Businesses need fiber optic technology because they require a fast, reliable system that allows them to keep up with the highly technical, ever-changing digital world. Your home is no different. When your Internet is down, it feels like the whole world comes to a halt.
American households are relying on the Internet more and more, especially when it comes to delivering video and audio content. Many households have started bypassing traditional cable television for Internet TV. Bringing fiber optic connectivity to the home helps meet this growing demand.
In a recent study, Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council Americas found that 40 percent of American and Canadian homes access video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and iTunes. When it comes to individuals age 35 and under, that number jumps to 70 percent of all video content comes from the Internet.
Many households access the Internet through a cable modem or DSL. On average, cable customers report 15 megabits per second download speeds and 2.8 Mbps upload speeds while DSL customers report 4.6 Mbps to download speeds and 0.7 Mbps upload speeds. This is significantly slower than the speeds of fiber optic cable customers receive. Fiber allows for 23.9 Mbps download speeds and 14.2 upload speeds and those numbers are only expected to increase. Fiber is capable of speeds up to 100 gigabits and some people estimate that will reach 400 GigE. And the benefits of fiber aren’t limited to just faster speeds; it also means more reliability.
“This is actually about more than bandwidth,” Heather Burnett Gold, FTTH Council President said. “It’s about having unwavering speed and a noise-free network so that over-the-top services and applications play flawlessly, without any hesitation or buffering.”
Knowing which local telecom providers service homes is especially important for real estate agents. By knowing the provider and what products they offer, agents can help ensure their clients get the best services available. With GeoTel’s broadband terrestrial services, users can make better informed location-based decisions, including examining carrier broadband coverage areas, determining what speed plans they offer and knowing what technology they use to deliver services. If you are interested in obtaining telecommunications GIS data to analyze your local telecom market, contact GeoTel Communications at (800) 277-2172.
