Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 11 November 2015 | Page 62

Fibre Optics and Open Access Networks
Fibre to the home is currently, for most South Africans
a hot topic. Whether it is in the boardroom or around
the dinner table. At governmental level restructuring
their policies and procedures, NGO’s bringing fibre
to townships and creating accessible “Digital Hubs”,
organizations such as the FTTH Council Africa, working on
development of broadband access network, increasing
infrastructure on the continent so to trade effectively
within the global market along with educating the
policy makers to the value of high-speed fibre networks
or simply your 8 –year old downloading One Direction
videos. With an effective infrastructure and deployment
plan, soon our smart TV’s will live in a smart home
that resides in a smart community and is connected to
other smart communities around the globe; the future
possibilities of fibre are endless.
To remix Shakespeare; Why, then the world’s mine
(smart) oyster, which I with (Fibre optics) will open.
That is, of course, if the best infrastructure is chosen,
trenched by the right people, connected to the right
service provider, who will offer you the priced right
solution and this is where the conundrum lies. It
is with the above in mind that Estate Living took a
proactive approach to the fibre question. What we
had established is that estate management were at
various stages of the decision- making process, some still
researching options, others in meetings with the board
of directors reviewing various proposals. We also knew
that each estate had their unique concerns coupled with
shared concerns. But what was most apparent was the
conflicting information and uncertainty around the FTTH
process. With the assistance of estate management
and Jeff Gilmour from the Association of Residential
Communities, we compiled a set of questions based
on queries and concerns from estate management,
and these were sent to the organisations involved in
the Fibre to the Home installation process, this feature
consolidates their answers.

What is Optic Fibre?
Optical fibre is a hair-thin, highly transparent strand of
glass. The light in a fibre optic cable travels through it by
a principle called ‘total internal reflection’.Because the
cladding does not absorb any light from the core, the
light waves can travel great distances at the speed of light.
This makes for a highly desirable telecommunication
medium as it can carry high speed broadband services,
using light instead of electricity to send information.
‘This technology is now being used all over the world
to enable better broadband speeds and to transmit
large amounts of data at high speeds, from country to
country. Fibre optic cables even connect continents;
cables are laid on the seabed using specialsed cable
laying ships. While submarine communication cables
are used to connect continents to the Internet, terrestrial
fibre optic cables are used to extend this connectivity
to towns across Africa. The construction of both
submarine cables and their terrestrial extensions is thus
considered an important step to the economic growth
and development of African countries.’ States the FTTH
Council. The term Fibre Optic was coined in 1960, with
the publishing of an article in Scientific American by
Narinder Singh Kapany. Narinder Singh is considered the
‘Father of Fibre Optics’. His studies dating back to 1952 is
what led to the invention of optical fibre.
What is the physical process of installing FTTH? What
components do you need?
“FTTH networks can be deployed using a variety
of architectures and methodologies. Cables can be
deployed terrestrially (below the ground), aerially
(on poles or streetlights) or even utilising wastewater
infrastructure. Each deployment methodology has its
own benefits and merits. What is most important is to
remember that in order to achieve true FTTH and the
speeds that it promises one has to ensure that your
FTTH network is an end-to-end fibre optic network and
that there are no other technologies deployed as part of
it. It is the glass component that is responsible for the