So what’s the best choice? That’s easy, and I bet you guessed the answer… It depends.
If you’re connecting an ISP to a node or street cabinet, then fiber’s your baby. Glass is great for outdoor applications and you can transmit a lot of data over incredible distances with fiber cabling.
However, once you’re actually at the cabinet or close to the roofline of a home or building, the choice becomes more nuanced. This is where ethernet copper cable is giving fiber a run for its money.
One of the main reasons comes down to cost savings.
HDBaseT and HDMI (both 1-cable solutions) come into play here as well. Frankly, these solutions deliver great performance at substantial savings. Copper also cuts down on the need for additional power sources.
Fewer cables and less supporting installations? It’s easy to see why ethernet is still a popular choice.