Fibre Optic Broadband - How it works / advantages over DSL / Availability
Fibre Optic Broadband is gaining popularity as it provides faster speeds with greater dependability. Also, more providers are taking the big step and entering this market, which is helping to lower the costs associated with upgrades.
Fibre Optic Broadband
Not too long ago, the only option available to the average consumer when it came to broadband was ADSL. This system worked by using a copper wire line through the telephone lines to bring internet service into homes. The ADSL lines used the BT telephone socket and had the potential to provide up to 24Mb. But speeds tend to vary greatly depending on how far the local exchange is situated and the quality of the individual’s line, in addition to a number of other factors.
Advantages of Broadband
Information can travel much faster through the fibre optic cables, as compared to the old copper telephone wires traditionally used by broadband service providers. This fact alone makes fibre optic broadband much faster and dependable. This fact is proven by research carried out by independent service providers. ADSL service providers offer and sell 20 Mb or 24 Mb packages, but the customer at the receiving end actually only gets roughly 7 Mb. With fibre optic technology, a 20 Mb package delivers around 16 Mb.
Fibre optic broadband uses light signals that are delivered through fibre optic cables constructed of glass, instead of copper wire. Information passes virtually instantaneously through these lines with very little or no depreciation in the download speeds and it is not effected by distances. This provides the customer with several benefits.
• Significantly faster connections
• High definition films can be downloaded easily
• Perfect for playing games online or watching online TV
• High quality music can be downloaded
Now, fibre optic cables allow even faster download speeds than ever possible before. With speeds of 40 Mb, 50 Mb and even 100 Mb now commonly available, music tracks can be downloaded in seconds. High-definition material can be watched through catch-up services. For game enthusiasts, 3D games in HD provide even more reality and entertainment quality.
How It Works
This type of broadband service is provided in two basic ways. The Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) method runs the fibre optic cable from the telephone exchange or some distribution spot to the cabinets placed in individual streets close to one’s property. The location is usually within a few hundred metres of the property to be served. The cabinet will contain the cable that's necessary to be connected to one’s phone line. This combination of copper and fibre optic cable can deliver significantly faster speeds over shorter distances, as compared to the ADSL system.
The second way is Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) or Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH). This makes use of fibre optic cable only to deliver broadband to homes. Since the full distance from the exchange to the end-user does not use any copper wires, the speeds are much faster than with FTTC.
Both, FTTC and FTTP are installed by engineers and include a router that is connected to the receiver’s router or computer.
Fibre Optic Broadband, for the time being, has a limited roll out. Only 566 telephone exchanges have been chosen to be connected with optic cables by 2012; that is just over ten percent of all the exchanges in the country. But different companies are investing a lot of money in the new technology and hope to reach roughly two-thirds of the country by 2015. With more companies investing in the technology, chances are that the costs of getting online through fibre optic cables will go down as competition increases.
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