The document compares fiber optic cables to copper cables, highlighting that fiber optic cables provide superior speed, bandwidth, and reliability. Fiber optic cables transmit data through light impulses, allowing for greater distances and are immune to environmental factors that affect copper cables. Despite being more challenging to terminate, advancements in technology make fiber optics increasingly preferable for modern networks.

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | Copper Cable vs. Fiber Optic Cable
When we try to compare the fiber optic cable with copper cable, we may be thrown into trouble
most of the time. Actually, it is too difficult to be impartial because the pros and cons between
them are so clear. Apparently, fiber optic cable outweighs copper cable in the aspect of speed or
bandwidth. It is much faster than copper cable, carries much higher bandwidth, has less
interference and is lighter, stronger and more durable as well. Considering this situation, today we
will just take a closer look at the advantages of fiber optic cable over copper cable.
It’s known the copper cable transmits data by electrical impulses, while fiber optic cable, which is
made up by hair-like glass fibers, sends signals by carrying light impulses transmitted by a LED or
laser. The infrared light inside the fiber optic cable would bounce at blistering speeds until it reaches
the other end of the fibers. After the optical receiver receives the signals, then the signals would be
converted into data. Since the fiber optic cable transmits data by lasers, the speed of it must be
much higher than copper cable. In this text, fiber optic cable advantages such as bandwidth will be
talked about in details below.
Speed
Speed here refers to the amount of data that can be transmitted per unit of time. Needless to say,
fiber optic cable has a great win over copper cable in speed. For example, traditional copper lines
can usually carry roughly 3,000 phone calls at one time, while fiber optic cables used in a similar
system could carry around 31,000 calls.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the key point that determines the speed of the cables. Because of the higher
bandwidth, fiber optic cable can have the extremely high frequency ranges to carry data. This would
be a thousand times the bandwidth of copper cable. If copper cable transmits data at high
frequencies, its signal strength will diminish. Without any exaggeration, the fiber optic cable can go
more than one hundred times further, while the copper cable could only hold a candle.
Copper Cable vs. Fiber
Optic Cable

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | Copper Cable vs. Fiber Optic Cable
Greater Distance
Unlike copper whose distance limitation is limited to 100m, fiber optic cable allows the distance to
range 300m to 80km, depending on the style of cable, wavelength, and network. For instance, in
Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) applications, multi-mode fiber (MMF), when used in combination with
1000BASE-SX SFPs (eg. MGBSX1) using 850nm wavelength, is bale to realize 550m link length. Or
other, when single-mode fiber (SMF) works in corporation with 1000BASE-LX SFP (eg.
EX-SFP-1GE-LX) using 1310nm wavelength, the possible link length is 10km.
Immunity & Reliability
Fiber optic cable permits extremely reliable data transmission. Because the core is made of glass,
which is an insulator, no electric current can flow through a fiber optic cable. Besides, fiber immune
to many environmental factors that have effects on copper cable, immune to electromagnetic
interference and radio-frequency interference (EMI/RFI), crosstalk, impedance problems, and more.
You can run fiber next to industrial equipment without worry. In addition, fiber is also less
susceptible to temperature fluctuations than copper is, and it can be submerged in water. More
importantly, fiber optic cable can carry more information with greater fidelity than copper wire can.
That’s why telephone and CATV companies are converting to fiber.
Design & Installation
Fiber is light in weight, thin, and more durable than copper cable. Additionally, fiber optic cable has
pulling specifications that are up to 10 times greater than copper cable’s. Its small size (just as the
below figure shows) makes it easier to handle, and it takes up much less space in cabling ducts.
Although fiber is still more difficult to terminate than copper, advancements in connectors are
making termination easier. In addition, fiber is actually easier to test than copper cable.

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | Copper Cable vs. Fiber Optic Cable
Fiber optic systems are already being used in the backbone applications of most major companies
because of their reliability and upgradability. All up, it is fairly safe to assume that, just as digital
telephony has done in the past, so fiber optic technology will move ahead with big steps leaving the
traditional copper wire behind.
Conclusion
Fiberstore is a company offering fiber connectivity network solutions for carriers, ISPs, content
providers and networks, and also the global market innovator and application technology pioneer in
the field of optical network devices and interconnection, especially on fiber optic cables and fiber
optic transceivers which are fully compatible with major brands, such as Cisco Linksys MGBSX1 and
Juniper Networks EX-SFP-1GE-LX mentioned above. If you have any further questions about fiber
optic networks, or you want to purchase fiber optic items, please visit fs.com.

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | Copper Cable vs. Fiber Optic Cable
Contact Us
Manufacturing R & D (China)
Eastern Side, Second Floor, Science &
Technology Park, No.6, Keyuan Road,
Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518057,
China
Tel: +86 (755) 8300 3611
Fax: +86 (755) 8326 9395
Email: sales@fs.com
APAC Office (Hong Kong)
1220 Tung Chun Commercial Centre,
438-444 Shanghai Street, Kowloon,
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 81763606
Fax: +852 81763606
Email: sales@fs.com
North America (United States)
331 Andover Park East Ste330, Tukwila,
WA 98188,United States
Tel: +1-425-226-2035
Fax: +1-253-246-7881
Email: sales@fs.com
London Office (United Kingdom)
Third Floor 207 Regent Street, London,
W1B 3HH, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 2081441980
Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or
implied, concerning any equipment, equipment features, or service offered or to be offered by Fiberstore.
Fiberstore reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no
responsibility for its use. This information document describes features that may not be currently available.
Contact a Fiberstore sales team for information on feature and product availability.
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