Worried about a possible Fibre Cut? You should be. Though fibre is perceived as a “perfect” media, fibre is fragile and repairs take days or weeks requiring specialist skills and equipment.
A fibre break is an accidental break in an optical fiber, typically due to new construction in the area.
Unfortunately, in the UK at least and due to the vast new amount of infrastructure and recent new build of fibre, fibre breaks are now very common.
But while fibre optic cabling is traditionally seen as the safer option, that may be a misconception. When installed correctly, fibre optics is the “perfect” media, transmitting Gigabits of data without interruption.
However, any disruption to the fragile fibre causes data outages which take days or weeks to locate and repair. The armoured covering around the fibre cable may keep it safe from rodents but is no protection against mechanical diggers, street works and other forms of disruption.
One easy way to avoid the problems related to cut fibre is to consider a wireless alternative or backup to an existing fibre as a resilient path, such as Baltic Broadband’s Fixed Wireless Access Product, which sends internet wirelessly through the air.
Better still, using a product that combines both fibre and wireless gives perfect network resilience, such as the hugely successful Baltic Bulletproof.
For example, if there is a disruption to the fibre optics at street level, the wireless link up on a rooftop level does not suffer – and vice versa.
In one real-world example, after a fibre cut in Liverpool City Centre in 2022 that served a large office block of businesses that were without internet for 12 days, the landlord decided to install Baltic Bulletproof as a solution.
Around a year later, the same property suffered another fibre break due to local street works, however this time around, not a single tenant noticed any difference, and the landlord was surprised to receive a phone call from Baltic Broadband about such a cut.
If you experience a fibre break (and are with another provider), Baltic offers an Emergency Service to get you back on.
Finally, you may wish to consider a more resilient service that utilises both fibre and wireless technology, which are the perfect pair for maximum uptime for your business.