Glass fibre cable in the works

Lots of users are realising that the old copper wires that serve their houses are now not up to the task. It might be a long time before everybody has got access to fibre optic wires. These glass fibres are meant to permit big amounts of info to flow without interruptions. "But the velocity clients get from fibre optic wires relies upon the point up to that the wires are laid," explains Rafaela Moehl, spokesman with the German buyer service Teltarif. In several cases, fibre optic wires are laid to the end of a street, while the last few yards are supported with standard copper wire. That implies buyers get a service equivalent to VDSL speeds.

Industry officers say the fibre optic wires should ideally provide speeds of almost a hundred megabits per second ( MBit / s ) for uploads and even 2 hundred MBit / s for downloads. That compares to twenty-five to fifty MBit / s for VDSL connections. That is due to the fact that, unlike with copper wires, the information isn't broadcast thru electric beats, but with the help of light signals. Even over long distances, the standard of these lightwave riders don't degrade, as they'd on a copper connection. Video files will shortly make up eighty percent of information transferred online, claims Hannes Schwaderer, a chief with Intel and president of Initiative D21. Everyday services like telemedicine and energy, power and water networks will be digitalized, adding to the push for more capacity, irrespective of where one lives. There are options besides fibre optics, announces Schwaderer.

In fact, those need investments in the many billions of Eurodollars.