They are about the same length with human hair, but they are essentially long, slim strands of pure glass stacked into optical cables for transmitting light signals over very long distances. In other words, they are your jet planes for internet connectivity.
As one of the many wonders of the 21st Century, Fibre optics cables was used to birth broadband Internet technologies, which displaced other broadband tech that rely on the former standard copper cables. More like replacing a Volkswagen Beetle of 1980 with a 2020 Maserati. The result has since kept fibre-optics broadband as a prime asset to new age companies and individuals, globally.
Fibre-optics broadband are still largely unknown in developing climes, owing to several restricting factors like low purchasing power and lack of awareness or information-seeking behaviour of the population. For instance, in India, most Internet users access the Web via Cellular data, according to recent statistics from Statista. The situation is similar in the African Giant, Nigeria, 85 million out of 99 million documented Internet users access the Web via mobile Internet, with a variety of service providers. Undoubtedly, Nigeria’s tech savvy community is constantly growing, but with the syndromes of economic underdevelopment has contributed to our over-reliance on cellular data, copper-cables-based broadband technologies widely serviced by a core of the Internet companies in the country.
Enter 2020. Insert Covid-19. Then, observe how the traffic on Internet highways surged up in hundred million. The global economy was moving online, and that was when the reality dawned on Nigerians. The sluggish speed of the popular copper-cables-based broadband technologies or cellular data frustrated many economic processes, from as simple as uploading an email attachment to as critical as video-conferencing with colleagues. Internet speed is measured in Megabytes per Second (Mbps). While our copper-cables-based broadband technologies can offer us an average of 11.07 Mbps, as reported by data mining firms, fibre-optics broadband speed surges as high as 100 or 1gbps. While this plan can be flexible, it’s Mbps limits are far stretched than Standard Copper cables.
For most businesses and even individuals clinging to virtual realities over Covid-19 safety concerns, download, upload and streaming speed has become a current currency for productivity. Fibre-optics broadband offers the fastest speed for these. For instance, with Standard-copper-cables broadband, you can only transmit 25Mbps, or let’s say stream a 2h HD movie at 72mins total, while with fibre-optics Internet, you can transmit even at 1 Gigabyte per second, or 24 seconds for the 2h HD movie.
Fibre optics Internet is also very secure and reliable for long distance transmissions. You can move a longer radius from your broadband receiver and still maintain a very strong connection. It saves you more time for meetings, uploads and downloads. It keeps you relaxed.
My personal favourite, it is more secure. Tapping fibre optics cables to pick up electronic signals is more difficult than creating the fibre optics cables itself. In this age of cyber security loops, fibre optics cables give you more peace of mind and secured data transmission, as very convenient costs.
‘When would Fibre Optics Gain Ground?’
Africa has started picking up stronger interest in going virtual, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many countries are beginning to witness pockets of fibre-optics Internet providers spring up in its cities.
In South Africa, we have telecoms companies such as Telekom brazing the forte there. In Ghana, we have seen companies like MainOne, and some others.
In the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, Legend by Suburban is the forerunner for fibre-optics Internet service providing, with a bandwidth speed of up to 80Mbps.
This shows a growing demand for better internet by Africans.
In conclusion, Fibre-optics broadband technologies are the future of Internet surfing, and with the uncertainty of Life’s realities (remember Covid-19), it is only wise for companies, individuals, businesses and governments to start to shift towards more sustainable and productive realities manned by the presence of high-speed Internet connectivity.
