this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
326 points (93.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27006 readers
1450 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 102 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Japan's current fiber-optic commercial internet connections use optical fiber transmission windows known as L and C multi-core fiber (MCF) bands to transport data long distances at record speeds. Meanwhile we (USA) have fiber back to copper and Cat3 for the last few hundred feet in most cities at best making the entire idea into a bottle neck.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (6 children)

There are a lot of very good reasons to switch back to copper for the last portion of a run. I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples' computers. Fiber is a lot more expensive both for the line, to run it, more prone to breakage, the network cards are more expensive, etc. It's really not needed for most purposes.

Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can't be run for 'hundreds of feet'. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that's a kind of connector not the kind of fiber.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples' computers.

You run fiber to the home and gigabit ethernet or whatever internally in the premises. All your other complaints re: cost and etc aren't really an issue for last mile consumer grade fiber.

I have seen installers run a fiber drop cable across from a power pole, bring it down an outside wall , then staple it to joists under a house, cleave off the end and stick a mechanical splice on it, bang it in the power meter, all good, plug it in the fiber modem, good to go in less than 20 minutes. All this stuff uses standard components and technology that's been available for 10+ years now.

Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can't be run for 'hundreds of feet'. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that's a kind of connector not the kind of fiber

It's probably the standard "last mile" half assed solution where they decide to use existing phone lines and VDSL from a box down the street instead of biting the bullet and running fiber.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

This is how it works in the UK too. I've got Fibre To The Premises (FTTP), and the installation was pretty much exactly as you described.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm in Italy and I have a fiber internet port inside my home

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago

Not on your computer though

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is like arguing that SMS is still a good messaging platform.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Which US-americans will happily argue for

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

No it's not? Fiber is a bad solution for short runs for residential use inside people's homes. Copper can pull 10 gig speeds or more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, almost all apartments in the city I live in has fiber. They all have a box in a corner somewhere.

Then we pull a standard ethernet cable to our router and we run full speed.

Maybe I'm not knowledgeable enough on the area, but why is that bad?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

They are arguing that inside the nlhouse ople don't use fiber, they use the ethernet copper cable from the router. Which is like, fine, okay, that's true, but also not at all what people are arguing and not something that should be required to be pointed out in this context.

People are arguing that in some US cities the Internet distribution is done through copper for the whole building/complex, and just like you, in my home there's a fiber port into my router, which then I use cat7 copper cables for my stuff. But up until my router there's fiber, which is awesome.

Anyway I hope this clarifies it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Typing from my Tokyo fiber-to-the-home connection now. They ran it off the pole, installed a little thing in my house, ran the fiber to the modem they make me rent, and it works like a charm.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's not terminated in your computer though for all the reasons I said.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I don't think I understand unless you're expecting me to buy some router and network cards that natively support fiber to go from the modem (which is fiber in from the pole outside).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I have fiber to home in Canada

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

Have fiber to home here in Arkansas in the US

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's not terminated in your computer though for all the reasons I said.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

And so what? I have 1.5 Gb symmetrical with latency to many sites and game servers under 10 ms (on Wi-Fi!)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

And you would be wrong.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sweden is also quite well connected with fiber.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Yes, but nowhere compared to the Netherlands and Denmark

Ofc the size of the countries makes it easier.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Cat3? As in most cities in the US are limited to 10mbps?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

No, the average internet download speed in the United State is about 171 Mbps. Though disclaimer, I'm not sure of the exact reliability of that number, different sources are reporting quite a range of speeds, though I don't see any under 100 Mbps average and I see many reporting well above this. You'd also have to consider median vs average since people with fiber sitting at gigabit speeds may be dragging that number up, median may be lower.

https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/fastest-slowest-internet

There are certainly some areas, especially rural, that struggle though. And upload speed is often much worse unless you have fiber. Major cities are definitely getting much better than 10 Mbps down though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Cat 3 isnt actually a thing, but people call house phone wiring that. Runs DSL quite well.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Cat 3 is a thing and is basically unshielded twisted pair. You can abuse it quite a bit from its voice grade days to cram a few hundred megabits of VDSL over it if it's only from your house to the curb.