At Fibre Boyz, we have three primary internet solutions for our customers which usually work out to be the most accessible and the most cost effective. ADSL, Fixed LTE and Fibre are all great connectivity solutions, but the pros and cons are dependent on your specific individual needs and wants. Speed requirements usually are the overriding decision criteria when selecting your solution. If you are a student for example and merely need the internet for research or emails you may not need an extremely fast connection compared to someone looking who streams for entertainment or has to be on endless video calls for work.
Lets be clear, Fibre is the fastest solution with reasonably priced options to choose from, the problem thought is that it is not readily available everywhere. ADSL is a much more budget friendly option and due to Telkom’s mass rollout historically, is available in just about any residential area, but it is limited by speed and external factors like copper theft and corrosion. Fixed LTE, which is a great option for people looking for flexibility in contracts on the other hand is great for mobility and can be installed instantly.
To help you make the best decision, it’s important to make the following considerations before you make your choice. Due to the mass rollouts on fibre and the current fibre pricing war where fibre network operators are giving great fibre deals, it is important to also think ahead. If there is a fibre rollout currently in your area, patience is the most important determinant and a contract free solution like Fixed LTE may be your easiest choice.
So lets stack them up: ADSL, Fixed LTE and Fibre
| ADSL | Fixed LTE | Fibre | |
| Price | ADSL is budget friendly but has limited maximum speed and is known to be throttled through fair use policies | At 10GB a month, Fixed LTE will be the cheapest option. However, when high data volumes are required, Fixed LTE will become very expensive but still is more cheaper than mobile data. A pocket router is a great option to have to keep this affordable | Budget friendly options with high speeds are available and fibre prices are under pressure which means they will be going down over time. |
| Speed | ADSL carries speeds from 1 Mbps to 40 Mbps and has uncapped. | Up to 50 Mbps sometimes if you’re lucky, depending on your line of sight, you could go up to about 100 Mbps. | Uncapped options from 10Mbps to 1000Mbps and are now coming in unshaped and unthrottled packages |
| External Factors | Sadly, ADSL uses copper cabling which in South Africa is prone to theft and can be affected by distance and age of the network. With no big expansion plans for ADSL, this could be a major risk | No cables. Signal affected by weather at times and network congestion, as you move away from a tower, your speed can be affected. | Fibre cables are not valuable and made from glass. This makes them both theft proof and weather proof, they are however susceptible to breaks for example when the local municipalities are repairing services close to your fibre line. |
| Installation | Fixed installation dependent on infrastructure – comes with a cost and a timeline. Not easily scalable if you want to change your line speed. | Easy plug and play installation with just a simple mobile router required | Fixed installation dependent on infrastructure – comes with a cost and a timeline. Scalable if you want to change your line speed. |
| Availability | Available wherever there is a telephone line. | Reliant on signal towers. | Not readily available everywhere. No analog line required. |
