White paper explores scalability and longevity of fiber broadband

The Fiber Broadband Association today announced that its Technology Committee has published its “Fiber Broadband Scalability and Longevity” white paper—the latest FBA research that explains optical fiber is the only communications medium that can support both existing and future applications for many decades with no infrastructure changes. The white paper concludes that due to fiber optic cable’s high levels of scalability and longevity, fiber broadband has no known expiration date.

Today, gigabit and multi-gigabit symmetrical services are already available to the half of America that has access to fiber broadband, enabling the fast and low-latency speeds people need for today’s entertainment, employment, education, and healthcare applications. As these applications are improved over the next decade by virtual reality, mixed reality, augmented reality, AI, and emerging spatial computing, even greater demands will require broadband infrastructure with immense scalability and durability to keep pace.

Fixed Wireless, DOCSIS, and DSL technologies have required continuous outdoor infrastructure upgrades to increase speeds and capacity. Fiber broadband to each subscriber, by contrast, is the only communications technology that can support decades of speed and capacity increases with no upgrades to the outdoor infrastructure. The paper finds fiber’s scalability is virtually unlimited, supporting speeds 60,000 times higher than today’s 10 Gbps systems. Fiber’s longevity has already exceeded 35 years since the first deployments and the average lifetime is expected to be much longer based on the materials, technologies, and manufacturing processes used to produce modern, high-quality optical fiber.

“The broadband industry has studied the qualities and characteristics of deployment technologies for decades, and fiber continues to score highest in terms of scalability, reliability, experience, and more. Fiber is the trusted technology with no expiration date,” said John George, FBA Technical Committee Chair and OFS Senior Director of Solutions Engineering and Fusion Splicers. “Today we are only using a fraction of fiber’s known available capacity. It is the only broadband technology that can be deployed today and support many decades of speed increases. So, an investment in fiber infrastructure is a durable investment in a better future.”

The “Fiber Broadband Scalability and Longevity” paper presents technical data that outlines optical fiber’s mechanical lifetime, fiber optic cable’s lifetime, and how installation and operational practices further preserve fiber’s lifetime. It also includes real-world examples of two service providers that installed fiber optic cable decades ago and are still using those same cables to support high-speed communications today.

FBA’s Technology Committee will explore the white paper during a webinar on March 28 at 11:00 AM EDT. Click here to register for the webinar.

To learn more about FBA’s full library of research, visit: fiberbroadband.org/research-and-resources.

About the Fiber Broadband Association

The Fiber Broadband Association is the largest and only trade association that represents the complete fiber ecosystem of service providers, manufacturers, industry experts, and deployment specialists dedicated to the advancement of fiber broadband deployment and the pursuit of a world where communications are limitless, advancing quality of life and digital equity anywhere and everywhere. The Fiber Broadband Association helps providers, communities, and policymakers make informed decisions about how, where, and why to build better fiber broadband networks. Since 2001, these companies, organizations, and members have worked with communities and consumers in mind to build the critical infrastructure that provides the economic and societal benefits that only fiber can deliver. The Fiber Broadband Association is part of the Fibre Council Global Alliance, which is a platform of six global FTTH Councils in North America, LATAM, Europe, MEA, APAC, and South Africa. Learn more at fiberbroadband.org.

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