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Did you know?

  • image 499% of all data is carried on optical fibre.
     
  • In 2010, the length of fibre installed reached from the Sun to Saturn. The length of fibre grows by approximately 17% per year.
     
  • Data traffic doubles every 16 months.    
     
  • By 2020 we will have run out of data capacity - this means bandwidth will be rationed, or prices will increase.
     
  • Data is measured in bytes: 1 exabyte is 1018 bytes, or 200 million DVDs. 5 exabytes = a transcript of all words ever spoken. Cisco forecasts 11.2 exabytes per month of mobile data traffic by 2017.
     
  • UNLOC aims to maximise the capacity of the world's optical fibre.

  • The UK's photonics sector employs 70,000 people, and is worth over £10.5 billion to the UK economy.

  • The first fully working system was used to interconnect police computer systems in Dorset in 1975.

  • Her Majesty the Queen attended the first public demonstration of fibre optic communication, which took place at the 100th anniversary celebrations of the UK's Institution of Electronic Engineers in 1971.

  • The world's fastest communication system could transmit the information contained in 4,000 Blu-ray discs over 30 miles every second.

  • An optical fibre is the width of a single human hair.