Advantages of Fiber Optics Cable over Copper Cable

Optical transmission has several advantages over copper wire:

• optical fibre’s high bandwidth means that a lot more data can be transmitted faster.
  A pair of copper wires (which is what most houses in urban areas use for the initial point of access to the Internet can transmit two telephone calls simultaneously, while a single optical fibre can transmit over 80,000;
• glass is cheaper and lighter than copper;
• optical fibre is unaffected by electro-magnetic interference, and so is ideal in electrically “noisy” environments, eg where there is high voltage equipment nearby;
• no electrical current is transmitted down a fibre (glass is a good insulator), so it is suitable in hazardous environments where electrical discharge would dangerous;
• as transmission technology continues to improve, higher and higher bandwidths are possible over the same optical fibre links without having to replace the cables.

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