Many residents say they’re not getting the speeds they pay for.
But here’s something worth considering in the Longmeadow Fiber discussion:
Your internet speed is only as fast as the weakest device in your home.
If you’re using:
• An 8–10 year old computer
• A spinning hard drive instead of SSD (solid state drive)
• 8GB RAM or less
• Older WiFi 4/5 hardware
• A 1-Gig Ethernet port on a 1.2-Gig plan
You may never see advertised speeds — even if the network is performing perfectly.
I recently replaced a 10-year-old Lenovo desktop with a modern SSD-based system.
Same Comcast plan
(1 Gigabit plan- $85/month including taxes, fees and Gateway rental)
Same Xfinity gateway.
Dramatically better performance and measured speeds.
A townwide fiber network build will not
automatically fix:
• Old routers
• Outdated laptops
• Mechanical hard drives
• Weak internal WiFi cards
That doesn’t mean fiber isn’t valuable. It means we should separate:
Infrastructure limitations from In-home technology limitations
Before concluding that the problem is “the provider,” it’s worth asking:
