Yes, it is! Fiber is fast and consistent and by its nature comes with advantages other utilities just can't provide.
Internet speeds are measured in megabits per second (Mbps). Cable connections usually top out around 50Mbps while other types of service like DSL are much slower, around 7Mbps. A gigabit connection is 20x faster than the fastest cable speeds, so about 1000Mbps.
What does this mean out in the real world? Let's say you decide to download a movie in 4k because you deserve it. The file size for a 4k movie is usually around 100 GB (gigabytes). Compare the time it would take to download with different connection types:
| Connection type | Length of download |
| Fiber (1Gbps) | 13 minutes |
| Cable (50Mbps) | 4.4 hours |
| DSL (7Mbps) | 1.3 days |
When talking about internet connections, "symmetrical" describes a connection with equal upload and download speeds.
DSL and cable internet connections (the most commonly available today) are not symmetrical. With these connection types, download speeds are about 10-50 times faster than upload speeds. This makes your video chats' sound and image quality much worse than the quality of your video streaming. Remember that time your image was all frozen and your mouth was wide open during a work meeting? That was your slow upload speed struggling to upload your voice and video.
Ting's gigabit fiber service is both speedy and symmetrical. Since our download and upload speeds are the same, your face won't freeze up in another embarrassing pose the next time you're in a video chat.
Other internet connections rely on the same copper cable wiring your home phone and television are connected to. This is because that cable was already in place and it made sense to use what was already there. Fiber is about 20 times faster than other connection types though speed isn't the only difference.
Fiber optic cable is a lot less prone to the physical factors that affect the performance of a copper cable connection—heat, radiation, electromagnetism and other factors all slow copper cable internet service down. Fiber is resistant to these factors, so Ting users enjoy more stable performance overall with less network downtime for maintenance.
In the above question we talked about the differences between fiber internet and other services. One of those differences is the huge bandwidth that fiber provides. Think of your fiber's bandwidth as the width of a pipe, the wider the pipe the more information and data can move through that pipe. Having a gigabit of bandwidth lets everyone in the house do their thing without devices clashing and fighting for bandwidth. Many ISPs use the excuse of "peak hours" for slow periods, especially during evenings. Ting's fiber network was built with plenty of bandwidth to spare, keeping your connection fast all day.
What is Fiber?
Once upon a time, our home phone lines also handled our internet service and it got messy. Trying to make a call while someone was checking emails got you an earful of digital shrieking!
Our telephone lines were the first utility to carry our internet. The industry did a pretty good job getting the best performance we could out of that existing infrastructure. Now we've hit the fastest speeds we can get out of that old phone network. The good news is there's a much better utility for your internet service needs--fiber optic cable!
Fiber optic cable transfers more information faster than copper cable and is a lot more resilient to wear and tear. The only catch is that the fiber utility needs to be built from the ground up and installed into your home. That's where we come in. We're here to bring you the internet service you deserve and will guide you throughout the process of installing the fiber utility into your home.
Fiber to your home
From the moment you submit your order for Ting Fiber Internet, you're assigned an onboarding Advisor who works as your guide throughout the process of getting our gigabit fiber installed. Due to the construction aspect of running a fiber line directly to your home, getting online with us is a bit more involved, but we'll be with you every step of the way. The timeline to activation is usually around four (4) weeks from the time of order to activation.
Your advisor will give you a call when they receive your order and get you up to speed on what the install process in your city looks like. Our advisor will also schedule your home installation. During that appointment, one of our technicians will install your fiber access point inside your home and the fiber utility box outside the house that the service will connect to.
Our advisor is also an expert on our process and the fiber utility, so if you have any questions, never hesitate to ask. We're here to help!
We've got your back
Once your service is activated, your time with our advisors doesn't end. If you run into any issues, we've got a stellar aftercare and support team available 24/7 to get you back up and running in no time. If you find yourself with a question our help center can't answer, not to worry. Give us a call or message us, and we'll be happy to give you a hand.