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Cabling for voice-data-video is one of the fastest changing technologies today. Whether you're installing the premises cabling inside buildings or campuses, or providing the base for telephone and LAN connections in commercial facilities or next generation homes, electrical contractors need to understand the technology and latest developments for all applications. By doing so, they can incorporate these changes into their businesses, which can provide monetary gain in the long run.

In the communications and end-user market, things are continually revolutionizing. Wireless is everywhere. Security issues are coming to the forefront. And in the past, while copper has always remained a viable staple when it comes to premise cabling, fiber is becoming a more attractive candidate in buildings where surveillance systems are being installed as well as long distance networks that require the added benefits of fiber optic technology.

In brief, fiber optics is a technology in which signals are converted from electrical into optical signals, transmitted through a thin glass fiber, and reconverted into electrical signals.

When looking at voice and data networks, fiber, when compared to copper cable, offers bandwidth that extends far beyond that of a network's requirements. This allows more leeway to go in and implement system upgrades to a network.

Other advantages include low power loss, which leads to farther transmission distances. Copper networks are limited to 100 meters; fiber networks can extend up to 2,000 meters. One of the largest drawbacks to copper is that loss increases with the signal frequency. This means that power loss increases with high data rates, resulting in a decrease in transmission distances.

For a 100-meter run (which is the maximum for twisted pair cable), the bandwidth for 62.5/125-micrometer fiber is 1,600 MHz at 850 nm and 5,000 MHz at 1,300 nm. For the 2,000 meter spans (allowed for most fiber networks), bandwidth is 80 MHz at 850 nm and 250 MHz at 1,300 nm.

Other offerings to network operators include reliable service in periods of wet weather that can affect copper. Less day-to-day maintenance is required, and repairs are quicker when problems do occur.