RTC's Communicator for Spring 2019

12 SPRING 2019 To help you understand the basics of how a fiber-optic cable works, we’ll start with this example: Imagine a flexible plastic pipe that’s several miles long with its insides coated with a perfect mirror. Now imagine you’re looking into one end of the pipe and several miles away at the other end, a friend turns on a flashlight and shines it into the pipe. Because the interior of the pipe is a perfect mirror, the flashlight’s light will reflect off the sides of the pipe, and you’ll see it at the other end. If your friend were to turn the flashlight on and off in a Morse code fashion, your friend could communicate with you through the pipe. That is the essence of how a fiber-optic cable works. However, making a cable out of a mirrored tube would be bulky and difficult. That’s why fiber-optic cable is actually made out of incredibly pure glass, so pure that even though it’s several miles long, light can still make it through. This glass is drawn into a very thin strand, with a thickness comparable to that of a human hair, and then coated in two layers of reflective plastic. A light source—typically a laser—switches on and off rapidly at one end of the cable to transmit digital data. The light travels through the glass strands and continuously reflects off of the inside of the mirrored plastic coat- ings in a process known as total internal reflection. Systems based on fiber optics can transmit billions of bits of data per second, and they can even carry multiple signals along the same fiber by using lasers of different colors. Over the last 20 years or so, fiber-optic lines have taken over the telecommunications industry, primarily to increase the speed of digital information transmission. When fiber-optic cable replaces copper wiring, it also lowers maintenance costs, increases data- carrying capacity, and improves phone clarity and TV reception. RTC Offers Super-Fast Internet Speeds Via Fiber RTC serves 20 exchanges over 6,000 square miles, and we’re about 90 per- cent built out with Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH). This means residential and busi- ness customers in most of our locations currently have access to high speed internet, and more fiber locations will be added in the years ahead. Our high speed internet packages include: Up to 100 Mbps up/down – Connect multiple devices within your home. Stream HD movies and television using Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, and other content streaming services. Up to 250 Mbps up/down – Stream multiple HDmovies and television at the same time. Boost your online gaming advantage with reliable connectivity. Up to 500 Mbps up/down – Work from the comfort of your home, includ- ing video conferencing and large data transfers. Up to 1 Gig up/down – For the Power Users! Work with advanced hosting plat- forms, enterprise applications, and other business-oriented tools. Play and share games through online gaming centers. If you have any questions or would like to sign up for a new or upgraded internet plan, please contact RTC’s Customer Service Department at 888.862.3115. Today’s Science Lesson: How Fiber-Optic CableWorks