How to choose the network that is best for you
There are many myths about the internet at home, and it is easy to get lost in the jungle of technical terms and slightly floating visions. Here you get some simple facts that make it easier to find the best internet solution for your home.
Technology expert Hans-Petter Nygård-Hansen understands that people can be a little confused.
- 5G in itself will neither lead to us being able to exceed the speed of light, cancel gravity or travel in time. Simply explained, the main difference between having fiber or 5G at home is this: Whether the internet signal comes to your house via a cable or wirelessly.
- Well prepared for the future
Atle Andersen is head of broadband and home network at Altibox. He has a high level of expertise in what is needed to have good internet at home, both now and in the future.
- Fiber broadband gives you stable and lightning-fast internet via its own cable directly into your home, transported at the speed of light, completely undisturbed. It ensures very high speed for both uploading and downloading. If you already have fiber in your home, you are very well prepared for the future.
5G at home, or wireless broadband as the product is also called, is an alternative in homes where, for various reasons, you cannot get fibre.
- Simply explained, a fiber cable is added to a 5G mast. From there, the fiber signal is converted into a radio signal that is spread to wall-mounted antenna boxes in the immediate area. 5G helps to achieve the societal goal of getting everyone online, and that is positive.
Nygård-Hansen agrees with that.
- Here in Norway, quite a few people live in pig-infested areas. Then 5G is a very good alternative. But if one has a choice, one should choose the wired connection. This is because a wireless signal can be disturbed by much more than one that is transported via fiber cable.
Then we also have something called hybrid fiber. Andersen explains that this is something housing associations and condominiums with older cabling often get offers for.
- It is about connecting the fiber cable from the street with the existing copper cable in the house or apartment, so as not to have to replace them with new, modern fiber cable.
This is how fibre, wireless broadband and hybrid fiber work
With fiber you get internet via cable. With wireless broadband (5G), the signals go from a base station to wall-mounted antenna boxes. Hybrid fiber is obtained when the fiber cable is connected to an existing copper cable

Important community building
Altibox has partners all over Norway. Together with these, we have brought hundreds of thousands of Norwegian homes online with fiber over the past 20 years.
- We were the first to offer fiber broadband to the private market in Norway. We now have close to one and a half million Norwegians using our broadband services.
That's what Andersen says, who points out that many people also appreciate the fact that they become customers of a company in their local area.
- They get local internet - and everyone probably likes to shop locally. That, together with stable and lightning-fast internet via fiber and first-class customer service, is perhaps the reason why Altibox has had Norway's most satisfied broadband customers 12 years in a row.
We are also coming to 5G
We are working to make even more Norwegians happy and to achieve the goals that everyone gets access to proper broadband. Together with our partners, we will therefore also offer wireless broadband via 5G, as an alternative for those who cannot get fibre.
- Our wish is for everyone to have stable and fast internet in their home. But in some places it has been difficult to lay fibre, so we are very happy that we will soon be using 5G technology to give the good Altibox experience to even more people, says Atle Andersen.