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- Dec 20, 2021
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So, the local telecommunications company is plowing fiber. Being the scrounger I am, I begged a few feet of scrap to look at.
If you've ever wondered why it's so expensive to repair a fiber cable that gets cut, this may give you an appreciation:
This is a few of the 288 individual fibers in this cable. Not sure if the specs hold true, but a decade ago was told that each fiber is good for 150 gigabits of data. Multiply that by 288 fibers. If that holds true, this cable should be good for 4000+ Gigabytes (4 Terabytes) per second. That would empty or fill your 4Tb hard drive in one second!
This last one, is me shining my flashlight into the end of the bundle. Less than optimal, but it's getting just enough light to be visible on the purple jacketed fiber.
Due to the distances, I'm guessing this is single mode fiber. So the glass is something like 8 to 10um. So that spot of light is something like 3 tenth of a thou. You probably don't want to have to pay to splice that cable. Considering they might have to replace the damaged section that's 576 splices, or 1152 cut and polished fiber ends.
So be careful with your backhoes out there! lol
If you've ever wondered why it's so expensive to repair a fiber cable that gets cut, this may give you an appreciation:
This is a few of the 288 individual fibers in this cable. Not sure if the specs hold true, but a decade ago was told that each fiber is good for 150 gigabits of data. Multiply that by 288 fibers. If that holds true, this cable should be good for 4000+ Gigabytes (4 Terabytes) per second. That would empty or fill your 4Tb hard drive in one second!
This last one, is me shining my flashlight into the end of the bundle. Less than optimal, but it's getting just enough light to be visible on the purple jacketed fiber.
Due to the distances, I'm guessing this is single mode fiber. So the glass is something like 8 to 10um. So that spot of light is something like 3 tenth of a thou. You probably don't want to have to pay to splice that cable. Considering they might have to replace the damaged section that's 576 splices, or 1152 cut and polished fiber ends.
So be careful with your backhoes out there! lol