What is Fibre Optic Broadband?

Fibre optic broadband is the future of high-speed internet. Just as ADSL broadband internet was an enormous step forward compared to the original 56k dial-up connections, fibre optic broadband has been a massive leap in the evolution of how we get online.

Standard ADSL broadband is limited to 24Mbps but fibre connections in the UK can provide users with lightning-fast speeds reaching 100Mbps, a figure which may be tripled by the end of 2013. Faster speeds and faster downloads mean that we can consume and share more information online than ever before. Thanks to fibre optic broadband, the future of the internet is both bright and speedy.

With fibre optic broadband, light signals are delivered through fibre optic cables, made of glass rather than copper wire. Information travels along these cables almost instantaneously, and there’s very little deterioration in your download speed – even over long distances. As a result, the speeds you get will be much closer to the headline speed you signed up for. This means customers can benefit from much faster connections, perfect for downloading music and high definition films, watching internet TV or playing online games.

What makes fibre optic broadband so great?

Information travels much faster over fibre optic cables than it does over the older copper telephone wires that many traditional broadband providers use. This makes fibre broadband not only faster, but also more reliable.

Broadband speeds via fibre can go up to 100Mb, and will go even further in the coming years. To give you an idea of just fast that is, Virgin Media calculates that with 100Mb broadband you could download a music album in six seconds, a DVD-quality movie in around 90 seconds and a high-definition film (which have very large file sizes) in approximately six minutes.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of fibre optic broadband?

So once you are rigged up with your fibre optic broadband, what can you expect?

There are mainly plus sides. For example, fibre optic broadband is really great for speed and capacity. It is also more reliable than ASDL broadband and when bandwidths increase, it’s easy to accommodate so you can benefit from a faster service without taking action or encountering any disruption.

This kind of fibre cable also provides an exceptionally secure transmission medium in terms of security as it is very difficult to ‘listen in’ or monitor any information that is being exchanged. Although of course, this doesn’t negate the need for full security software on your PC or Mac.

But there are some disadvantages too of fibre optic broadband too. The materials the cables comprise of can be susceptible to weather and wildlife damage. Installing fibre optic cables is also still often costly as well as disruptive – it will take a team some hours to fit into your home.

However, as this type of broadband communication becomes more common, thankfully at least costs are starting to fall. And this should get better and better as more broadband providers join in the fibre optic camp. Watch this space!

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