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On 17/01/11 18:44, Rob Beard wrote: > > I'm not an expert on fibre (in fact far from it) but I seem to remember > when looking into it for one of my previous employers that it seemed to > be something that required specialist equipment to install and > terminate. It does, but the point is that the optical fibre cable itself is cheap (made from sand not copper), and the time consuming bit is taking up floors, or re-plastering, or digging trenches etc. So a lot of people lay the optical fibre in the whole length of cable runs when they cable a building, and then terminate the fibre with the special equipment when they actually need to set it up to use it. I've always thought it a doubtful gamble unless there was a clear intent to move to fibre networks. Certainly modern offices typically have good cabling facilities (hollow floors and ceilings) so the cost of laying cables is far less than it was, and predicting future networking technology isn't easy. However if you are putting down a really nice floor (tiles or parquet) it may make sense to plan ahead to avoid having to take the floor up the first time you want to rearrange the network, or install a new socket, or add a phone, or antenna. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq