Industries :: Telecom


Overview :: The Last Mile

The introduction of optical fibre in communication trunk lines has led to a revolution in the telecom industry. Optical fibre has led to an increase in demand for copper as the preferred carrier for the last mile, or segment to "wired" communities.

In addition, copper and copper alloys can be found in wide and local area networks, digital subscriber lines (DSL) and other telecom hardware as well as the personal computers driving this growth in the telecom industry.

Communications cables continue to grow to meet the needs of data and voice traffic and copper plays two very important roles in this growth.

One, making use of its excellent conductive qualities it carries power to electronic repeaters that amplify signals in transoceanic cables. Two, it protects the cables in question by sealing the strands of glass against contaminants.

Cables are still preferred to satellites because they are:

- much easier to launch, retrieve and repair
- not disrupted by solar flares or precipitation
- not prone to the same security risks

(multiple messages are easily carried across cable over an array of frequencies that cannot be intercepted.)

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