ISP & Broadband
Fiber vs cable vs DSL vs fixed wireless
The wire reaching your home matters as much as the plan tier printed on the invoice. Different access technologies have fundamentally different latency, symmetry, and reliability profiles.
Fiber (FTTH / FTTP)
Light pulses over glass. Symmetric speeds up to multi-gigabit. Latency typically 1–5 ms to the first hop. Unaffected by weather, distance within typical service area, or neighborhood congestion. The current gold standard.
Trade-offs: Availability. Many areas still don't have fiber. Install can be invasive.
Cable (DOCSIS)
Shared coaxial infrastructure. DOCSIS 3.1 supports multi-gigabit downloads but typically asymmetric (download >> upload). Latency usually 10–25 ms. Performance can dip during neighborhood peak hours because the local segment is shared.
Trade-offs: Asymmetric speeds, neighborhood contention, more jitter than fiber.
DSL
Phone-line copper. Speed degrades with distance from the central office — close customers might see 100+ Mbps, customers a few miles out might cap at 10–25 Mbps. Latency 25–50 ms. Symmetric on bonded business lines, asymmetric otherwise.
Trade-offs: Distance-sensitive, lower ceiling, aging infrastructure.
Fixed wireless
Tower-to-home wireless using licensed spectrum (e.g. 5G home internet). Latency 20–60 ms. Performance depends heavily on signal quality and tower distance. Good fit where fiber and cable aren't available.
Satellite — geostationary vs LEO
Geostationary (HughesNet, Viasat) sits ~22,000 miles up; physics imposes 600+ ms round-trip latency. Low-earth-orbit (Starlink) sits much lower; latency drops to 25–60 ms but with more jitter and weather sensitivity than wired connections.
How to pick when you have options
- Fiber, always, if available and competitively priced.
- Cable for most households where fiber isn't an option.
- 5G fixed wireless if cable pricing is hostile and signal is strong.
- DSL only as last resort in served areas.
- LEO satellite for truly rural locations.