A standard fiber optic cable for building use can handle applications of several hundred megahertz at distances in excess of 2000 meters. Copper, on the other hand, is a more widely understood and accepted technology. More important, the costs of fiber components are competitive with their copper counterparts. And if you add life cycle costs, including the costs of downtime and possible obsolescence, fiber is the better value. The Seven Advantages of Fiber optics would not even be considered if it did not offer distinct advantages over traditional copper media.
Fiber offers bandwidth well in excess of that required for today's network applications.
Because bandwidth is a product of frequency and distance, the bandwidth at 100 meters is over 1 GHz. In comparison, Category 5 cable is specified only to 100 MHz over the same 100 meters. With the high-performance singlemode cable used by the telephone industry for long distance telecommunications, the bandwidth is essentially infinite. That is, the information-carrying capacity of the fiber far exceeds the ability of today's electronics to exploit it. The bandwidth of optical fibers comfortably surpasses the needs of today's applications and gives room for growth tomorrow.