6 advantages of fiber optic cables over copper cablesHardware by Nancy Bell - August 11, 20200 Both fiber optics and copper cables have their own pros and cons. But, in this battle of comparison, fiber optic cables always win. Copper made cables and wires are cheap. Also, these cables are installed everywhere but the long-term benefits of these cables are a few. Fiber optic wires are a bit expensive. But at the same time, fiber optic cables have many benefits and this one-time expense would save you from a lot of other expenses. Hence, to explain this point and to further elaborate the pros of fiber optic cables we have listed 6 important advantages of optic fibers over copper cables.1. ReliabilityThe copper cables are very unreliable as compared to the fiber optic cables. Weather conditions, moisture, and temperature inconsistency affect the performance and connectivity of the copper cables to a great extent. Furthermore, old and worn out copper cables are dangerous as well because there is a risk of fire hazard. Also, connectivity and transmission via copper cables get affected because of the interference of radio and electronic signals. All these issues can easily be resolved by using fiber optic cables. As these are cat6 plenum and they could not get affected by moisture, temperature, and weather. Additionally, you do not have to spread the wiring in the whole area. You can simply make one central location. This would help you to avoid building various hardware and wiring closets in the whole building2. Better BandwidthBandwidth is an important factor to check the quality and efficiency of both wires: fiber optic cable and copper cable. Former cable has greater bandwidth. The copper wires were initially used to carry voice signals. Hence, its bandwidth is not high enough to transmit other signals speedily.Therefore, fiber optic cables surpass the copper cables in this regard as its bandwidth is reasonably high. In addition to this, if the circuit is longer than 15 thousand feet then the connection of copper cable becomes unstable and poor. Moreover, fiber optic cables can transmit a large amount of information without any hindrance.3. DistanceOne of the important advantages of fiber optic cable over copper cable is that it can transmit the data from the central office. However, the signal becomes degraded while they are being transferred through copper cables. Besides, the latest technologies have led fiber optic to transmit signals from even a distance of 25 miles. Cellular phone towers also use fiber optics to transmit the data too far off places. This transmission of fiber optics depends on the style of cable, network, and wavelength. In addition to this, copper cables need boosting for transmitting signals to distant places while fiber optic cables do not require such extra boosting.4. Download and upload speedFast speed is one of the radical qualities of fiber optic cables. The copper cable provides a maximum of 25Mbps for uploads and only 3Mbps for downloads. This speed is not even close to the ideal one. However, fiber optic cables have a much faster speed than copper cables. They have a speed of 1Gbps. In other words, these cables have revolutionized the internet. Waiting and loading have become a thing of the past. As the high-speed of fiber optic made this wait close to zero.5. Size of the cableSize is the most important factor for copper cable. For transmitting greater signals at the higher speed these cables should be of greater size. A typical copper cable is four times in width then that of fiber optics yet carries only a small amount of data. While fiber optics are very narrow. Their diameter is almost similar to that of a human hair (which shows that these cables are very thin and occupy less space). Moreover, copper cables require a protective covering which also increases the width of the cable and is inflexible. However, fiber optic cables do not require any such coverage and are very flexible. Thus, these cables occupy minimum space and are very easy to manage.6. SecuritySecurity should be the major factor while choosing any cable. In this regard, there are many problems which you can face by using copper cables. These cables can be tapped easily. Thus, as a result, it would emit light causing the whole network to shut down. Moreover, there are great chances to lose data during the poor transmission process. There are many scenarios in which a company has lost its important information. Thus, this poses a great threat to security. All these security issues can be resolved by using fiber optic cables. These cables are very difficult to tap. You can even check this by trying to break a fiber optic cable. You would know their strength by yourself. Besides, your data is completely secured during the transmission as there are minimum chances of losing any data because these cables are leak-proof.