Optical fiber cables revolutionized the world of network communication from the very moment they were patented, nearly four decades ago. Even though we all know that optical cables are significantly better than traditional copper ones, have you ever wondered why?

If we compare the optical cables with copper ones, we will immediately see that they are lighter and more flexible. But their key advantage is that they have the capacity to transmit much more data, at enormous speeds.

Optical fibers are made of glass and data is sent in pulses of light, whereas copper carries electrical pulses. Signal travels quickly through copper cables as well, but what makes optical cables incomparably better than copper is the almost unlimited bandwidth. Optical fibers can transfer much higher bandwidths, because light is a signal with much higher frequency, unlike in copper where the electrical signal is transmitted at a relatively low frequency.

Another feature that gives the optical cables the advantage is the fact that optical fibers can send signals at distances greater than 200 km without any loss in quality, while signals transmitted via copper cables suffer from severe quality degradation at distances of only few kilometres. Among other things, this is due to the fact that optical cables are far less susceptible to noise and electromagnetic interference than copper cables. If they are not properly installed, copper cables produce electromagnetic currents which can cause serious degradation of the network signal.

The technological advances in the production of optical fibers and optical cables in the future will allow signals to travel the even larger distances before they need to be regenerated. On the other hand, improvements in optical signal transmission technology will enable higher transmission speeds through the existing optical cable infrastructure. Both factors will contribute to enabling terabyte speeds, for which there is real demand.

In Macedonia, Makedonski Telekom has installed so far optical cables in the length of 5,000 km for the needs of the access networks, which provides coverage for 37% of households, which is a large percentage, within Europe. Furthermore, Makedonski Telekom is among the leaders in Deutsche Telekom in terms the use of the installed capacities for use of the optical internet.

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