Today we rely on fibre like we used to rely on copper.
Since the late 1800s, shortly after the telephone was invented, landlines relied on copper to transmit sound. Switchboard operators were in high demand and rotary diallers were all the rage. Our communications technology was quite a different scene a hundred years ago.
Today’s phones
Fast forward to today and the operators, rotary diallers and chunky corded phones are all gone. Today’s phones can text, pay for things like parking and dial a number with one-touch programming, along with loads of other handy features.
Copper vs VoIP
More and more businesses are taking advantage of the latest communications technology and in particular, experiencing the benefits of a fibre service over a copper one. Besides offering the ability to streamline office operations with customised phone features, fibre offers robust savings on phone calling rates, and that’s not all.
Fibre offers greater security (it is extremely difficult to tap a fibre line) and the tiny hair-like strands of fibre offer far greater transmission speeds. Switching to fibre, or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) simply means moving from copper wires to fibre and changing your phone services from a copper cable to the internet.
You’ll already know the difference it made when you changed your internet from dial-up to fibre, right? VoIP offers the same fundamental benefits to your phones: faster, clearer communications and more flexibility.
If you’re thinking of switching from copper to fibre, take a look through the pros and cons below.
| Copper landline | Fibre/VoIP | |
| Speed | Limited to ADSL or VDSL (1-30Mbps) | Ranges from 30-1000Mbps |
| Capacity | Around 3,000 calls | Around 31,000 calls |
| Security | Calls can be intercepted | Incredibly difficult to intercept a fibre data transmission |
| Service | Analogue; requires expensive PABX phone system | Digital; better quality and many more features |
| Interruption of service | Copper lines break. Parts of the network are old and vulnerable to performance issues in bad weather | Service interruptions can happen when the internet is down (thought his can be recovered by redirecting to your mobile) |
| Safety | Old or worn copper is a fire hazard | Cloud based, more secure |
| Call quality | Compromised over longer distances | Superior clarity |
We think (and we’re not the only ones) fibre optic cable is far superior to copper cable in just about every way and any downsides are far outweighed by the benefits.
By Andy Barker, Cloud Edge