Is the fibre optic line from AT&T Uverse TV better than regular coaxial cable (Comcast)?

Question

AT&T installed Uverse in my home but from the connection outside my home they used the existing coaxial cable to route the signal to the various tv's. Shouldnt they have run new fibre optic line in my home? or used CAT5? Seems to me the signal would deminish using the existing coaxial cable, am I wrong? The installer was not too energetic of a guy, did he take a shortcut by using the existing coaxial wiring?

Answer 1

First, Fiber Optical cabling NEEDS to be Demodulated....that's why they install an ONT on your home, which is the box that demodulates your signal into TV , Internet and Phone signals.....

That short run of Coax to your TV converter boxes can easily handle the TV signal, with NO LOSS of signal quality....

And I suspect that AT&T's TV signals are presently DIGITAL to your Converter boxes by now !

And that's DOUBLE Redundancy!  Digital signals are NOISELESS and you cannot distort them either....

That's why Verizon Fios uses the Fiber optical system....

And as for using OLD cable...I had my installer use my old DISH satellite cables because I knew they were only 5 years old...cables don't really go bad if they are secured / non-moving and not exposed to the elements for 50 years....

So don't worry....you have fiber optical cable, which overcomes signal loss from miles and miles of coaxial cable...Digital Signal which overcomes miles and miles of Coaxial cable, AND a short run of Coax which EASILY DELIVERS HIGH BANDWIDTH to several converter boxes in your Home....

It's all GOOD....

Oh, and one more thing.....Fiber optical cabling is actually cheaper to make than Coax, and that is another reason why AT&T is using Fiber Optical cabling to replace the old  telephone/coax wiring....it's MORE reliable, needs less maintenance, carrys more information/customers on it than any other cable on this planet, and has less amplifiers on it to Distort ANALOG signals (which is now replaced by Distortionless Digital Signals).....

Answer 2

Fiber optic is definitely better than coaxial anytime, but is also quite expensive. What does your installation agreement say and how much did you pay? You need to check it out with your cable company.

Answer 3

The existing COAX in your home has more than enough capacity to handle UVerse at the small distances inside your house.  Most UVerse installations use the existing COAX cables.

If you would like to check for yourself, you can go to your 2wire gateway Management and Diagnostic page ( http://gateway.2wire.net/mdc you will need the password from the sticker on your gateway inside your house) Look under the local network statistics link for errors on HomePHA, as long as the percentage is low you are fine.

Happy Viewing!