What exactly is fibre?
Though most devices now connect to the internet wirelessly through wifi, 4G, and (in the near future) 5G, most of the internet network actually relies on different types of cables. One of them is fibre optic.
Instead of being made of insulated metal wires transmitting electrical signals, fibre optic cables are made of strands of glass transmitting pulses of light.
Fibre cables are designed for long distance, high-speed data transfers that can accommodate heavier traffic from multiple uses. This makes fibre particularly desirable for business applications and office buildings, where a lot of people need to access the internet at the same time and require a certain performance reliably, though it’s expanding to the home as more and more people connect through the day to stream content or work from home.
Fibre is faster, more reliable, and can travel much longer distances.
Blown fibre is a way to install fibre cables in an existing building: fibre is pushed through an existing duct using compressed air. Air is pumped through the tube to reduce friction between the cable and the surface of the housing duct.
Just like air hockey keeps the puck separate from the table, making it much faster than what you could do with the table switched off. Blown fibre allows fibre to be installed much faster than what would be possible with previous methods.
Watch our engineers installing blown fibre to make a building connect to our ultrafast business internet.