Everyone’s heard of fiber optics, even if they don’t know how this technology works. A telecommunications company uses a fiber optic network to connect phones, computers, and devices of all kinds to the internet and between places all over the world. These wires are placed underground, as well as overground, but there’s much more going on down there than most people will ever know. Because every time a new fiber optic network is placed, dark fiber companies go to work.
What Fiber Optic Companies Do
When fiber optic cables are placed, something more happens. Extra cables are also buried along with the cables that have been ordered. These extra cables are known as dark fiber, which are unused, dormant fiber optic cables that can later be purchased by dark fiber companies and leased out to telecom companies. This is how dark fiber companies are connecting the world — and in a way, running it.
Dark fiber companies make it possible for telecommunications companies to expand their existing networks, reaching more users and transferring more data to offer better speeds and better capacity. These dark fibers also allow smaller telecom companies to offer services to customers, giving them an opportunity to compete on a small scale with even the huge, national telecom outfits.
Building a Fiber Optic Net
Mono-mode fibers are the most common type used for communication links that are longer than 3,300 feet (or 1,000 meters). This is a very common type of cable used to create the extra fiber optic lines that are used by dark fiber companies. Dark fiber optic cable material is the exact same as other types of fiber optic cables used for secure capacity connectivity. In fact, there is no real difference between these two types of cables when it comes to size and material. The only difference is that one is being used, or lit, and the other is not. Once dark fiber companies lease out these extra fiber optic cables, they are the same as any other cables on an optical fiber cable network.
In other words, there is not difference in data connectivity and capacity when it comes to dark fiber. It’s only “dark” because it is not in use. These dark fiber cables make it possible for more and more people to get connected to the internet and to the rest of the world, and it saves on time and labor in the end. It’s much easier to place extra, unused cables alongside the cables that are going to be used right away to avoid finding a new place to run new fiber optic cables in a short amount of time. The infrastructure is already in place, allowing dark fiber companies to get more people connected much more quickly.
Connectivity is easier and faster thanks to dark fiber companies that can quickly lease already-existing fiber optic cables that were placed just as an extra measure sometime previously. In this way, dark fiber companies really are connecting and even ruling the entire world.
