The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to work and learn from home. Now more than ever, a high-performance network connection is essential in every home. This is the “new normal” that property managers need to give careful consideration to, as you weigh technology options and choose service providers for your communities.
Making the case for connectivity.
Well before the everyday dependency on our home internet thanks to sheltering in place, we were already living an on-demand digital lifestyle: A Nielsen study shows that screen time in America is on the rise, with adults spending more than 11 hours every day watching, reading, and listening to or interacting with media on their devices.
The takeaway: Our communities must be prepared with fast, reliable internet connectivity. To choose the best technology for your property, start by understanding the basics:
How is fiber different from cable?
Where cable uses copper wire to transmit data, fiber-optics uses light, which facilitates much faster internet connections that are capable of handling greater bandwidth.
Cable was originally deployed to compete with Over the Air (OTA) TV broadcasting—it’s what we used to watch cable television starting in the 1970s. In the 1990s, splitters were used to distribute one-directional TV signal over cable. A one-way broadcast technology, cable was later retrofitted with modems to create a bi-directional flow of data for internet delivery.
But, here’s the challenge: Managing today’s bi-directional data flow on old copper cables via splitters results in diminished signal strength, low bandwidth, asymmetric (uneven) upload and download, and poses privacy and security risks. As such, copper (coax cable) is generally regarded as outdated technology.
The big difference with, and the true value-add of, fiber optics comes down to capacity and performance: When using your internet connection for web surfing, streaming, or watching TV, think about your devices as cars—even if you have a Ferrari, you can’t travel fast if you’re driving on a pothole-filled road. To maximize your car’s performance and hit top speed, you need a smooth road like the Autobahn. That’s fiber!
When clean, fiber-optic strands provide the pathway on which your digital services are delivered—and since QXC’s unique AON architecture fiber deployments are devoid of potholes (splitters) inherent with cable (and fiber competitor’s PON architecture) —your user experience is simply better. Fiber is the wide-open road to Autobahn-speed connectivity.
Fiber is not only faster than cable, it’s also able to transmit data over longer distances, is more secure, and easier to scale. Flexible and lightweight, fiber is simpler to install and less demanding on the limited space of small control rooms.
Ultimately, the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of a fiber install is lower because it’s more durable than cable—it stands up to our extreme Florida weather and salty environment; plus it’s also cheaper to maintain and requires less hardware.
Clearly fiber is the future: Fiber is on pace to be in 50 percent of all U.S. homes by 2025 (Fiber Broadband Association and RVA LLC). But not all fiber installs are created equal. In my next blog I’ll expand the differences in fiber network architecture (AON vs PON).
In the meantime, if you have questions about your community upgrading its networking to fiber, email directly at speed@qxc.us.
John Von Stein
