Remember the days of V.90 modems? For most of us, trawling the internet at sloth-like speeds of 56,000 bits per second and less was the norm, mostly involving loads of patience. With the dawn of fibre optics technology, consumers can now experience exponential speed improvements, with service providers peddling connection rates of up to 1Gbps.
Fibre has and continues to be the preferred medium for networking and telecommunication since it uses light waves as a carrier. Less prone to attenuation, plus its propensity for longer distances and higher bandwidth; optical fibre communication is the heir apparent over copper cables on most counts. However, it is also more expensive and tedious to install, not to mention harder to terminate as well.
Today, with the internet comprising of meatier content such as HD videos and TV platforms, the demand for higher bandwidth and abridged latency is all the more pertinent, if not critical. This makes fibre ideal and even necessary despite its shortcomings.
2011 will see an increased adoption of fibre optics. In the UK, the government has set aside a £1bn budget to improve Britain's broadband services. Sadly, that isn't enough to hook everyone up to a fibre network. Last February, Google indicated plans to execute experimental fibre broadband networks in targeted US cities. Their aim was to demonstrate what's possible with blistering fast internet speeds, like three-dimensional medical imaging in pastoral communities.
Ironically, the U.S. is behind Asia in the race to bring fibre to homes, even with visible efforts made by carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. According to BuddeComm, a global telecommunications research firm, approximately 20 million houses were wired for FTTH (Fibre to the Home) networks in the States. Still, it places U.S. fibre penetration rates at less than a quarter to that of South Korea.
Closer to home, Singapore has already embarked oil the fibre optics based Next Gen NGN project- OpenNet will champion the cause, mainly by leveraging on SingTel's current ducting network. The fibre project is expected to reach 95 percent of homes and commercial buildings by 2012.
All said, a fibre network can only be truly enjoyed if rapid connection speeds are universal across the globe. There's no point having a local super highway network, only to be hampered by overseas traffic bottlenecks. That unfortunately, won't be happening so soon.Fibre Optics: Global Broadband At Highway Speeds
Remember the days of V.90 modems? For most of us, trawling the internet at sloth-like speeds of 56,000 bits per second and less was the norm, mostly involving loads of patience. With the dawn of fibre optics technology, consumers can now experience exponential speed improvements, with service providers peddling connection rates of up to 1Gbps.
Fibre has and continues to be the preferred medium for networking and telecommunication since it uses light waves as a carrier. Less prone to attenuation, plus its propensity for longer distances and higher bandwidth; optical fibre communication is the heir apparent over copper cables on most counts. However, it is also more expensive and tedious to install, not to mention harder to terminate as well.
Today, with the internet comprising of meatier content such as HD videos and TV platforms, the demand for higher bandwidth and abridged latency is all the more pertinent, if not critical. This makes fibre ideal and even necessary despite its shortcomings.
2011 will see an increased adoption of fibre optics. In the UK, the government has set aside a £1bn budget to improve Britain's broadband services. Sadly, that isn't enough to hook everyone up to a fibre network. Last February, Google indicated plans to execute experimental fibre broadband networks in targeted US cities. Their aim was to demonstrate what's possible with blistering fast internet speeds, like three-dimensional medical imaging in pastoral communities.
Ironically, the U.S. is behind Asia in the race to bring fibre to homes, even with visible efforts made by carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. According to BuddeComm, a global telecommunications research firm, approximately 20 million houses were wired for FTTH (Fibre to the Home) networks in the States. Still, it places U.S. fibre penetration rates at less than a quarter to that of South Korea.
Closer to home, Singapore has already embarked oil the fibre optics based Next Gen NGN project- OpenNet will champion the cause, mainly by leveraging on SingTel's current ducting network. The fibre project is expected to reach 95 percent of homes and commercial buildings by 2012.
All said, a fibre network can only be truly enjoyed if rapid connection speeds are universal across the globe. There's no point having a local super highway network, only to be hampered by overseas traffic bottlenecks. That unfortunately, won't be happening so soon.