irst-generation systems could transmit light several kilometers with out frequency repeaters. This brings us to the present day. Today the biggest challenge remaining for fiber optics is economic. Today telephone and cable television companies can cost-justify installing fiber links to remote sites serving tens to a few hundreds of customers. However, terminal equipment remains too expensive to justify installing fibers all the way to homes, at least for present services. Instead, cable and phone companies run twisted wire pairs or coaxial cables from optical network units to individual homes. The world of fiber optics is a new technology but that is just because we didn’t have a good medium which to send the light wave to there destinations. That’s why the invention of single-mode fibers was huge in the world of fiber optics and communications. Eighty percent of the world’s long distance telephone calls go over a fiber optic cable. The bandwidth of fiber optics has also changed how the telecommunications industry has to do things. Before fiber optics they would need to run hundreds of wires. Now all they have to run is a single line to serve hundreds of people. As we depend more on technology it is good to know that fiber optics are one of the most reliable forms of communication....
