4. Optical communication systems date back
to the 1790s, to the optical semaphore
telegraph invented by French inventor
Claude Chappe.
By 1970 Corning Glass invented fibre-optic
wire or "optical waveguide fibres" which
was capable of carrying 65,000 times more
information than copper wire.
In April 1977,General Telephone and
Electronics tested and deployed the world's
first live telephone traffic through a fibre-
optic system running at 6 Mbps, in Long
Beach, California.
HISTORY
5. SPEED: Fibre optic networks operate at high speeds -
up into the gigabits.
BANDWIDTH: Large carrying capacity.
DISTANCE: Signals can be transmitted further without
needing to be "refreshed" or strengthened.
RESISTANCE: Greater resistance to electromagnetic
noise such as radios, motors or other nearby cables.
MAINTENANCE: Fibre optic cables costs much less to
maintain.
WHY FIBER OPTICS?