Internet service provision is done through several ways by ATT; namely DSL, fixed wireless and fiber optics. What they have in regard to fiber internet, popularly referred to as AT&T Fiber, it is not a coaxial cable that most cable Internet Service Providers employ. However, AT&T Fiber sends information through fiber optic lines, making it much faster than the traditional copper wires.
Fiber optic internet refers to an internet connection that uses fiber optic cables.
It is a broadband service that transmits internet via thin, flexible, glass, or plastic fibers. These fibers carry light pulses to transmit data instead of electric signals. Fiber optic cables can send information at higher velocities and with less signal attenuation over large distances than coaxial copper cables.
Fiber optic internet is much faster than a copper cable modem because light travels at a vacuum better than electrons in a copper modem. These fibers have extremely low attenuation even when they are used over long distances and they are also immune to any interference in form of electromagnetic interference like the copper cables. All this makes it possible to get fast internet over long distances.
AT&T Fiber uses fiber optic cables which lays down fiber optic cables to a home or business. An Optical Network Terminal (ONT) then transmits the light signals over the fiber optic cable into electric signals which can be wired through the ethernet cables or transmitted wirelessly via Wi-Fi.
Benefits of fiber optic internet
There are several advantages that fiber optic internet offers over cable internet
1. Higher speed - With fiber all speeds are equal whether incoming or outgoing hence better speeds when downloading or uploading data. Thus, it is possible to underline that AT&T Fiber provides up to 1 Gbps.
2. More reliable – The glass fibers are not easily broken and do not conduct electricity hence making them suitable to be used. This means less of power blackouts or loss of services such as internet connection or television.
3. Less loss of signal strength – The signals carried over fiber optic cables are less susceptible to signal loss compared to electricity over copper; this leads to a lesser latency, ideal for gamers and video conferencing applications.
4. Scalability – Fiber has the property of nearly infinite capacity by simply adding more fibers into a link. This future proofs the Internet infrastructure for the demands of tomorrow and the speeds they will require.
5. No availability of bandwidth – For cable internet in a neighborhood, the available bandwidth is split between each customer. This means that the physical connections are individual fiber optic cables from the provider right to the homes and so no sharing of bandwidth.
This article provides a breakdown of how fiber optic internet works in detail.
Having discussed what fiber internet is and its benefits in detail, let us see the process through which AT&T Fiber starts from the source, that is, the internet and get to the devices in the home.
The pathway of fiber optic internet service goes like this
1. Internet accessed through high capacity transport lines at Tier 1 internet providers into the AT&T network. This connectivity from the main Internet backbones provides AT&T connection to high-speed, dependable Internet to deliver.
2. The central office or the focal point gets internet signal from transport lines or paths. The traffic is directed appropriately through the company’s network by powerful core routers provided by AT&T.
3. The central offices are connected to feeder fibers that span throughout neighborhoods. The fiber connections are dropped off in the distribution areas in small utility boxes nearby.
4. From the distribution areas secondary fibres optic lines run along the utility poles or require underground to reach the connections nearer to the homes.
5. At the customers’ premise, it ends at each individual home at an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) at the side of the house or inside the house. The ONT transcribes the light data signals into electrical signals.
6. From the ONT, ethernet cables or WiFi connections may take the internet to the routers, computers, smartphones, and other smart devices in the home.
The fiber optic line means that you have a dedicated high speed internet line running straight from AT&Ts network to your homes. In contrast, this direct fiber connection does not make use of the slower shared coaxial cable connections that cable internet providers employ.
Coaxial cables are cable networks that are mostly used by cable television providers to transmit video, voice, and data signals through a single conductor that has an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular conductor known as the coaxial cable.
Contrary to the other ISPs that commonly use coaxial cables to deliver internet service, AT&T Fiber does not use that cable. These cables are laid from AT&T distribution points right to homes or building thus constitute a unique and advanced system. Broadband cable is based on older cable TV networks which includes the use of coaxial copper cables shared throughout neighborhoods and hence limit on speed.
Fiber to the home, as AT&T Fiber uses, provides the client with an individual path with the speeds to match and reaching up to 1 Gbps. An important distinction between cable internet and AT&T Fiber is that the former often relies on coaxial cables while the latter makes use of direct fiber lines.
Both services are owned by AT&T and while they may seem similar, there are notable differences between AT&T DSL and AT&T Fiber.
Another important introduction is the differentiation between AT&T Fiber and DSL internet which AT&T used to provide. The older DSL technology is called Asymmetric DSL, and it employs the copper phone lines and electrical signals to pass data.
Unlike other broadband connections that use dedicated lines, DSL has to use the phone line together with telephone services hence limiting the data transmission speed supported over the phone lines. Phone wiring also degrades at a much faster rate than the cables using fibers thus the slowness of DSL speeds over long distances.
AT&T DSL utilizes the copper wiring that is already in place while AT&T Fiber operates on dedicated fiber optic cables that need to be installed. However, the fiber installation gives dedicated interconnectivity of the internet that cannot be compared with restrictions of telephone wires.
With that, you have a clear understanding on how the AT&T Fiber internet differs from cable or DSL internet. The bottom line – AT&T Fiber uses light instead of electrical signals through wires made of optical fibers for both upload and download speeds, unlike cable internet which is delivered through coaxial or telephone lines.
The direct fiber connection removes the issue of sharing bandwidth with other houses in a neighborhood to afford customers the opportunity to realize the high internet speeds offered by AT&T fiber. To sum up, if the Internet connection speed is a significant aspect then fiber optic lines are the most suitable pathway for satisfying the current and future home connectivity requirements.
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