Super Fiber internet offers best-in-class service

Fiber is the gold standard for home internet, offering a faster and more reliable connection than cable or DSL internet. Fiber optic internet uses small strands of glass wrapped with plastic to transmit data as light, rather than coaxial cables that use electricity to send data.

All of that adds up to significantly faster speeds. Most fiber plans get between 300 and 1,000 Mbps, but providers like AT&T, Frontier, Google Fiber and Xfinity all offer speeds even faster than that. At 1,000 Mbps, it would take you about 10 seconds to download a two-hour movie, compared to 10+ minutes on a 20 Mbps connection.

According to the FCC, nearly 43% of the U.S. population has access to fiber internet service. With few exceptions, you should opt for a fiber connection if it’s available to you. A recent FCC report found that download speeds for DSL connections average 21 Mbps, compared to 178 Mbps for cable and 447 Mbps for fiber. Fiber plans are typically more expensive than DSL, but you’ll pay a similar price to cable.

What’s more, fiber internet provides symmetrical speeds — the same upload and download speeds — where cable and DSL usually have much slower upload speeds. That could translate to glitchy gaming or Zoom meetings, and longer wait times for uploading media.