Not only residential DSL broadband is cheaper, it is often more reliable and consistent compared to mobile internet. When you consider Optic Fiber, the speed of internet service reaches a whole new level.

In Pakistan Fiber internet service is available in some areas and slowly gaining grounds. Stormfiber, Fiberlink, Nayatel are some of the major names that provide fiber internet in Islamabad and Karachi. Using fiber for amazingly fast internet speed, fiber internet companies are changing the way people connect with the world.

While bridging these gaps, people do get confused about Fiber internet service and various questions come up in their difference with regular internet service. If you are looking to know more about Fiber internet or planning to switch to it, keep the following details in mind:

• Fiber is slowly gaining grounds in various urban areas. First confirm if a particular fiber company has started providing service in your area before placing order
• It can take anytime between a week to a month for Fiber installation at your home (if services in your area are active), so keep at least a month’s time-frame in mind when deciding to switch to fiber service
• The upfront cost of Fiber is always high, over Rs. 7,000 for installation alone.
• The long-term monthly cost of internet is lower than cable internet or Wimax
• A special device, GPON, or similar is provided that is essential for fiber internet service. If your internet service provider is not providing GPON or relevant device, the internet connection is not really fiber.
• Fiber internet has zero copper wire in the whole connection, from the source right to the residence. If there is even a little copper wire in your fiber connection, it is not fiber.
• Fiber internet, in comparison to cable, is more reliable as it doesn’t go out in case of rainfall or electricity breakdown. The GPON device has battery backup to give more time of uninterrupted internet.

In a couple of years, fiber infrastructure will be better and would cover larger areas with more reliable performances. Once that happens, doors to more innovations will open as faster internet with dedicated lines will be available to residences as well as small-scale companies.

Do you use fiber internet or is the service available in your area? Let us know in the comments below.

UPDATE, 2nd Nov, 2015:

We are glad to let our readers know that Stormfiber has intiated its services by offering packages ranging from 2Mbps to 30Mbps in Karachi and those intrested to know more about it can visit this link to get more info and can also place their orders online on the available packages and tarriffs etc. Our representative will call you to guide you with the process.

Khurram Zahid

The post Fiber Internet Gaining Grounds in Pakistan appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

This, however, needs more clarification. Even though PTCL is offering high speed internet in the name of fiber to residential places, it is not the real fiber. In the name of fiber connection the residential places are provided internet through copper wires.

Fiber To The Home (FTTH) means fiber is actually provided directly at home not just to the exchange. No copper wire is involved anywhere in the PTCL internet connection. If you asked for fiber connection at your residence and PTCL broadband team has pulled a yellow wire into your place, it’s not fiber. Yellow wire indicates copper wire, and no fiber connection is complete without GPON device that is required for fiber connection.

Fiber wire, on the other hand, is of black color and it needs to be perfectly straight when pulled into your house. Which also means maintaining that straight posture indefinitely and to achieve that the PTCL team needs to dig up a line right up to your house. Other option is to pull fiber up on a pole and stretch it directly into your house. An inefficient way of providing fiber service but the only alternate to digging the road, cement, tiles etc.

And it’s not free either. If you want only the fiber to be pulled into your house, it would cost the customer about Rs. 6,000 (and charges would be even higher if digging is involved). We had reached out to a PTCL Fiber customer in DHA Phase 5 in Karachi who had the fiber pulled into the house via pole (no digging) and it took him long argument and persistence to make the PTCL team agree to do it.

This fact can also be verified from the fact that when supplying 4 mb fiber connection and 4 mb copper connection to residential homes, there is no price difference between the two. On the forum of PakGamers the discussion on PTCL Fiber yielded the same result, people were provided yellow copper wire in the name of fiber without additional cost.

PTCL is not the only company with fiber service though; others have also started this service such as Stormfiber and Fiberlink who are in soft launch phase while Transworld is also starting its operations in due time. Nayatel offers true fiber experience in Islamabad where they provide ONT device as well (similar to GPON) that completes the fiber connection.

Khurram Zahid

The post PTCL Fiber To Home Not Really Fiber appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.