Fiber infrastructure has no known expiration date, Fiber Broadband Association research concludes
(UI) — The Fiber Broadband Association’s Technology Committee has published its “Fiber Broadband Scalability and Longevity” white paper — the latest FBA research that explains optical fiber is the only communications medium that can support both existing and future applications for many decades with no infrastructure changes. The white paper concludes that, due to fiber optic cable’s high levels of scalability and longevity, fiber broadband has no known expiration date.
Today, gigabit and multi-gigabit symmetrical services are already available to the half of America that has access to fiber broadband, enabling the fast and low-latency speeds people need for today’s entertainment, employment, education, and healthcare applications. As these applications are improved over the next decade by virtual reality, mixed reality, augmented reality, AI, and emerging spatial computing, even greater demands will require broadband infrastructure with immense scalability and durability to keep pace.
Fixed Wireless, DOCSIS, and DSL technologies have required continuous outdoor infrastructure upgrades to increase speeds and capacity. Fiber broadband to each subscriber, by contrast, is the only communications technology that can support decades of speed and capacity increases with no upgrades to the outdoor infrastructure. The paper finds fiber’s scalability is virtually unlimited, supporting speeds 60,000 times higher than today’s 10 Gbps systems. Fiber’s longevity has already exceeded 35 years since the first deployments and the average lifetime is expected to be much longer based on the materials, technologies, and manufacturing processes used to produce modern, high-quality optical fiber.
“The broadband industry has studied the qualities and characteristics of deployment technologies for decades, and fiber continues to score highest in terms of scalability, reliability, experience, and more. Fiber is the trusted technology with no expiration date,” said John George, FBA Technical Committee Chair and OFS Senior Director of Solutions Engineering and Fusion Splicers. “Today we are only using a fraction of fiber’s known available capacity. It is the only broadband technology that can be deployed today and support many decades of speed increases. So, an investment in fiber infrastructure is a durable investment in a better future.”
The “Fiber Broadband Scalability and Longevity” paper presents technical data that outlines optical fiber’s mechanical lifetime, fiber optic cable’s lifetime, and how installation and operational practices further preserve fiber’s lifetime. It also includes real-world examples of two service providers that installed fiber optic cable decades ago and are still using those same cables to support high-speed communications today.
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