Long, thin strands of pure glass about the size of a human hair are the foundation of the world’s fastest internet, capable of connection speeds of 10 times faster than regular cable. When bundled together, these strands create a cable that allows information to travel through them in a beam of light over long distances.

You’re stuck. Your internet provider isn’t delivering on its promise of a fast, reliable connection, and that seems to be the norm with most of the internet providers in your area. The thought of switching to a new provider is exhausting. It’s never smooth, and it's never stress-free.

If this scenario sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. We hear it all the time when people switch to C Spire Fiber. But you don’t have to be stuck with poor service, lagging internet and no hope for improvement.

[What is fiber internet? Learn here]

For Mary Mills, Bruce Smith and tens of thousands of other customers, C Spire’s customer-inspired approach to home internet made all the difference. Mary and her family were plagued with outages and slow internet. Bruce wanted to make a switch, but he put it off because he expected a terrible experience.

They both took a leap of faith with C Spire. Here are their stories.

As the past year has proven, access to high-speed broadband internet enriches your life and allows you to stay connected to a distanced world. It keeps you working and your kids learning. But high-speed fiber internet is even more valuable than you may know.

Upgrading your connection to the world shouldn't disrupt everything in yours. But still, many internet users would rather stay with their current providers than change. In fact, 43 percent of them avoid switching for the hassle alone.

That means nearly half of internet users could be missing out on broadband innovations like fiber internet, which has the bandwidth and speed to power dozens of connected devices and transform households. And it shouldn’t be that way.

Whether you’re a die-hard sports fan or a movie buff, the best streaming TV experience begins with a wide-open broadband internet connection. And that’s where traditional coaxial cable drops the ball.

Fiber internet’s ability to pipe speeds up to 940 Mbps into your home is unmatched anywhere, and it’s your ticket to streaming nirvana—especially if you have a symmetrical connection. That means the speed of downloading movies and music is about the same as the speed of uploading information for gaming.

Remember the excitement you felt when you hooked up your first WiFi router? The freedom of being able to move around your home while still connected to the internet sure was nice, even with that baller 56k modem.

You’ve moved on, though. DSL happened, then cable internet came onto the scene. Now you’re hearing about Gigabit fiber internet, and you can’t believe how fast it is—only, there’s something that could hold you back from REALLY experiencing the velocity of 1,000 Mbps.