WHAT IS FIBER AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Fiber: you always hear and read about it. Internet via fiber, another village connected to the fiber optic network, FttH and so on. But what is fiber optic really? And how does it work? In this blog we explain to you (simple, otherwise I don’t understand it myself) what fiber optic is exactly, how it works, the benefits of fiber and what fiber can mean for you.

What exactly is fiber optic internet?

Fiber is the name of the technique used for a type of internet connection. Fiber optic is now being installed throughout the Netherlands. Once you had the dial-up connection, then you got ADSL and VDSL. And now there is fiber. Fiber is the most stable and fastest internet connection available. It is seen as the ultimate replacement for all types of internet.

The fiberglass itself is a fiber, thin as a hair. This fiber is made from two special types of glass, which are fused together. This gives you a very strong ‘tube’ of glass. There are several of these tubes in a fiber optic cable. Laser or light signals pass through all those separate tubes at lightning speed. The combination of all those unique signals through the glass fiber tubes provides data. And that data is the internet. Your internet might.

What is it used for?

Because these light signals are transmitted so very quickly by the fiber optic cables, it has been discovered that this is perfectly suitable for the internet. Once we soon found ADSL, it goes much faster via glass. Fiber optic connections are also installed for TV or telephone connections. But because we all use the internet more and more often and more, fiber optics is a godsend. The advantage is, for example, that the upload speed is the same as the download speed. Putting a movie on YouTube is done just as quickly as watching a movie.

How is fiber optic installed?

You’ve probably seen it: the sidewalk is loose and men are busy with thick (usually orange) cables. These are the fiber optic cables, so they will be laid underground. Then they will be brought to your house from the street. They do this by using a special drill to shoot through a narrow tunnel under the garden to your house. The cable is pulled through that tunnel. When you arrive at your outer wall, you drill inside and voilà: you have fiberglass in your house. Now a special fiber optic modem has to be connected. You take out a subscription somewhere and then you can use glass.

How does fiber optic work?

For this I asked colleague Jelte . And he explains it as follows.
It’s actually very simple:

• Computers talk to each other through mouthpieces. A bit is a 0 or a 1.
• With DSL this is done with current: you pick up a basic frequency, and then you speed up (1) or slow down (0) that frequency slightly.
• You do the same with fiber optics: you turn a light on (1) or off (0). And the nice thing about fiber optics: you can work with multiple colors of light.
• That blinking is very fast. And light moves at the speed of light. So one blink is in about 35ms from Rome, in Mountain View (California). That’s 10,062km.

What is FttH?

You probably also see or hear the term FttH when it comes to fiber optics. The F is made of Fiber, or in other words: glass fiber. tt is to the and H is from Home. So the fiber optic connection is extended to your home.

Why choose fiberglass?

• With fiber you always have a stable internet connection.
• Upload speed equal to download speed.
• Lightning fast internet!
• Also over long distances: super-fast internet.
• Internet has a better quality.

Is there fiber at my address?

Where is fiber already located? On this map you can see where fiber optics is already located in the Netherlands. You can also ask yourself: when will I get fiber? If you want to know that, you can check it out on this page about fiber optics .