One of the most misleading buzzwords in internet has been (mostly) retired.

The National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs hadmade the same recommendationseveral months before.

At the time of writing, Mediacom is still using “10G"on its website.

10G is short for 10 gigabits per second, which is the symmetrical speed the platform promises.

Symmetrical speeds means customers get the same speed whether theyre uploading or downloading data.

Its what sets fiber internet apart from cable, which typically has much lower upload speeds than download.

10G has nothing to do with5G, which refers to the fifth generation of wireless technology.

10G is also an attempt to compete with the frenzy over fiber internet, says Ali.

With respect to cable, though, we’ve got this really great coaxial cable already in the ground.

Think of it like the jump in speeds that came with the introduction ofWi-Fi 6 routersor 5G phones.

Some providers, like Xfinity, are also utilizing fiber-to-the-home enhancements to reach the 10Gbps benchmark.

10G today is more about a DOCSIS upgrade, Knittle said.

In February,Mediacom announced that it was transitioning to the 10G platformin West Des Moines, Iowa.

Xfinity didlaunch its own symmetrical 10-gig servicein June 2023.

You wont see the plan when you slide in your address on Xfinitys website, though.

Youll have to call Xfinity directly to ask about 10G availability.

Do you really need all that speed?

Its hard to wrap your head around internet speeds as high as 10 gigs.

The 10G platform is largely a bet on the future.

By that math, a high-end user would see 10G speeds sometime in 2028.

The cable associations behind the 10G platform citevirtual realityandsmart homesas applications that could fuel huge increases in bandwidth needs.

10G is like an innovation platform, said Knittle.

Knittle did share one prediction for 10Gs major selling point, or “killer app.”

It’s called instant gratification, he said.

I want to select them and I want it to be there and in a moment.

Not 2 minutes: 2 seconds.

What about upload speed?

Most households dont need nearly as much upload speed as download.

One way to look at it is that we consume a lot more content than we produce.

Thats a ratio of nearly 1,400:1.

As late as 2019,downstream traffic was 14 times higher than upstream traffic.

But that started to change with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, upstream traffic remains a fraction of downstream.

Right now there’s absolutely no use for 8 gigabits per second in the upstream, said Knittle.

But you never know when that utility that does require that much upstream is going to be invented.

The difference between the two comes down to themakeup of the cables that connect the internet to your home.

Fiber-optic connections can handle a lot more data than cable, and they can do it a lot faster.

Cable internet has to make that tradeoff, and the result is extremely lopsided speeds.

One Xfinity cable plan gets 1,000Mbps download speeds, but just 20Mbps upload.

Thats the disparity that 10G hopes to address.

You shouldnt, or at least not without considering other factors that are more important right now.

Start your search by entering your address in theFederal Communication Commissions broadband map.

Gig speeds are already overkill for most people, let alone 10-gig speeds.