Enjoy Freaky Fast Holiday Streaming with Fiber Internet
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The holidays bring everyone home—and online. College kids return with gaming consoles and endless streaming queues. Remote-working relatives extend their stays, video conferencing from your guest room. Grandma wants to FaceTime the cousins who couldn’t make it. The kids are binge-watching Hallmark movies in one room while someone else streams the big game in another. Meanwhile, your smart home devices continue to operate in the background.
With Fidium Fiber, you can keep everyone happy, enjoy fast holiday streaming, and stay connected without slowdowns.
Enjoy buffer-free holiday streaming
What Different Holiday Activities Actually Require
Not all internet activities are created equal. Understanding bandwidth requirements helps you plan for buffer-free connectivity throughout the season.
Holiday Streaming
Holiday streaming marathons are one of the greatest traditions. Home Alone? Check. The Santa Claus? Check. Endless hours of cheesy Hallmark love stories? Check. Streaming quality directly correlates with the availability of bandwidth.
Standard-definition streaming requires approximately 3 Mbps per stream. High-definition bumps that requirement up to 5-8 Mbps. For the crisp, detailed picture of 4K Ultra HD, you’ll need 25 Mbps per stream. If three family members want to watch different 4K content simultaneously, that’s 75 Mbps just for streaming—before accounting for any other internet activity.
Video Calling
Holiday video calls have become essential traditions. Connecting with family members who can’t join in person creates meaningful moments, but these calls require stable, consistent bandwidth.
A standard video call needs 3-4 Mbps for decent quality. Group calls with multiple participants require more—often 5-10 Mbps to maintain clear video and audio for everyone. Video calls also demand low latency and minimal packet loss, making connection stability just as important as raw speed.
Gaming and Downloads
For many families, gaming provides holiday entertainment and bonding opportunities. Online gaming needs 3-6 Mbps for smooth gameplay, but the real challenge is latency. High ping times cause lag, making fast-paced games unplayable. Game downloads present another challenge—modern games often exceed 100 GB. On a slow connection, downloading a new holiday gift could take days instead of hours.
Smart Home Devices and Background Tasks
Your smart home doesn’t stop demanding bandwidth during the holidays. Security cameras continuously upload footage. Smart thermostats communicate with servers. Voice assistants process requests. Meanwhile, devices automatically download updates, back up photos, and sync data in the background.
These background tasks typically use 5-10 Mbps collectively, but they’re constant. Unlike streaming, which you can pause, these devices operate 24/7, creating a baseline bandwidth requirement that never disappears.
Fidium Fiber Benefits
Fiber internet differs from traditional cable or DSL connections, offering distinct benefits that are crucial during the holidays.
Symmetrical Speeds
Fiber internet provides symmetrical upload and download speeds, which matters tremendously during the holidays.
When you’re video chatting with relatives, uploading holiday photos to share with family, or backing up precious memories to the cloud, upload speed determines your experience. Traditional cable internet may offer download speeds of 300 Mbps, but it typically provides upload speeds of only 10-20 Mbps. Fiber delivers the same speeds in both directions, eliminating upload bottlenecks that cause video call quality issues and painfully slow photo sharing.
Consistency Under Pressure
Fiber optic cables transmit data using light signals rather than electrical signals. This technology provides inherent advantages in reliability and consistency. Light signals don’t degrade over distance like electrical signals do. They’re not susceptible to electromagnetic interference from other cables or devices.
Most importantly, fiber connections don’t slow down during peak usage times. While your neighbors’ cable internet struggles during peak usage evening hours, fiber maintains consistent speeds because it’s not shared bandwidth infrastructure. Your connection performs the same all day, even when everyone’s streaming the Christmas Day NFL game.
Infrastructure for the Future
The bandwidth demands of tomorrow exceed those of today. As technology evolves, your internet needs will only grow.
Fiber infrastructure can support speeds far beyond what most providers currently offer consumers. The same fiber line that delivers 1 Gbps today can provide 10 Gbps tomorrow with equipment upgrades, no new cables required. This protects your investment and ensures your connection won’t become obsolete.
How Much Internet Speed Do You Need?
The right speed depends on your specific usage patterns and the number of simultaneous users.
Start by counting devices and typical activities. A family of four might normally use 10-15 devices. During holidays with extended family staying for the week, that number could jump to 25-30 devices competing for bandwidth.
Consider a typical holiday evening scenario: two people streaming 4K content (50 Mbps), three video calls happening simultaneously (15 Mbps), two people gaming online (12 Mbps), smart home devices (10 Mbps), and background tasks like cloud backups (5 Mbps). That’s 92 Mbps for a single evening, and this calculation doesn’t include any margin for comfort or unexpected usage.
As a general guideline, households hosting holiday gatherings should target minimum speeds of 300-500 Mbps. This provides comfortable headroom for peak usage without sacrificing performance. Larger households with tech-savvy families benefit from gigabit speeds (1,000 Mbps), ensuring everyone enjoys connectivity regardless of their online activity.
The Headroom Principle
Never plan for exactly what you need. Internet connections perform best when you’re using well below their maximum capacity. Running at 90-100% capacity causes buffering, lag, and dropped connections. Aiming to use only 60-70% of your available bandwidth during peak times ensures smooth performance even when usage spikes unexpectedly.
Preparing Your Home Network for Holiday Streaming
Even with fast fiber internet, your home network setup determines whether that speed reaches every device effectively.
Router Placement
Your router’s location impacts WiFi performance. Central placement on the main floor provides optimal coverage. Avoid placing routers in basements, closets, or behind large furniture that blocks signals.
Router age matters too. Older routers supporting only WiFi 5 (802.11ac) can’t deliver the performance of modern WiFi 6 (802.11ax) routers, which handle multiple devices more efficiently and provide better range. If your router is more than three years old, upgrading it alongside your internet service maximizes your investment.
Mesh Systems for Larger Homes
Traditional routers struggle to cover larger homes or homes with challenging layouts. Mesh WiFi systems solve this problem by using multiple nodes that provide consistent coverage throughout your home.
During holidays, when guest bedrooms and basement entertainment areas see increased use, mesh systems ensure strong signals throughout your property. Setup is straightforward, and modern mesh systems automatically optimize connections, routing devices to the strongest signal without manual intervention.
Wired Connections for Stationary Devices
WiFi offers convenience, but wired Ethernet connections deliver superior performance. For stationary devices like smart TVs, gaming consoles, and desktop computers, running Ethernet cables ensures maximum speeds and minimum latency.
Find out if Fidium Fiber is Available in Your Area
If you’ve realized that your current connection can’t handle holiday demands, upgrading to fiber internet is a great solution.
The holidays should be about connection—with family, with friends, with the traditions that matter most. Your internet connection shouldn’t be the limiting factor in creating those meaningful moments.
Fidium Fiber delivers the speed, reliability, and consistency your household needs during the demanding holiday season and throughout the year. With symmetrical gigabit speeds, dedicated bandwidth, and consistent performance that doesn’t slow down during peak times, Fidium ensures everyone in your home stays seamlessly connected.
Don’t let buffering screens and frozen video calls disrupt your holiday celebrations this year. Find out if Fidium Fiber is available in your area and give your household the gift of truly reliable internet.
See if Fidium Fiber is available at your address here.
Better, faster internet for the holidays is a click away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much internet speed do I need for a family of 10 during the holidays?
For 10 people actively using the internet, aim for at least 500 Mbps, with 1 Gbps being ideal. This provides comfortable headroom for multiple simultaneous 4K streams, video calls, gaming, and all the background device activity.
Will upgrading to fiber really make a difference if I already have cable internet?
Yes, significantly. Fiber provides symmetrical speeds, consistent performance during peak hours, and superior reliability. The upload speed improvement alone transforms video calling and content sharing. Cable internet slows during peak usage times because it’s shared infrastructure—fiber maintains consistent speeds regardless of the time of day.
Can I upgrade my internet service right before the holidays?
While possible, it’s not recommended. Allow 2-3 weeks for ordering, installation scheduling, and setup. This timeline ensures your new service is installed, tested, and optimized before guests arrive.
Do I need to upgrade my router when I upgrade to fiber internet?
Most likely, yes. Fiber speeds require modern routers to deliver their full potential.
Sources
[1] Fidiumfiber.com. “Award-winning fiber internet that you’ll actually love"