Qwest Fiber Optic Internet

Founded in 1996, Qwest is one of the country’s largest telecommunication companies, despite operating in only 14 states. These states include Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and Nebraska. While the company has offered high speed Internet through its DSL services for many years, Qwest is currently beginning to roll out its fiber optic Internet service.

Differences in the Services

If you already have high speed DSL service through Qwest and fiber optic has become available in your area, you may be wondering if switching makes sense. Although the price for the new service is going to be somewhat higher, there are benefits to the fiber optic option.

First, you need to understand a key difference in how the services are provided. DSL service is provided via the copper wires used to power your landline telephone. These types of wires have been used for decades and, in many places, have probably not been upgraded for just as long. Fiber optic cables are far ahead those old wires in terms of technology. In fact, they aren’t even wires at all. Instead, they are very thin strands of glass that are bundled together. The transfer of signals and information through the wires is done by laser-generated light.

Because of the differences in the cables, you’ll see these differences:

•    Faster speed – The speeds at which information can travel through glass is much higher because there is less resistance. You’ll see in the next section the difference in speed so you can decide whether it’s worth upgrading for.
•    Greater capacity – Copper wires have limits on how much information they can hold. With more people using them for the Internet and with more types of services being offered over them, that capacity has almost been reached. With fiber optics, the capacity is almost unlimited. That means additional features and services can be added to these lines in the future without affecting your current service.
•    Increased reliability – Because fiber optic cables can be monitored off-site for problems, maintenance is going to be much faster. Crews can already be on their way to fix a problem by the time you have called in to report the problem. That’s just not possible with old-fashioned copper wires. Plus, the fiber optic wires themselves are more resistant to damage and to the environment so problems will occur less frequently.

Clearly, there are some big advantages available with the fiber optics upgrade. However, most people are interested in the speed available. Before that discussion, look at the features of the plans being offered by Qwest for this high-end high speed Internet service.

Current Qwest Features

At this point, two different speeds are available for fiber optic high speed Internet through Qwest. Regardless of which of the speeds you choose, each is going to come with a number of features. You do receive three months of Starz Play at no additional cost. This service allows you to watch an unlimited number of movies on demand through your Internet connection directly on your computer. More than 2,500 movies are currently available through this service. You’ll also be entitled to the Price for Life offer which guarantees you won’t pay any more for your service as long as you keep the service as required by your agreement. Windows Live One Care is also available with its own suite of security features to help protect your computer or your family’s network of computers from viruses, hackers, and other problems.

As mentioned above, two packages are currently available. The fastest of the two is known as Quantum and delivers download speeds of up to 20 Mbps. Upload speeds are considerably slower at only 896 Mbps. The second package, called Titanium, has the same upload speed but the download speed drops down to 12 Mbps.

Speed Comparison

Because the real determiners of the value of the fiber optics high speed Internet is how much faster it is compared to the competition. Below are a couple of comparisons for common online activities. All of the comparisons are done between Qwest’s services, including both fiber optic plans and both DSL plans.

If you want to download a 30 minute television program to your computer, it would take the following amount of time depending on which of the services you choose:

•    Quantum – 2 minutes
•    Titanium – 3 minutes
•    DSL Platinum (up to 7 Mbps) – 5 minutes
•    DSL Silver (up to 1.5 Mbps) – 22 minutes

The difference between the lowest DSL plan and the highest fiber optics plan is a full 20 minutes.

If you want to download a photo that is 1 MB in size, here’s how long it would take with each of these plans:

•    Quantum – less than 1 second (0.05 seconds to be specific)
•    Titanium – 1 second
•    DSL Platinum (up to 7 Mbps) – 2 seconds
•    DSL Silver (up to 1.5 Mbps) – 7 seconds

While all four plans provide fast speed here, the speed of the Quantum plan is impressive. The photo appears almost instantly.

Finally, if you want to download a song from one of the legal download sites, here’s a comparison of how long it will take:

•    Quantum – 2 seconds
•    Titanium – 4 seconds
•    DSL Platinum (up to 7 Mbps) – 6 seconds
•    DSL Silver (up to 1.5 Mbps) – 26 seconds

Although all four deliver fast download times, the two fiber optics plans do have a definite time advantage over the DSL plans, particularly the slower of the DSL plans.

But how does this stack up to cable high speed Internet? On average, most cable Internet services can only deliver download speeds of up to 10 Mbps which is slower than both of the fiber optics plans. Even though some cable services may offer an upgraded 20 Mbps service, the speed is going to be less reliable and the capacity for information will be significantly reduced.