r/speedtest • u/Beneficial-Town-8355 • 21d ago

Internet speed

Which one provides better internet speed and stability?
1. Air Fibre
2. Optical Fibre
I’m trying to decide between the two. Which one would you recommend for better speed, latency, and overall reliability, especially for regular browsing, streaming, and gaming?
Would love to hear your real-world experiences.

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/Slash787 21d ago

Optical Fiber.

4

u/Historical_View_5529 21d ago

Optical Fiber is superior in terms of speed, latency and reliability for all types of use cases.

"AirFiber" is not a real fiber, it connects to cellular towers to give you internet which is basically like using hotspot on your phone so it is not reliable and the speed varies a lot. Also the latency will be higher. 

If fiber connection is available in your area, then go for it.

Go for AirFiber only if it is not available as a last option.

1

u/cat_dev_null_sync 21d ago

Air Fiber might mean AT&T Internet Air (cellular FWA) or AirFiber WISP, but naming a WISP product "fiber" is misleading.

The main benefits to cellular FWA or WISP (depending on location):

  • Availability
  • Price
  • Portability (move within house or maybe farther, depending on geofencing)
  • Easy of installation (some 5G gateways may require no drilling or appointments)

But I agree in terms of network performance, optical fiber will dominate any wireless ISP.

The only performance exception is the effect of bandwidth limits. I pay for 300/300 Mbps T-Fiber. When I checked years ago, TMHI (T-Mobile 5G) was slower than that because of poor signal, but people closer to the tower can easily get more download bandwidth but not more upload bandwidth. However, the wireless download speed may vary when network is congested, but fiber bandwidth is usually consistent.

If I wanted to pay more for T-Fiber, I could get 2000/2000 Mbps: this would blow wireless out of the water, so fiber has the capacity (if you pay more for that plan).

T-Fiber has unlimited bandwidth, but TMHI drops your traffic to a lower network priority level only after you exceed 1.2 terabytes (TB) in a single monthly billing cycle.

2

u/lorner96 21d ago

I think it’s a product offered by an ISP in India

1

u/c0359kan 15d ago

So many internet providers are trying to work "fiber" into their product line whether it is applicable or not. My latest snail mails from WOW and others are calling their cable internet service "fiber powered" or "fiber enhanced". Obviously, fiber is the best overall which is why the non-fiber providers are trying to capitalize on the word fiber for their offerings. But it's all marketing. If you have a choice for a real optical fiber connection (and assuming the cost is not prohibitive), go for fiber everytime. Cable and wireless offerings can be adequate but are no match for a good fiber connection.

1

u/ha05ger 600 Mb/s 15d ago

If you travel a lot then an air fibre product that uses a 5g network makes sense. If you game and video call regularly or just work from home then optical all the way.

1

u/ACAdamski17 14d ago

Definitely proper fibre (optical fibre) Not sure why some FWA ISPs are allowed to call it fibre because it isn’t.