4 Ways Cable Internet Is Killing Your Business Growth

With every month that passes, it is becoming more and more apparent that coax cable internet is on its way out and fiber optic internet is quickly taking its place. For small- and medium-sized business owners, choosing between the two could be the same as determining the success of their operations.

According to a recent Pew Research survey, 46% of workers feel more productive when they have internet access. It follows that with better internet, your team members can feel (and be) even more productive—with clearer audio and video signals for conference calls, faster download speeds, and better security features, they can get more done in a shorter amount of time without risking your company’s future. In a world that is increasingly moving toward a virtual workforce, that’s a sound investment.

So why should you invest in fiber for your business? Allow me to flip the script here for a moment.

It’s because your business is like a tree and your internet is its root system.

Hear me out.

Bandwidth

What do trees need? They need water and nutrients. Large roots can absorb and deliver more water and nutrients than small roots. The same concept applies to your internet. The information that you receive from your internet connection allows you and your team to work faster, which means you have more opportunity for growth.

Coax has upload and download speeds that range anywhere from 1 megabit per second to 20 megabits per second. Compared to fiber’s 100 to 1000 Mbps range, copper doesn’t even come close. To put this in real terms, downloading 1 gigabyte of data with fiber can take anywhere from eight seconds to a minute and a half. With copper, that same data takes 24 minutes to 2 hours to download! By going with coax cable internet, you could be slowly starving your business.

Reliability

Did you know that trees communicate with each other? Cool, right? Trees that grow next to one another actually send each other the nutrients that they need through a complex underground system made up of roots and fungi. So if one tree is deficient in carbon, another tree can sense this and send any extra carbon that it has. If a delay were to occur during this give and take, trees wouldn’t be able to survive, and neither can your business.

If you have cable internet, you are probably not unfamiliar with a little bit of lag now and then. That slowing down of your live video stream—caused by slow internet speeds and other latency issues—can make communication impossible. With fiber internet, information travels at or near the speed of light, so this delay is not a problem.

Signal Strength

Trees with long roots can communicate with more trees at greater distances. That means they have a better chance of getting the nutrients they need.

At long distances, cable has a high attenuation, which means it loses information as data travels through it. Businesses that need to connect their hub offices with satellite locations should consider using fiber to cut down on signal loss.

Security

Like a tree, your business needs to be able to defend itself from outside attacks. Trees can get diseases from fungi, viruses, and bacteria just as your business computer network can become infected with malware or even be taken over by hackers. One way that hackers can gain access to your system is by physically tapping your cable. If you have fiber, however, physical infiltration is impossible as cutting the cable would stop the flow of information.

As a business owner, nourishing your business and increasing its growth can ensure that it is here for a long time to come. Switching your internet from cable to fiber will help you send and receive the information that is critical to your operation’s success. If you need help transitioning to better internet, call the internet experts at nQuery Technology Solutions today.

Contact us for a complementary consultation.