6 Reasons Fiber Works for Business
Speed is a selling point, but there’s more on the offer sheet
Let’s take a moment to think about our work days—not so much what we do, but how we do it. How often do we check emails, download documents, send files, stream video conference calls, visit vendor websites or upload data to a cloud-based app?
The internet has become our most important communication and information tool, so it’s no surprise 94 percent of jobholders in almost any industry, location or business are internet users.
What does this mean for business? As consumer and employee behaviors evolve, companies need to maintain the pace the world demands. A business’ broadband platform makes a difference on whether a company can keep up. Many businesses are opting for fiber as their high-speed internet connection. Here are six major reasons.
1. Fiber is faster
This isn’t exactly a surprise. Fiber is as fast as it gets. On Arvig’s network, fiber is capable of speeds up to 100Gbps. With that fast of a connection, employees can send emails faster, send files faster—things can just get done a lot faster, saving time and money for the company. A slow connection also makes an impact externally. Amazon estimates that just a one second slowdown on a page load could cost the company $1.6 billion in sales each year. Although most companies aren’t the size of Amazon, slowdown affects any business. Lag time on webpages, slow response times or incomplete transactions will frustrate customers and can result in lost business.
2. Fiber is scalable
A wide range of bandwidth options ensure quality performance as a company grows. Not every business needs 1Gbps of internet today; 50Mbps or 100Mbps might work just fine for some businesses. Whatever is required, internet service provided over fiber can be easily adjusted to accommodate growth needs without additional hardware. Other technologies—such as DSL or T1 connections—have limitations and often require extra equipment to attain more speed. VDSL, for example, cannot effectively scale to more than approximately 100Mbps.
3. Fiber is more secure and more available
A fiber line is dedicated, which means the service is much more secure, with less opportunity for interference. With a shared connection like cable modems and 4G services, the availability of service depends on the bandwidth usage of others.
4. Fiber is cost-effective
The switch to fiber requires an up-front investment, but the long-term benefits minimize the costs over time. The increased speed alone ensures increased productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Fiber also comes with far fewer maintenance requirements than other broadband platforms. Upgrades and updates are practically automatic because there’s no need to switch out hardware or add additional equipment once fiber is installed.
Operating expenses are also impacted by faster speed. Fiber optics allow a company to easily move its IT infrastructure to the cloud. This provides the option to remove physical servers, which reduces electricity usage, and in turn, decreases monthly power bills. In addition, some companies don’t have the budget for staff to manage servers, so they contemplate a move to the cloud because their IT is outsourced. This can save significant money for their business.
5. Symmetrical speed (because uploading is a big deal)
You know internet speed is important to work efficiency and productivity, but there are two crucial parts to the speed equation, both of which need to be seriously considered. These days, upload speeds are becoming just as important as download speeds. Why? Because businesses are sending just about as much information as they are receiving, or requesting. Any time you send an email, stream or share video content, host a video conference or use a Voice-over IP (VoIP) application you’re uploading information, or sending data to another computer or server. Here’s where symmetrical speed becomes an asset. Businesses can seamlessly move between uploading and downloading without concern about having enough available speed.
6. Low latency
It’s hard to describe latency without bringing up speed once again. Latency affects internet speed and network performance overall. While bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted over the network at a given time, speed is affected by the interaction of bandwidth and latency. Latency is the delay in the transfer of data—the time it takes for data to be sent from sender to receiver. Low latency—which fiber can provide—means web pages load faster, documents can download faster and voice and video quality is better.
There are many advantages a robust platform such as fiber can bring to small and large businesses of any industry. Fiber internet is much more than an industry buzzword. Its positive impact on the bottom line demonstrates just how valuable it is to the future of business.
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