Information is sent to your PC using pulses and light waves via your fibre optic connection. The light in a fibre optic cable travels through the core by constantly bouncing from the mirror lined walls within the cable. The mirror lined walls are important as information can be sent despite a cable having many bends or twists in it. As the walls don't absorb any of the light the information can be sent great distances at fast speeds.
What's good about it?
- Speed: Fibre optic cables can carry much more information that DSL cables. This results in faster internet speeds for both uploading and downloading of files.
- Reliability: Fibre optic cables do not suffer interference from external communication sources. This means that the signal loss is much lower than DSL connections and can travel longer distances at a faster speed.
- Ease of rollout: When rolling out new broadband technology, size and weight count! Fibre optic cables are about the width of a human hair and as such they weigh allot less than DSL cables. 1 kilometer of a fibre optic network will weigh about 6kg's whereas the same length of a DSL network could weigh up to 1,000kg's
Who offers it?
At the moment, Virgin Media are the only provider out there that offers fibre optic broadband. Their lowest package starts at ?15 per month for the first 3 months, then ?20 per month thereafter. For this you will receive speeds of up to 10Mbs (around 8Mbs above the UK standard) with no download limit. As with all Virgin Media broadband packages, you will receive a free wireless router. The next package up is their 20Mbs plan for ?30 for the first three months then ?35 per month thereafter. If you want an even faster connection then the next step up is to Virgin Media's much publicized 50Mbs package ? by far the fastest internet connection available in the UK at the moment. After you pay the ?80 install cost you will be paying ?50 per month to receive speeds of up to 50Mbs per second. Such speeds will allow you to download a song in mere seconds and movies in a few minutes. But as with most broadband technology, fibre optic broadband isn't available in all areas of the UK at the moment, so what are your alternatives if you are one of the unlucky ones?
If you currently have Sky TV you can take advantage of their 16Mbs broadband plan for ?10 extra per month which also includes evening and weekend home phone calls. If your after a more inexpensive option, TalkTalk offer an 8Mbs broadband package with inclusive home phone evening and weekend calls for ?6.49 per month.
But, if you're only interested in fastest DSL broadband available to you then Be may be your answer. For ?21.50 per month you can get Be's Pro Broadband package that gives you speeds of up to 24Mbs, unlimited downloads and a flexible contract length of just 3 months.
What are fibre optic leads and what is their purpose? The first hint should indicate that it is a cable used for electrical purposes. However, understandably not everyone will know what these are used for but will most certainly conjure up an image of a cheap fibre optic lamp! Its main importance and attraction is its purpose for guiding light from one end of the cable to the other - with the light source being an LED or laser.
Fibre optic leads used to be expensive and used by people looking for a faster connection. These days, they can be found in retail shops and are cheaper to purchase, though they still hold the same quality in function. In comparison, the copper cables still cost less in the same length and installing special fibre optic connectors remain and expensive process. However, they will provide a higher transmission rate than any other cable because they are made up of glass fibre.
The combination of which makes for a strong transmitting process that can travel down a long range and length. These are by far the most effective form of transmitting data information and are more useful in data centres and large corporations for a speedy data transmission. In terms of making for a good electrical wiring, copper cables are good for simple devices and usages. Fibre optic cables make for a better communication connector.
The main part of the fibre optic leads is light. This is what makes it unique to any other cable, because of its strong capability to transmit this at a fast pace. Furthermore, normal metal wiring are susceptible to electromagnetic interference, whereas fibre optic leads is immune to this and therefore experience much less in losing transmitted information. The light signals are transmitted down the lead through a process called internal reflection; this is why they are so much more efficient in transmitting data.
Optical communication was invented by Claude Chappe in the 1790s, which was based on sending message through human operation. This is the earliest recorded development towards a telephone system. This was soon superseded by the electronic telegraph during the mid-19th century, by the optical telephone known as the photophone. As the decades went by these were used in large ships for signalling, however, this was soon shelved for something more advanced.
However sophisticated the fibre optic leads maybe, they are not a new invention and have been around for over 150 years, since the idea was first demonstrated in the 1840s. Swiss Physicist Daniel Collodon and French Physicist Jacques Babinet conducted these; both had shown that light could travel through water using a fountain display. This sparked a growing number of establishments using this method for better uses of their instrument, thus giving us the wire that we see today.
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