The light in the fiber optic wire is almost lossless because of the carefully calculated reflection factor between the glass core and the cladding of the fiber. While the speed of processors double every 18 months, and the capacity of storage double every 12 months, the speed of optical networks doubles every 9 months. The venture funding for optical networking in 2000 was 4 billion dollars. Scientist have no clue what the actual capacity of optical communication may actually be. It is not unthinkable that with advances over the next ten or twenty years, the amount of traffic on the whole of the Internet today might be carried in a single hair-thin fiber.
Fiber optics is damn important technology.
Mankind's future depends upon the effectiveness of his communications. That is expanded today mainly by the Internet, and that is being carried forward not the least by installation of optical networks, and advances in the technology. Important advances have been in the purity of the fibers themselves, so the light signal can travel as far as possible without being amplified. This has been advanced to about 80 kilometers today, something which is quite amazing considering the thinness of the fiber. Still, the big problem was that the light signal had to be amplified electronically , meaning it had to be translated into an electronic signal, amplified, and then translated back into an optical signal and sent on its way.