What is “Fiber to the Home” and why is it important to your community?

 Recently, you may have heard a lot of discussion about Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH). Like most folks, you probably have questions about this technology and we’d like to take this opportunity to share some straight talk about fiber and why it’s important to you, your neighbors, and the Community. Fiber to the home (FttH) is the process of delivering communications, for example to your home or business computer and Internet capable devices, over optical fiber. This new and fast-growing method of communication provides an enormously fast rate for transferring information to and from computers. This transfer rate is often referred to as “bandwidth”, so in-turn, FttH will provide increased bandwidth or speed of information delivery, for its users.

 The current infrastructure is built on copper lines and computers are connected through telephone wires for dial-up access or through coaxial cable from a local cable service provider. These systems deliver signals over very short distances and you must live within close proximity to the provider’s switching station to utilize these systems. If you don’t live that close, your delivery and bandwidth are extremely limited.

           In addition, fiber optic technology can provide two-way transmission speeds of up to 1 Gbps (1000 megabits per second!). That’s pretty amazing when you stop and think about it. That means no more waiting on images or information to appear. Also, optical fiber is extremely robust and sturdy and has the ability to deliver communications throughout the service area without any interruptions. High bandwidth signals, which we know equal faster communications for your home and your business, can be delivered immediately and bring ever-evolving video, internet, and voice services straight to you!

          This ability to rapidly transfer large amounts of information is extremely important to new businesses as they search for potential sites to relocate or build. When new businesses move to the community, this creates new job opportunities for our citizens and further boosts our local economy. As cable providers are already struggling to keep up with the necessary speeds that the latest technology demands, fiber is very well positioned. Future computer applications are going to require much greater bandwidth than we can possibly imagine. Fiber bandwidth can increase consistently without ever having to change the existing fiber. With fiber optics, the Community is “ready for the future.”