If you drive around Durban then you can’t help but notice that areas of roadside are being dug up all over the place with pink netting everywhere. This may have impacted your daily lives for a while, but what is going on?
Well, you may be aware that a “fibre” network is being laid down over large areas of suburbia around Durban but, once the road works have finished and the dust has cleared, what does it mean to you? Mum’s Mail has looked at the whole “fibre” thing from the perspective of the home and family life and we have asked many experts in the field for their opinions. Over the next few weeks and months we will try and provide some answers to your questions.
The first question we asked is: What is “fibre” anyway?
The answer to that question, in layman’s terms, is that “fibre” is another way of transmitting voice and data, in competition with copper wire (the old telephone cable system) and cellular transmission (the mobile phone network).
“Fibre” is short for Fibre Optic Cable and Claire Williamson; FTTH Product Manager at Vox provided a good explanation of what that is.
“It is made from plastic or glass cables which are the same diameter as a human hair, this allows for faster data transfer compared to the standard copper wires which are used in most South African homes.”
So that’s why everywhere is being dug up, they need to lay a network of fibre cables before they can offer the service to consumers.
The second, and perhaps biggest question is: Why consider using “fibre”?
The headline answer is that fibre is faster, as Orri Halabi from Easi Telecom explains: “With Data travelling at the speed of light rather than old technology travelling over copper cable, speeds of up to 10 times faster than older redundant systems are possible.”
So the good news is this; if you need faster internet then “fibre” is a new option for you, if you’re lucky enough to live in an area where they have laid the cables.
But there’s a lot more to it than that; is it cheaper? Is it more reliable? What are the things to look out for when buying a “fibre” service? We will be answering these and other key questions in the coming months.
If you would like any questions answered please e-mail them to editor@mumsmail.com.