Wireless Internet Isn’t What It Used to Be

Wireless home internet has long been the if-you-had-to option for when cable or fiber wasn’t available. It was a well-earned reputation. Traditionally, wireless was serviceable for basic digital tasks like checking email or searching the web, but fell flat at brawnier activities like high-def streaming, video calls, or lag-free gaming. And that was when a connection was available, which, depending on how crowded the network got, wasn’t always the case. 

In recent years, however, that’s all started to change. Wireless tech has become far more stable, expanded capacity, and gotten faster. By a lot. Delivering speeds as much as 65 times faster than previous wireless systems.

(Yup, 65.) 

Core Fiber offers wireless speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second, with upload speeds up to 250 Mbps and very low latency. Those numbers are impressive, but what really matters is what they let users do with them.

With modern wireless, you can easily stream a movie in 4K while someone else in the house is on a video call. You can work from home without worrying that your connection will freeze mid-meeting. Gamers can play without the frustrating lag once associated with wireless connections. Faster upload speeds also make a big difference when you’re sharing large files, backing up photos and videos, or sending information to the cloud.

In other words, wireless is no longer the bare-bones connection of last resort. In many places, it can be a very good broadband connection in its own right.

What changed?

The networks behind wireless internet have improved significantly in just the last five years. Our service uses a fiber infrastructure to bring enormous capacity into the communities we serve, then next-generation fixed wireless technology on local towers delivers that connection the final distance to a customer’s home.

Optimizing the various “legs” of the journey from the internet to your device makes the difference. People sometimes hear “wireless” and imagine their internet signal traveling wirelessly over long distances. In reality, a modern fixed wireless network can use fiber to do much of the heavy lifting, with wireless technology handling the final connection to the home.

The result is a network that combines fiber's capacity with wireless flexibility. And the technology will keep improving. I’m always cautious about calling any technology “future-proof,” because the internet never stops evolving. But today’s wireless networks have considerably more room to support the increasingly connected way households live, work, and play.

What about satellite internet?

Another type of wireless internet has gotten a lot of attention lately: satellite. Starlink, notably, has done something genuinely valuable by bringing connectivity to places that may be extremely difficult to reach with terrestrial infrastructure. In a very remote location, satellite can be a great option.

But satellite and fixed wireless aren’t the same thing.

A Starlink connection has to communicate with satellites orbiting above the Earth. Core Wireless connects your home to a local terrestrial network backed by fiber. That difference can show up in key performance areas, like latency. Starlink says its users typically see latency of up to 60+ milliseconds. Core Wireless users experience latency of approximately 4 milliseconds on its next-generation wireless network. 

That doesn’t make satellite a bad technology. It simply means that when a high-capacity terrestrial wireless network is available at your address, it’s worth understanding the difference before assuming that all “wireless internet” is essentially the same.

It may be time to reconsider wireless

Internet technology changes quickly, but our perceptions don’t always keep pace. That’s especially true with wireless. Some people tried it years ago, had a mediocre experience, and understandably decided it wasn’t for them. I’d just encourage them to take another look.

The wireless internet available today isn’t the wireless internet you remember. It’s faster, more responsive and capable of supporting the streaming, gaming, working, learning, and connected devices that are now part of everyday life.

And ultimately, that’s what matters. You shouldn’t need to be an expert in fiber, wireless, or satellites to choose your internet service. You just need a connection that works the way you need it to.