Fiber to the Home FAQs

Your computer needs to be equipped with a Network Interface Card (NIC) that has an Ethernet port in order to connect to Smart City fiber. Most computers purchased in the last five years will have this card installed. NIC cards can be purchased from other retail stores for about $30. A router will be required if you need WiFi service or if you are connecting more than one device. Smart City can activate the router feature on our installed WiFi devices for a monthly fee.

Although we will need to dig a trench across your yard to provide a Smart City fiber connection, our goal is to treat your property as if it were our own. We will select contractors who have that same respect and who will be responsible for the prompt restoration of your property to its original state.

The first step to having the fiber service installed is to schedule a field survey. If you have signed up for FTTH and a field survey has not yet been conducted at your residence, please contact us at 407-824-9277 to schedule an appointment. Once the field survey is complete, our technicians will inform our engineering department, who will then complete the design work and release your address for installation. Once the address has been released, we will contact you to schedule the installation of our fiber service.

Construction of Smart City’s fiber network will be done in phases. The Celebration Village with the highest take rate will receive prioritized service for our new Warp Drive® Fiber. Subsequent to the deadline date, we will establish a construction schedule and be releasing more information at that time. Want to be the first neighborhood to use fiber? Ask your neighbors to sign-up!

This part of the process will involve running new underground fiber optic cables throughout the Celebration community. Smart City uses carefully selected contractors who have passed stringent guidelines to ensure they perform a quality job with as little impact to you and your community as possible. During this time frame, we will need to complete a site survey to review the wiring for some residents. If selected for a site survey, we will contact you to set up an appointment for a technician visit.

After the new fiber optic cables have been run underground, our approved contractor will run a service drop, also known as the fiber optic cable line installed between your street and your residence. They will attach the service drop to an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which will be mounted on the inside or outside of your residence.

For the most reliable speed test results, Smart City recommends using http://speedtest.smartcity.net. There are too many unknown variables when using speed test servers on the Internet. Smart City can safely estimate that, under ideal conditions, bidirectional speed test results in the 650-900 Mbps can be expected when using our speed test website and our 1Gbps service. A direct, wired connection to the Smart City CPE is required to achieve these speeds.

The Internet is a collection of networks. While the Smart City fiber network is engineered to handle 1Gbps connections, not all networks outside of Smart City are able to support this kind of speed. When you surf the Internet, you are not only connecting to the Smart City network but also to other networks that may not have the capacity to support your 1Gbps connection. Smart City cannot ensure that you will receive 1Gbps speeds from end to end. Once your data leaves the Smart City network, it might encounter segments of the Internet that are much slower than 1Gbps due to heavy traffic volume, lower speed links, or routing preference across backbone providers.

Some networking equipment may have limitations depending on how it is manufactured and configured, which may in turn affect your Internet speed. Often times, consumer grade networking equipment will restrict or limit Internet speed to individual devices when set up to allow multiple devices to connect at the same time.

Although Smart City’s fiber network provides the fastest network speeds available in the home today, there are a number of situations that can cause your network speeds to slow down. Possible scenarios include:

Older network interface card (NIC)
Most computers (desktops, laptops, etc.) that come equipped with 1Gbps NICs today may have the capability of placing bits on the wire at 1 billion bits per second, but the path from the network card through the computer may not support this transfer rate.
Hardware and software configurations
The type of hardware you are using, the age of the device, the operating system, the web browser, and the other applications running on your device all affect the upload and download speeds. When you perform network speed tests, be sure that your device is wired to the network and that no other applications are running. Running an email application in the background or having automatic OS updates enabled can affect your test results as well.
Wiring
You must be using CAT5E or better Ethernet cabling in order to achieve speeds up to 1Gbps. CAT5 cabling, for example, is only rated at 100Mbps.
Malware
Scan for malware and make sure your computer or browser has not been hijacked. Worms can use your network to replicate traffic, which slows down your Internet connection. Use up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware tools to prevent future infections.

It is very important to understand that you will not reach speeds up to 1Gbps with currently available wireless devices. In order to get the fastest possible network speeds, you must connect your computer or other device directly to the network using a CAT5E or better Ethernet cable. In order to optimize your wireless speed, you must carefully manage any interference from outside sources and limit which devices are permitted to connect wirelessly.

To figure out what may be causing a slowdown, give the following steps a try:

1. Connect a computer directly to the Smart City provided ONT with a CAT5E or better Ethernet cable.
2. Disconnect and/or power down any device that connects to the Internet, including but not limited to:
a. Computers (e.g. laptops, desktops, servers)
b. Gaming systems (e.g. PlayStation, Xbox, Wii)
c. Televisions with the ability stream video or music (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Pandora)
d. Devices that stream video (e.g. Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast)
e. Devices that stream music (e.g. Sonos, Bose, Logitech)
f. DVRs (e.g. TiVo, Hopper, Sling, Genie)
g. Mobile devices (e.g. Androids or iPhone smart phone, tablet)
h. Web-enabled surveillance cameras (e.g. Swann, Q-see, Netgear, Lorex, x10)
i. Web-enabled security systems/home automation
j. Other routers, switches, VoIP phones, wireless printers