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. An optical fiber offers low power loss.
Low loss permits longer transmission distances.
A principal drawback of copper cable is that loss increases with the signal frequency. This means high data rates tend to increase power loss and decrease practical transmission distances. With fiber, loss does not change with the signal frequency. Crosstalk, impedance mismatches, EMI susceptibility are major factors in noise and errors in copper systems. What's more, such problems can increase with incorrectly installed Category 5 cable, which is more sensitive to poor installation than other twisted pair cable.