Wireless vs Fibre in South Africa

During the surge of covid-19 in South Africa and the whole world, we experienced a rise in internet usage especially at home since most people were in lockdown and others were working remotely at home. According to Apollo, about over 30 million people from the United States of America were working remotely in 2021 and the number might increase.

Wireless

Wireless is widely used in South Africa, this is because wireless connections have already been established through radio towers for technology such as cell phone networks. It is therefore a connection that does not require a physically connected wire to make use of the internet. Most common wireless communication ranges from wireless hotspot to popular LTE connections.

Advantages: 

• Wireless does not require extensive setup and installation; it’s a plug and go kind of product since there is no cabling involved. 
• It is portable, meaning you can take it anywhere you want as long as your service provider has the coverage in that particular place.
• Cost-effective since is easy and cheaper to install

Disadvantages: 

• The wireless network has a lot of security related issues, especially things like public Wi-Fi( Free Hotspot) where your personal data can get stolen.
• The internet speed is not consistent depending on the number of users in that tower/ or station.
• Coverage in the high-density areas is very very hard to get sufficient coverage because of physical structures.

Fibre Network

The internet demand has increased in both homes and workplaces. If you want peace of mind, get yourself a fibre network and get no interruptions. With the increase in online content such as streaming services, online gaming, online school and virtual meetings, everyone needs a stable and fast internet connection.

Advantages: 

• Fast it can go as fast as 1GB per second
• Fibre optics can handle more users and more data at consistently higher speeds
• Better online gameplay
• Fibre uses optic signals that remain trapped in their cables compared to the radio signal for the wireless networks which has some health issues.

Disadvantages: 

• Fibre optic costs started out screamingly high because of the cost of installing new infrastructure.
• Availability: Most are in big metropolitan areas.

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