| reply to Mutiny32
Re: Good luck with that battle... said by Mutiny32:Copper technically is far inferior to optical-based communications. The potential capacity of copper versus fiber is insanely disproportionate. The cost of tapping fiber's potential is in a league of its own though: you can get a 10GBase-T card for $500 while a 10GBase-SR SFP+ module will set you back $2000 per line module + host equipment... and even then, you're not tapping into fiber's true potential until you start using WDM with adds a ton of extra cost for the ADMs and wavelength-shifting equipment.
Few internet subscribers are likely to feel like they need speeds beyond 100Mbps within the next 10 years and that sort of speed is within DOC3/VDSL2 territory... it is still about a decade early to start worrying about fiber.
How long will it be before the average internet subscriber needs significantly more than 100Mbps? Probably more than 20 years. With fiber cables having a 25-30 years typical lifespan, fiber installed today will already be approaching end-of-life by the time we may actually need it.
Fiber is not immune to aging and FTTH fiber is a lot more likely to suffer from premature hydrogen contamination than carrier cables. |
