Fibre or 5G:
which is right for you?

For a fixed office, fibre: it is stable, symmetrical and low-latency, and that is what your calls, remote desktop sessions and an overnight backup that runs without interruption actually feel. 5G isn't a worse alternative, it's a different tool: it works as a backup if the fibre goes down, as a stopgap while you wait for the permanent installation, or as the main connection where fibre hasn't arrived yet. What decides it isn't the speed each technology advertises, but the exact address of the premises and how you'll use it: how many people work at the same time, whether there are servers or cameras that need to be reached from outside, and whether an hour offline costs you a customer or is just a nuisance. Before you sign up, we go through those three points with you and tell you what to go for, without overselling.

It depends what you ask of it. On the move, on a temporary site or in premises with no fibre installed, 5G isn't replacing anything because there's nothing to replace: it's the only sensible option and it does that job well. The trouble starts when it's used as the fixed connection for an office with several workstations, its own servers or cameras that need to be viewed remotely: the mast is shared with the rest of the neighbourhood, upload speeds tend to fall short, and without a static IP you can't get into your own network from outside. It isn't that 5G is worse in general; it solves different problems from fibre. The question that really matters isn't which replaces which, but whether your day-to-day work depends on a stable, symmetrical connection: if it does, fibre remains the foundation and 5G is the complement.

Yes, and for a business that can't afford to go offline it's usually the most cost-effective upgrade it can make. We install a router with two WAN inputs: fibre as the main line and a 5G line in the background, idle while everything works. If the fibre drops, the router detects it automatically and switches traffic to 5G within seconds, without anyone having to touch anything or restart equipment. You never notice the difference from having no backup, until the day you notice it completely: a card terminal that stops taking payments, cameras that stop recording or a customer who can't reach your website for hours. It's worth checking that the backup runs on a different network from the main line, and testing the failover once it's installed to make sure it really does switch over on its own when it should.

The first thing, and what really decides everything, is that fibre reaches your exact address: it isn't enough for it to be in the street or the building next door, it has to reach your specific premises or home, and that's determined by the operator with coverage in that area, not by us. Once that's confirmed, you need a small internal cabling project: taking the signal from where the fibre enters to the rack or wherever the router sits, and from there to the workstations, either by cable or with well-planned Wi-Fi. That internal cabling is precisely what usually falls outside what the operator installs. Before you sign anything, we check it for free: we see whether fibre reaches you, what state your existing cabling is in and what's missing for the installation to actually perform, not just on paper.

It depends on what leaves your office, not on how many people are inside. An HD video call needs around 3 Mb of upload per person, but that's only the starting point: security cameras recording to the cloud can eat up considerably more, continuously, all day long, and an overnight backup will take all the upload you give it, even if nobody is working at that hour. The problem isn't each thing on its own, it's that they tend to overlap: the backup kicks off at eight, the cameras never stop and mid-afternoon there's a video call with a client. If you do all three at once, upload is the first place to look when things slow down, before you blame the router or the Wi-Fi. Fibre uploads as fast as it downloads; 5G doesn't always, and that's exactly what needs checking before you decide.

For one or two people talking from a laptop, usually yes, especially if coverage is good where you are. The trouble starts when several meetings run at the same time in the same office, or when the mast serving you is busy because it's rush hour for the whole neighbourhood: the call doesn't drop entirely, but the picture gets less sharp and the audio cuts out for a split second right in the middle of a sentence, which is the worst possible moment. That happens because you share the mast with everyone else in the area, something that doesn't occur with fibre: each line has its own bandwidth. For one person working occasionally or on the move, 5G is more than enough. For a permanent meeting room where deals are closed or interviews held, fibre removes that risk completely.

It's a way of sharing a single public internet address among many different customers, common on mobile lines and some residential fibre deals. For browsing, watching videos or using email it's no problem at all: you start all of that from inside. The problem is the other way round, when you need something to come in from outside to your network: viewing your security cameras directly without going through the manufacturer's cloud, connecting to a NAS to retrieve a file, or setting up a VPN to reach the office computers from home. With CG-NAT, those incoming connections simply don't arrive, however well the inside is configured. The solution is to ask the operator for a static IP, which usually costs extra, or to set up an alternative that doesn't depend on receiving direct connections. It's worth asking before you sign, not after the cameras are installed.

There's no single timeframe, because what governs it is the state of the network in your street, not a date that depends on us. If the operator already has fibre up to the building and it's just a matter of activating the line and the equipment, it's usually sorted quickly. If a new connection needs to be run from the street to the building's entry point, it takes considerably longer, because it involves civil works and coordination with the landlord or the residents' association. That's why, when moving premises, we recommend ordering the fibre as soon as the lease is signed, before the refurbishment starts, not when everything is already set up and you need internet the next day. While the installation is being sorted, a 5G line covers those first days so you don't have to stop work or depend on whatever date the operator gives you.

Yes, and in fact it's usually the most sensible option when the backup is more than a nice-to-have. The reason is simple: if the main line and the backup run over the same network infrastructure, even if you're billed by different operators, a fault in that infrastructure can leave you without both at once, which is exactly what the backup was meant to prevent. By getting fibre from one operator and the 5G backup from another that uses a different network, you make sure a problem on one doesn't affect the other. Technically nothing changes compared with having both lines from the same operator: a router with two WAN inputs switches over on its own when it detects the main line has stopped responding, without anyone having to step in. Before signing, ask which network infrastructure each offer uses, not just the operator's name.