Internet service speed – Dsl, cable, fiber, and alternatives

[Wrace]

My wife and I are looking at houses and we have seen a few we are interested in. We have our list of requirements, one of which is decent internet speed. Our previous experience with internet service started with dsl back in the day, and our current place is fiber 100/100. The dsl worked ok for use way back in the day, and the fiber works well for us these days.

My wife works from home for a major corporation and their current minimum requirement for internet speed is Dsl. Her work phone is voice over internet. In addition to that we use the internet for streaming TV as we can pick and choose content, and time-shift viewing based around our schedule.

We also use the internet for education, research, financial, recreational opportunities, and probably other stuff I’m forgetting. The above usage is done via the various computers, tablets and tv throughout the house with 2-3 people.

Most of our new house requirements are straight forward and easy to quantify – 3+ bedrooms etc. However, when it comes to internet service/speed I’m a bit uneasy on how to quantify it. More is better is likely the best route to take, but on some of these homes they may have only dsl, or maybe cable.

For example, I have no idea how cable speeds stack up against fiber speeds, and I don’t fully understand the units of measure used for this. Is mbps (mega bites per second) the standard unit of measure? I have heard horror stories of people purchasing homes based on service provider promises that cable or fiber will be available ‘in the area soon’, only to have the schedule pushed back years.

I realize everybody’s usage is different but I’m wondering what you have for internet and has it been satisfactory? If you were buying a new home today, what would be your minimum requirement?

Finally, one real-estate agent said he has heard of cellular used as internet solutions. I assume this means using a phone/device as a hot spot and providing internet to the house via the cell signal. Anybody have input on this or other possible alternatives?

Thanks

[Wrace]

Thanks for the replies, very helpful.

[Ductape]

Dsl speeds can vary depending on the distance the cables run from the house to the phone company switch. The phone techs working an area can tell you what's a realistic expectation. At our house we're paying for 10 Mbps and typically it achieves in real performance about 8 due to the long distances involved. That's megabits per second. Less remote houses in this area can get 50.

FYI the phone companies can bond multiple Dsl into a single higher capacity connection, so if you find a property you really like that's dsl you could look into the cost of that. Might be worth it in your situation.

[Tvov]

We find our cable speed to be great for us, 25/12 or something like that. That is the fastest speed available to my house. This is with multiple computers playing online games, watching movies, etc. Before that we had 16/3 (or close to that), and that worked fine.

My wife also works from home most of the week, and our cable speed has never been an issue - it is plenty fast enough, she has never noticed any problem relating to speed.

When we had DSL, it worked. Watching a movie came with "buffering" breaks a few times during the movie, where it paused for 30 seconds or so to pre-load some of the movie. It was fine for us at the time, and it freed up our land line phone from internet use.

If the house you are looking at is one you really like, but "only" has cable internet, I can't see letting that stop you from buying it. Also, internet speeds are regularly being increased as time goes on.

[bwanshoom]

Rather than go by what the providers claim they might be able to do, ask the neighbors in the areas you're looking in what they have for Internet and what their experiences are.

[magicbus]

I use cellular only and am online all day and it works fine for my needs. Hovever I do not think that it would reliably support your streaming needs, at least not from the -110 db signal I average.

Dave

[Chris_Bryant]

Our cable offers 100 down as the slowest speed, with 300 down being the fastest. The main drawback vs fiber is up speed is not symmetrical, on the 100 Mbps plan up is 10 Mbps.

I'm on the base 100 Mbps, and have 3 phone lines plus lots of streaming with no issues.

I know of people who have gone with Google fi and love it, and even though it is pay by use, they are not paying more than a traditional plan. Not sure if I would do that though, they live in a town with good cell service.

On edit- better than advertised down, not as good up:

[theoldwizard1]

Fiber is by far the fastest, although some cable companies claim 100Mbps. Fiver to your house is not very common.

Forget cellular. You will go broke if you use it as much as you say and IMHO it is is not reliable enough to use in a work environment that requires you to be "online" for the whole work day.

[Wrace]

Thanks for the replies. I guess we will pass on an otherwise very nice property.

[Trackrig]

Yes, take all you can get. Either your wife can take it as a business deduction or her company is paying for it. There is no such thing as too much speed.

Then, the only real way to know what you'll get is go knock on the doors of the house on either side of what you're looking at and across the street to see what they're getting.

As stated, fiber to the curb is fastest, but I got fooled on this once. The provider sent the service via radio or microwave for a long distance, but they installed fiber in the subdivision because long term is was the most cost effective for someday when they'd replace the radio link with fiber. Needless to say, our speeds weren't the best.

Bill

[Bill_Satellite]

Are you asking on a mobile RV forum what you should expect from your fixed home based internet provider? If so, ALL YOU CAN GET! That option is NEVER one of the options available to an RVer.

[jcpainter]

Wrace wrote:


I realize everybody’s usage is different but I’m wondering what you have for internet and has it been satisfactory? If you were buying a new home today, what would be your minimum requirement?

Finally, one real-estate agent said he has heard of cellular used as internet solutions. I assume this means using a phone/device as a hot spot and providing internet to the house via the cell signal. Anybody have input on this or other possible alternatives?

Thanks

As a general rule, your fastest choice will be fibre optic (FIOS), followed by Cable, and then DSL. I would be very skeptical of DSL, as most phone companies just cannot deliver good speeds.

Most services are usually priced by the Mbps that they can deliver. That is the unit of measurement for speed. Keep in mind that those speeds are guaranteed only IF you are connected to the modem via Ethernet. Broadcasted WiFi speeds throughout the house will vary considerably depending on distance, equipment, etc.

Cellular can be an acceptable option IF (and only if) you have a truly Unlimited data plan, are in an area with a strong signal (no congested towers) and have the proper cellular routers to distribute the signal throughout the house. This is not a good option for most people.

To help quantify, you need a MINIMUM of 5-10Mbps per device that may be streaming simultaneously. If you plan to stream with 4K resolution TVs, that number should be doubled. VOIP is hard to quantify on its own, but more is better for sure.