Fiber vs. coax for a 3-story apartment building I did last Tuesday - fiber won by a mile

Was running a new drop in a older building downtown. Had to decide between pulling new RG6 or running the fiber line they already had in the riser. Went with fiber after fighting with the coax splitters on the other floors for 20 minutes. Took me half the time once I swapped. Anyone else find fiber way easier in tricky multi-unit setups?

4 comments

4 Comments

ivan_harris11d ago

...but I gotta say, I've had the opposite experience with fiber in those old buildings. The stuff is just too delicate for my liking. One kink in the line and you're re-pulling the whole thing, and those old risers are full of sharp edges and tight corners. Coax is tougher, you can bend it a bit more without killing the signal, and if a splitter is giving you trouble you just replace it, not re-run 200 feet of cable. Plus, with fiber I always worry about the customer's dog chewing through it or something, coax can take a beating.

-1

ericcraig11d ago

Yeah, "dog chewing through it" got me. I had a buddy who ran fiber to a house and the owner's parrot chewed through the drop line in like two days. Parrot. Didn't even see that coming. Now he puts that metal armor stuff on anything near a bird cage. But I get what you're saying about coax being tougher, that stuff is like a garden hose compared to glass.

wader7110d ago

Yeah but "coax is tougher" doesn't mean much when fiber gives you way more bandwidth and better signal over longer runs. Would you rather have a tough truck that runs on leaded gas or a newer one that actually gets you where you need to go faster?

charles_baker2810d ago

Oh man, the parrot story got me laughing. You really can't predict what people's pets are gonna do. But honestly? This whole fiber vs. coax thing kinda reminds me of how people treat anything new and shiny versus the old reliable stuff. Like with cars, everyone wants the fancy electric one with all the screens until the battery dies in the cold or you gotta find a charger. The beat up old truck that's been sitting in the driveway for 20 years just starts up every time. Same with tools I've noticed. People buy the newest cordless whatever and it breaks after a year, but my grandpa's old hand drill from the 1950s still works fine. Fiber is probably better in a perfect world with no dogs or parrots or tight corners, but coax is just that tough old truck that takes the abuse.