Communication Needs

What is the procedure for running Fibre Optic Cable into my Apt?

I want to use it for a lightning fast computer, digital phone and cable TV set-up, where Fibre Optic runs into the APT bldg basement but not to the APT unit on the 3rd Floor. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. Ok, hold up. First things first: Fiber optic cable is capable of being much faster than copper cabling, but unless you're buying hardware to support those speeds, you're not getting any benefit and paying a lot more for your cabling than you need to. Fiber optic cable is optimal for long distance runs and for speeds greater than 10Gb/s, as they currently have 10GB copper out that can cover distances of 100meters. I seriously doubt you need more than 10Gb/s or if you did, it'd be proibitedly expensive to do it in your apartment. It doesn't matter how "lightning fast" your PC is, I don't know of a PC on the market that can keep up to the speed of a 1Gb/s network card when transferring data because the bottleneck is always the hard drive. Even if you use flash technology to store your files, I doubt you'd max out your network bandwidth. Typical fiber optic cabling installation speeds you'd run in your house are comparable to copper connections with the exception of distance. An OC-3, which is probably all you'd use in your house, runs at 155Mb/s, whereas 100Base-T runs at 100Mb/s. You can get 1Gb/s for much less than you can run an OC-3 line. I've had managers argue that they needed fiber optic for speed all of the time on our network, but when I explain to them that purchasing a gigabyte copper switch equates to <$85 per port whereas gigabyte fiber optic switches are $300-$500 per port (Cisco prices), they decide to listen. It's also hard to find a Gigabyte only fiber optic switch, whereas Gigabyte copper switches are everywhere. In the end, you decide how you want to spend your money. WG