unable to understand the last sentence...
Well, with fiber being the future, it would be silly for us to build any copper in our network.
---------- Post added at 03:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 PM ----------
Hey mg and others i've found an alternative to fibres :
Wireless Optical Networks: A New Alternative to Fiber
Did you see the date on the article? This is from 2000. It's hardly new. The technology is called Free Space Optics, and the current generation of equipment runs at up to 1.25Gbit/s, not 2.5 or 10Gbit/s as this article claims, and I've not found any commercially available equipment that supports DWDM at multi-
gigabit speeds.
It's good for point-to-point only, so from the receiver we would have to run cables to the subscriber's premises. It's too expensive to give to individual subscribers since the units cost about US$20,000-30,000 each (1 for each side).
1.25Gbit/s would have to be split between a fairly large number of subscribers - probably 128 at the very least for it to come out with the same economics as fiber (assuming the system is in place for at least 5 years - that's a long wait), but the problem then is speed - we could only guarantee about 1/7th of what we can on fiber - it's still good, but not *as* good.
The main problem with actually implementing the system in Mumbai is that the rated distances are about 4km, but with the Mumbai air, smog, smoke and whatever else it's more likely to max out at about 1km - and naturally as with all wireless technology, the further the distance, the more the speed degrades - to achieve 1Gbit/s they recommend under 800m.
If you read back far enough, you'll find I was discussing this type of system back in 2009 as an alternative method of reaching certain parts of the city (such as Sion etc) in case the cablewalas choose to not let us lay cables, and it's something we still want to consider if we can't come to any other arrangement.
The good thing is though: no spectrum licenses to worry about. Etc etc. We'll probably give it a go, but it would have to be ultra stable - rivalling the Fiber - for us to go ahead and deploy it on a wide scale.
