Plastic Optical Fiber: Advantages and disadvantages

Is Plastic Optical Fiber expensive?

If we pay the operator for fiber to our home but then don't use it 100%... aren't we just throwing money away?

Consider that if you contract for 600 megabits per second, you'll get that speed to your router, but from the router to other rooms in your house, the company doesn't guarantee anything. And we already know that with Wi-Fi and repeaters, signal loss is more than guaranteed.

With a lot of luck, you might achieve 50% (if you don't go too far). Even if you don't have fiber in your home and you only get ADSL. Don't you want to make the most of the little you get? The reliable alternative is clearly cable.

So, many of you tell us that with Cat 6 or 7 cables, a similar result can be achieved at a lower cost, and therefore, Plastic Optical Fiber is expensive.

Why not run Ethernet cable if it's cheaper?

Well, first let me tell you that when someone considers cabling, it's often because they have already tried alternatives with Wi-Fi repeaters and PLCs, and none have proven effective.

But actually, when we compare wired connections, we are comparing very different things that offer solutions to different scenarios and in different ways. Only Plastic Optical Fiber is a 100% reliable plug-and-play solution.

Installing Ethernet cables is not something anyone can do. First and very importantly: if we want a well-finished installation, we will need to use empty corrugated conduits.

If you are an installer, you already know that copper cables always present difficulties when installing them.

To begin with, they require specific tools such as a crimper, and for the installation to be approved, the cables must be run through the available conduits.

And, by the way, higher speed Ethernet cables are also thicker and more difficult to handle, and they cannot share conduits with electrical cables. This is important for several reasons: for safety and for the approval of installations.

If something happened in the house and your installation didn't comply with regulations, no insurance company would indemnify anything. No self-respecting professional would install Ethernet cables through electrical conduits due to the risk involved.

So, what happens if you don't have a free conduit to run the Ethernet cable? Well, you'll have to "run the cable outside," which, if aesthetics aren't a concern, might work, but the finish will leave a lot to be desired.

So, if we want to get 100% of our connection, without needing construction work, without violating regulations, and without risking interference, the only guarantee today is plastic optical fiber.

To recap, if you want to get 100% of the connection in other parts of the house, you have no choice but to consider cabling, and if you also want to do it in an approved, truly reliable way, and without construction work in most cases, Optical Fiber is your solution.   

What are the differences with normal optical fiber?

The main difference that distinguishes it from traditional optical fiber is that plastic optical fiber is made of plastic, as its name indicates.

This particularity gives it certain properties that make it more useful, such as its flexibility, which makes it easier to install, avoiding problems and interferences when sharing space with other electrical cables.

The most important part of the cable are the fibers; these are the elements through which information is transmitted using light pulses that represent data. Therefore, if these fibers break, communication breaks.

Hence the importance of flexibility. It is in difficult routes where plastic optical fiber shows its full potential, as it can navigate curves and share space with electrical wiring.

Plastic optical fiber has many advantages over traditional fiber, but it also has some drawbacks.

Advantages of Plastic Optical Fiber vs. Glass Optical Fiber

• Almost no installation materials needed: Being so flexible, no matter how complicated the shape of the house, the difficulties are greatly reduced. Even if you are an experienced installer, you won't need tools like fusion splicers. In fact, most Snap Data kits are self-installable, ideal for installers or DIY enthusiasts. 

• Lower cost: As we have already mentioned, the costs of both the fiber itself and the materials needed for its installation are much lower than those of glass optical fiber.

• No specialized knowledge required: To make glass optical fiber connections, specialized machinery or professional knowledge is needed. 

Disadvantages of glass optical fiber

• Fiber fragility. As we have mentioned on other occasions. Although this aspect is improving, the installation of glass optical fiber must be carried out delicately.

• Installation precision. The tiny cores of the cables must be aligned with extreme precision when splicing, to avoid excessive signal loss. 

• Difficulty repairing a broken fiber optic cable. As glass optical fiber installers know, care must be taken because a strong bend can damage the cable and the installation.

While plastic fiber has what we might call a "disadvantage" compared to traditional fiber, which is that traditional fiber's speed is designed to connect long distances and large amounts of information and reaches astronomical speeds.

Currently, POF has a maximum speed of 1Gbps, which is already very, very fast and exceeds the needs of the vast majority. In fact, as of mid-2020 in Spain, almost no one has speeds exceeding 600 Mbps in their home.

Well, as always, we hope to have resolved your doubts. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel or ask us more questions about Snap Data here or on our website. Thanks and see you next time.