# For Internet: Is Fiber Optic Cable (FiOS) better than Cable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028 "2008-11-10T13:41:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028/1 "2008-11-10T13:41:22Z")

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My location has for an internet option, comcast cable. But Verizon is installing their new “FiOS” (Fiber optic cable).

Questions:

Is FiOS faster than cable?

And is it worth it for me to pay the $10/month extra to increase download/upload speeds from 10 Mbps/2 Mbps to 20 Mbps/5 Mbps ?

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028/2 "2008-11-10T13:50:40Z")

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Yes, it’s faster. But whether you want to upgrade ENTIRELY depends what you do with your computer. Generally I only think speed above Cable is useful for two things nowadays:

1. People who are freelance web artists and are constantly uploading tons of videos or other massive files.

2. People that are gamers, and even then, cable will usually get you where you need to go unless you’re hosting a dedicated server.

The reason I say this is that even though I have 10 Mbps I don’t think I think I’ve broken 2 once, because most places cap their download speeds, even for premium members, it’s just a higher cap (usually a couple Megabits more).

Personally, I’d go for the Fi-Op for that price, but that’s up to you and what you use the internet for.

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**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028/3 "2008-11-10T16:51:55Z")

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You may also want to consider reliability as a factor - FiOS will likely share the fiber with your phone service, and thus any failures that may occur are likely to be fixed ASAP. Phone service outages are taken pretty seriously by most regulatory agencies; cable outages not so much (unless your phone service is handled by the cable provider).

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**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028/4 "2008-11-10T17:14:16Z")

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So is it worth the extra $10 a month to get the faster version? Can you tell the difference? I like to share via P2P (azureus) and like to have fast uploads.

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**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-internet-is-fiber-optic-cable-fios-better-than-cable/472028/5 "2008-11-10T17:24:47Z")

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Comcast limits how much you can upload/download. They are having difficulties with the FCC because they have been slowing down P2P traffic, bringing uploads to a virtual standstill for some users.

[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113823](http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113823)