• Made of thin strands of silicone fibre



  • Transmission occurs at very high light wave frequencies



  • Allows for much greater transmission rates



  • Light waves are created by laser



  • Uses a monomode technique where a single stream of light travels down each fibre


Advantages of using fiber optic cable to transmit telecommunications signals.



  • Transmission is at light frequencies which are much higher than radio frequencies.



  • This means that much greater quantities of information can be transmitted.



  • Has good corrosion resistance


Why copper-based broadband is widely used despite the advantages of using fibre-optics.



  • Much of the world’s telecommunications infrastructure is still based upon copper wires.



  • Therefore, the cost of replacing all this copper wire with fibre-optic cable is high and would also require time. This means that there is a need for broadband systems based upon copper wire.