as the download speed, which is probably the greatest advantage fiber has over a cable connection.
On the downside, the fiber infrastructure is not that widespread and fiber optic cables are also quite expensive and complicated to repair as compared to cable connections. Still considering the speed requirements of our current activities, getting a fiber connection is a step in the right direction.
Top Fiber Internet Providers
Fiber is a technology that still needs time for a global presence, however constant efforts are being made to allow more and more areas to get fiber connectivity. These are some of the providers that are offering fiber internet services in different parts of the country.
Verizon Fios
Verizon Fios is relatively a small provider covering a few states, it is the residential internet subsidiary of the telecom giant Verizon. Despite being limited in scale Verizon Fios offers a great fiber internet service to their subscribers. Their plan ranges from 100Mbps to 1Gbps with symmetrical upload and download speeds, coming with unlimited data and absolutely no contracts. So that, each user can choose a plan according to their needs without being placed in any kind of shackles.
Google Fiber
Google Fiber is the brainchild of the tech conglomerate Google which through its subsidiary, plans to equip the whole United States with fiber connectivity. Google Fiber has different sets of plans for every type of user. Their internet plans start from 100Mbps while also having an option for 1Gbps and 2Gbps, and the maximum upload speed is 1Gbps.
Xfinity
Xfinity is the biggest internet provider in the country and recently has become the fastest as well. Xfinity Fiber now offers speeds up to 3000Mbps to their residential customers in select areas. Apart from that, they also have plans of 2Gbps and 1Gbps in fiber connectivity. Xfinity has limited fiber area coverage, something which they make up with their excellent cable internet services.
Conclusion
High-speed internet is today’s necessity, and the best way to get that is through the fastest transmission medium, fiber optic. But it is essential to go with a reliable fiber internet provider like the ones mentioned above because they are quite scarce in numbers.
