Why Fibre IS the way of the future

May 31, 2016

Fibre is the way of the future. Just as storage requirements increase daily, so the need for faster Internet becomes a prerequisite almost akin to self-actualisation in Maslow’s hierarchy. The Internet helps people to connect, learn, engage and share, and as the Internet becomes faster so our interconnectedness increases substantially.

Through faster Internet people become more interconnected with experts in a full array of fields as they are able to access information and equipment across the globe. We are able to reach out and communicate with communities of all sizes and faster Internet enables small-scale projects to be adopted early and quickly, new products to be actualised faster and new companies and industries to start-up quicker.

And the only way to deliver this level of speed of Internet is through fibre.

 

The introduction of fibre

The introduction of fibre to your office will assist in a more efficient working environment with employees being able to complete online tasks (which most are nowadays) at a more rapid rate. This speed and efficiency will soon become the required norm and businesses that are operating at a slower speed will eventually stumble and then fall.

At home, fibre will change the way you browse, watch streaming content and chat to far-away loved ones. As we become used to these levels of speed the concept of waiting for something to buffer or dealing with a loading screen will become even more torturous.

 

Why is fibre so fast?

Fibre cabling is made up of hundreds of glass tubes through which light can pass – because the light is contained and able to take up the full space of the cabling, more data is able to be encoded and sent though the optics than can be sent through copper or wirelessly and therefore the effective bandwidths are always going to be larger. Light also degrades much slower over distance than electricity which always results in a faster connection.

Glass also offers less resistance to the light than metal wire (usually copper) does to the electricity passing through it, which means there is less degradation of the signal strength as it moves from the point of origin to your home or office. The light can literally pass through the cabling at the ‘speed of light’.

 

Keeping up with technology

Fibre optic cabling provides an incredible ability to keep up with new technology advances. Once the cabling has been put in place, it can be rearranged and upgraded as needed. The glass inside the cabling also lasts longer and is far stronger than its predecessor copper. Data transmission through electricity causes heat and a large amount of the copper cabling currently in place is already reaching its maximum physical potential in terms of the data transmissions it can handle. Too many transmissions will equal too much heat and ultimately the cabling will melt into a hot mess. Data transferred through light has an almost negligible heat footprint.

 

Easier upgrades

Copper cabling is expensive and time consuming to upgrade and replace and often whole sections of the cable has to be dug up in order to fix the heat problem mentioned above. Fibre cabling has more distance between network nodes which makes upgrades easier to maintain which results in less costs being passed on to the consumer.

 

Better for the environment

Sending data via copper/metal wires takes a huge amount more energy than it does to send through light. This coupled with the greater distances between the substations and nodes and the reduced requirement for upgrades makes fibre a green alternative. Plus there will be less old metal wire lying around after upgrades to take up space in dumps.

 

More affordable
Fibre is a more cost effective solution than ADSL. With RSAWEB’s FTTH you can get Internet via a 10Mbps/20GB account for just R549 per month. Or for advanced users there is the pro option of 100Mbps/200GBs account for R1 399 per month. For our full range of packages click here.

 

For businesses we offer a 10 Mbps connection for just R2 275 in a multi-tenanted building or R8 480 in a single tenanted space. To view other pricing options click here.

 

Rolling out in your area soon

We are constantly increasing the areas where our fibre is supplied and over 100 suburbs around South Africa already have access to FTTB and FTTH. Find out if fibre is available for your home or office today.