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Plenty of people might have heard of dark fiber before, but most of them have no clue what it’s all about. Rest assured, you don’t have to be a tech geek to understand.

Dark fiber actually refers to strands of fiber optic cable laid under the ground, but are currently not being used. You will find that these unused cables are stretched over thousands of miles across the United States.

Dark fiber- What is It All About?

How come they are not being used? Well, simply because it is quite expensive to go ahead and make them operational. It can easily amount to a hefty price tag.

In order to fully grasp just how essential dark fiber technology is, it is best to back up a bit and get to know it just a little better.

An optical fiber or “fiber optic” to most people refers to the technology where transmission of information and data are carried out as light pulses inside a glass, plastic strand or fiber. Hence, the term dark fiber refers to its unused portion since there are no light pulses running inside it.

Compared to copper wires, there are more advantages in using fiber optics; optical fibers transmit signals much faster and are not subject to interference. In addition, they have a bigger capacity and re-transmitting signals are not really needed.

As mentioned, you will find miles worth of dark fiber all across the United States simply because as installations of fiber optics were done before, companies thought it would be wiser to just pack in plenty of extra fibers for leasing to telephone, cable TV, or other companies that might be interested.

Now that fiber optic technology is gaining popularity and momentum, more and more businesses are looking to use dark fiber technology. However, even if benefits for such a technology might be obvious, but there are also drawbacks.

Learn more about dark fiber technology!

The hefty price tag that comes along with “turning on” dark fiber is a big disadvantage. Since this technology is fairly new, in terms of being available in the market, the optic interface as well as transmitters are still priced high compared to electrical interfaces. Any business or company will expect to provide a huge chunk just to take advantage of this.

Moreover, the lack of an apparent standardization is another big disadvantage. Without standardized procedures, companies are hesitant to accept fiber optic technology.

Moreover, purchasing dark fiber can also mean worrying about the right kind of equipment to buy and install to get it up and running.

However, these disadvantages are slowly being eradicated and more companies are slowly embracing fiber optic technology for use in their businesses.

Besides, the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages.  When you use fiber optic technology, you get to have unlimited bandwidth and depending on the route of the dark fiber, your rate of transmission will be so much faster.

The cost may be a bit high as of the moment, but this has been slowly changing throughout the years. An overabundance of dark fiber cables are currently helping to curb down the price and make it more accessible. Thus, if you own a business why not consider getting a dark fiber today?

Utilize this technology. Find out all the information you need on a dark fiber network.