[ Thanks to An Anonymous
Reader for this link. ]
“Network providers face a never-ending battle to keep
up with demand from users for bandwidth while at the same time
increasing the speed of their overall networks. One of the major
limiting factors is that many networks still rely on copper wire
rather than the superior fiber optic cabling. The networks
therefore have to choose when to make the very expensive upgrade to
fiber optic, and where those upgrades should happen first.“Thanks to some new technological breakthroughs, however, copper
wire may be making a comeback. Current download speeds offered to
end users range from 2Mbps-50Mbps, but we are all looking towards
100Mbps as the next milestone. While you may think fiber optic
would be required for that, Nokia Siemens Networks has managed to
employ phantom circuits to boost data-carrying capacity over copper
wire to as much as 825Mbps over short distances of around 400
meters.”