Internet through optical fiber

In the last posting , I touched upon technological changes happening around us. In particular, changes in information and communication technology has in the past years been undergoing and is continuing to undergo large changes. The demands / needs are large around the world. As you will see from these internet usage statistics we are experiencing high growth globally in the number of people using the Internet on various electronic – including not least mobile electronic devices such as tablets, smartphones, and/or laptops. To support the large growth in internet usage across the world, a strong development in all kinds of areas, naturally also in competencies, is required.

Reading this article about optical fiber and this article about fiber-optic communication, I learned that optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecommunication / computer networking / internet communication because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. And in this article, I learned that optical fiber cables transfer data at the speed of light in glass. This is typically around 180,000 to 200,000 km. per second. In Zürich, ewz telecom is currently installing optical fiber around the city. On the map below, you can see when connections through optical fiber are available in which parts of Zürich. A short video in which you can get an idea about how the optical fiber was installed in the ground is also embedded for you to learn from.

At an event on November 7^th, 2013 at the church center St. Konrad, representatives of different service providers, which offer optical fiber connections, were present to communicate face to face with the population. I found the event useful as it allowed people to acquire more information of a variety of topics related to using various types of communication technology. One of the questions that I was somewhat uncertain about and therefore asked about as I spoke to a couple of the people I met there, was how important routers are for the quality of the internet connection. I learned, for example, that there are quite a lot of different routers on the market and that not only does it matter which router you use, it also matters where in your house / apartment your router is positioned. In this video a similar message was given: To get the best signal you need to place the router in a visible place so it can easily get in contact with / communicate with the electronic devices you are using.