4 ms·

Fiber is probably a dead end and will ultimately be replaced by 5G point-to-point transmission for the last mile.

JustSomeNobody 8y ago
I really can't see this happening. I really don't want to see this happen. Wired is robust. I can spit and wireless takes a dive.
spullara 8y ago
Downvote all you want but this is why Verizon stopped rolling fiber out and why Google Fiber fails in most places. It doesn't make financial sense to hard wire every house with fiber when you can get higher speeds (20 Gps) over the air with the next generation of wireless technology. It will be cheaper to deploy and will have far broader reach.
- fourthark 8y ago
  It has not been proven that you can get those speeds consistently. You typically need line of sight, no trees, even no rain for the really small bandwidths.
  - mike00632 8y ago
    Literally, even walls can break the 5G connection. Hope you don't live in a home that has any of those.
    - spullara 8y ago
      This is for outside point-to-point, not for receiving indoors. Serves the same purpose as last-mile fiber, not wifi. The 5G lands service at the location and you use wifi inside to access it. Just like you would with fiber/cable/dsl.
      - fourthark 8y ago
        Sounds only a little bit cheaper and a lot less reliable than fiber. We'll see!
ecshafer 8y ago
I think we will see 5g last mile, but fiber will still be the backbone. It won't go all wireless.
- spullara 8y ago
  I agree?
Someone1234 8y ago
Fiber offers better reliability, lower latency, higher bandwidth (right now), and it can be reused for even higher bandwidth later (e.g. 1 Gbps fiber can handle 10 Gbps with new transceivers on the same run).
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
  They could still do fiber to some central node, then point-to-point radios for the last mile. I have WebPass (webpass.net) and it's point-to-point, gigabit, and latency is awesome, much better than Comcast ever was for me at the same location, or any location for that matter. My ping to 1.1.1.1 is consistently around 2-4ms. And yes, this is obviously an anycast address, going to a datacenter in my city, but still impressive: traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 0.394 ms 0.383 ms 0.470 ms 2 * * * (*) 2.460 ms 1.754 ms 2.599 ms 3 10.5.1.9 (10.5.1.9) 1.518 ms 1.424 ms 1.614 ms 4 206.51.46.41 (206.51.46.41) 1.926 ms 2.240 ms 2.138 ms 5 one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1) 1.756 ms 1.945 ms 2.015 ms I was skeptical of this over something wired, too, but it's clear that the technology has greatly improved.
  - phonon 8y ago
    And in bad weather...?
    - eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
      No issues whatsoever. That was definitely my concern. Snow, fog, rain, large storms. It just works.
tibu 8y ago
I live in a small village in Hungary. I have fiber because of a Eastern-European provider called Digi. They are cheap and reliable. But I don't really thing well have 5G here in short time. I suppose huge cities will be covered first and based on the tech requirements and number of base stations it will take years. In the meantime I can have 1Gb speed which is more than enough for me for everything.
- spullara 8y ago
  Fiber is easy in big cities. The point-to-point 5G stuff will be to get high-bandwidth to harder to reach places. You're lucky that you can get that, no "small village" in the US will get fiber.
kalleboo 8y ago
I agree that fiber rollout will probably slow to a halt in favor of wireless, but purely for cost reasons. Fiber will always be superior if you can get it, but most users don't care enough - like how people complain about bad service and small economy class seats but won't pay 10% more for another airline with better seat pitch. I know lots of people now who use wireless plans at home - they whine at the end of the month when their cap runs out but won't switch because it's cheaper (monthly cost similar, but free signup vs $200 install fee + router purchase). So 100% yes, as a business it makes little economic sense to build a consumer FTTH network. I'd still like to see governments and incumbent telecoms do it though as an investment in quality, stability and diversity. I feel a lot more comfortable replacing the POTS network with fiber than wireless.
- spullara 8y ago
  Exactly.

I really can't see this happening. I really don't want to see this happen. Wired is robust. I can spit and wireless takes a dive.

spullara 8y ago

Downvote all you want but this is why Verizon stopped rolling fiber out and why Google Fiber fails in most places. It doesn't make financial sense to hard wire every house with fiber when you can get higher speeds (20 Gps) over the air with the next generation of wireless technology. It will be cheaper to deploy and will have far broader reach.

fourthark 8y ago
It has not been proven that you can get those speeds consistently. You typically need line of sight, no trees, even no rain for the really small bandwidths.
- mike00632 8y ago
  Literally, even walls can break the 5G connection. Hope you don't live in a home that has any of those.
  - spullara 8y ago
    This is for outside point-to-point, not for receiving indoors. Serves the same purpose as last-mile fiber, not wifi. The 5G lands service at the location and you use wifi inside to access it. Just like you would with fiber/cable/dsl.
    - fourthark 8y ago
      Sounds only a little bit cheaper and a lot less reliable than fiber. We'll see!

ecshafer 8y ago

I think we will see 5g last mile, but fiber will still be the backbone. It won't go all wireless.

spullara 8y ago
I agree?

Someone1234 8y ago

Fiber offers better reliability, lower latency, higher bandwidth (right now), and it can be reused for even higher bandwidth later (e.g. 1 Gbps fiber can handle 10 Gbps with new transceivers on the same run).

eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
They could still do fiber to some central node, then point-to-point radios for the last mile. I have WebPass (webpass.net) and it's point-to-point, gigabit, and latency is awesome, much better than Comcast ever was for me at the same location, or any location for that matter. My ping to 1.1.1.1 is consistently around 2-4ms. And yes, this is obviously an anycast address, going to a datacenter in my city, but still impressive: traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 0.394 ms 0.383 ms 0.470 ms 2 * * * (*) 2.460 ms 1.754 ms 2.599 ms 3 10.5.1.9 (10.5.1.9) 1.518 ms 1.424 ms 1.614 ms 4 206.51.46.41 (206.51.46.41) 1.926 ms 2.240 ms 2.138 ms 5 one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1) 1.756 ms 1.945 ms 2.015 ms I was skeptical of this over something wired, too, but it's clear that the technology has greatly improved.
- phonon 8y ago
  And in bad weather...?
  - eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
    No issues whatsoever. That was definitely my concern. Snow, fog, rain, large storms. It just works.

tibu 8y ago

I live in a small village in Hungary. I have fiber because of a Eastern-European provider called Digi. They are cheap and reliable. But I don't really thing well have 5G here in short time. I suppose huge cities will be covered first and based on the tech requirements and number of base stations it will take years. In the meantime I can have 1Gb speed which is more than enough for me for everything.

spullara 8y ago
Fiber is easy in big cities. The point-to-point 5G stuff will be to get high-bandwidth to harder to reach places. You're lucky that you can get that, no "small village" in the US will get fiber.

kalleboo 8y ago

I agree that fiber rollout will probably slow to a halt in favor of wireless, but purely for cost reasons. Fiber will always be superior if you can get it, but most users don't care enough - like how people complain about bad service and small economy class seats but won't pay 10% more for another airline with better seat pitch. I know lots of people now who use wireless plans at home - they whine at the end of the month when their cap runs out but won't switch because it's cheaper (monthly cost similar, but free signup vs $200 install fee + router purchase). So 100% yes, as a business it makes little economic sense to build a consumer FTTH network. I'd still like to see governments and incumbent telecoms do it though as an investment in quality, stability and diversity. I feel a lot more comfortable replacing the POTS network with fiber than wireless.

spullara 8y ago
Exactly.