5 reasons I'll never switch from a Fiber-to-the-Home connection

There are many different kinds of internet connection; from ADSL to fiber, and it can be hard to figure out what exactly you need if you're not too well-versed in networking technologies. When I moved out, I looked at what my options were, and pretty much any of the more modern options that weren't ADSL that I could go with were Fiber to the Home, or FTTH, and I simply can't go back since I started using it.

As a little primer, the table below represents the differences between major fiber types. There are a few reasons why I can't go back from FTTH, but to be clear, a good FTTC setup will typically be similar in performance to FTTH, though may have slightly increased latency.

Feature

FTTC

FTTH/FTTP

FTTB

Full name

Fiber-to-the-Curb/Cabinet

Fiber-to-the-Home/Fiber-to-the-Premises

Fiber-to-the-Building

Fiber Endpoint

Near the curb or cabinet

Inside the home/Premises

At the building’s entry

Last Mile

Copper wires or coaxial cable

Fiber

Internal building wiring, usually copper

Internet Speed

Moderate

Ultra-fast

High

Reliability

Medium

Excellent

High

Cost

Low to moderate

High

Medium

Best For

Budget users

Heavy internet users

Apartment buildings

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) delivers symmetrical gigabit speeds in most cases unless your plan dictates otherwise. This makes it the best option for both downloads and uploads, and if you're a content creator or someone who runs their own home lab, this can be invaluable.

Unlike cable or ADSL, which suffer from congestion during peak hours, fiber remains consistent regardless of network traffic. Whether I'm gaming, streaming 4K content, or handling large cloud backups, my connection never slows down, as I'm the only one using it. There's no shared connection with other people in my area, and the connection is direct from my ISP to my home.

FTTH offers ultra-low latency, and as a gamer who plays titles like Counter-Strike and Valorant competitively, this is crucial. I grew up playing those games on ADSL, later transitioning to 4G mobile data as my connection was consistently better, and the move to FTTH was a literal game changer. Unlike cable or satellite connections that introduce noticeable lag, my FTTH connection is smooth and responsive.

You'll get a similar experience when it comes to using something like FTTC, but the difference is that the change in connection technology for the last stretch of the connection to your actual home can increase latency slightly. Not by much, but you'll get the best and most consistent experience from a connection delivered straight to your home.

As a personal anecdote, my ping simply never moves while I'm playing. It's completely stable, and always one of the lowest of my group of friends that I play with when we all live near each other. It's incredibly consistent, and that can be an advantage in itself, too.

Fiber optics can handle speeds far beyond current consumer offerings, meaning my internet connection is ready for future advancements. For example, in Ireland, the infrastructure provider is a joint effort known as SIRO between our state-owned electricity provider and Vodafone. While I receive gigabit speeds thanks to SIRO's infrastructure, some places with SIRO are already receiving upgrades to 2Gb/s, with the infrastructure built to support up to 10Gb/s in the future.

Fiber optic is a future-proof tech and enables upgrades like these with relative ease. Once fiber optic is installed, the limitations of maximizing it are with the client and the provider, rather than the cabling itself. For reference, fiber optic cabling can provide up to hundreds of gigabits per second, which leaves plenty of room for improvement as providers improve their own technology.

As someone who works from home, I need to have a reliable internet connection at all times to ensure that I'm actually available to do my job. Having an FTTH connection enables that, as I don't share the connection with anyone else. It has never gone down in the three years that I've used it, and it has never dipped below the advertised speed of one gigabit per second at any time when I've checked it. If it has, I've certainly never noticed it.

That reliability is exactly what I need for a job where I work from home, and I could never go back. While I'm sure an FTTC connection would give me the same experience most of the time, I also know people with those connections who can have consistency issues at peak times when others are also using the internet. It would frustrate me to no end, and I'm glad that I don't have to deal with those problems.

So this one is very geogrphically dependent, but you might find that your internet isn't always stable during bad weather. Anything that's distributed over copper (so, typically ADSL and cable) can be damaged or affected by moisture, which can cause noise on the line and decrease your performance. Fiber optic is unaffected by moisture, but is also reasonably weakened for its own reasons.

Both types of cabling can be physically damaged, but it's unlikely for weather to impede your performance when it comes to fiber optic. Extreme weather events could break the cable, but it won't just slow your connection down randomly like can happen with ADSL or copper.

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... whereas I (in the Netherlands) intend to stick to mobile data.

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