Recently the Indian government proposed to allocate 260 million rupees ($5.4 million) under the federal budget to set up an optic-fiber cable network exclusively for the defense forces.

 Most of the bandwidth to be vacated by the defense forces would be sold during the auction of licenses to start third-generation services, expected later this year.

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The government expects to generate 350 billion rupees from the proposed auction, the budget document for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, showed.

The budget also proposed allocating 140.15 billion rupees for Bharat Sanchar and 17.25 billion rupees for the other state-run telecom operator, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.

The Indian government holds a 56.25% stake in Mahanagar Telephone, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.

optical fiber

But in Africa, many users still can not experience the high-speed network. “You can see, I try to click on the link but it’s not coming fast. It’s quite slow,” the Zambian national complains. “Then I have to purchase more time and it costs me another 25 meticals (about one dollar).”

Mauritius-based company SEACOM promises to revolutionise communications in Africa and lower bandwidth costs by up to 90 percent, after switching on the cable that resulted from a two-year, 600-million-dollar (427-million-euro) effort.

Countries like Kenya and Uganda can now experience broadband connections for the first time, while others like South Africa — which already has high-speed Internet — expect the new cable to lower costs by boosting competition.

But many end users will have to wait to see the benefits.

In fact, many don’t know SEACOM exists.

At the Teledata Internet cafe, employee Zacarias Tovela said SEACOM hadn’t changed web surfing there yet.

Internet Cafe

“I know there’s a new service called SEACOM, but I don’t know if we’re connected to it or not,” he said.

SEACOM spokesman Frederic Cornet said the company sells bandwidth wholesale to local service providers, who until now have relied on slower, costlier satellite connections.

The new cable will also boost telephone service in countries where international calls can be a shout in the dark.

SEACOM says land-based infrastructure is being rolled out in most countries along the coast to distribute the new network to users along the length of the continent.

Meanwhile, ordinary users hope the benefits will start arriving soon.

Orray Carlos, owner of Internet Express cafe in Maputo, laughed as he watched his connection speed bounce anaemically around one megabyte per second. SEACOM promises speeds of 1.2 terabytes per second — one million times faster.

I have heard optical fiber for the first time on my first physics class, and I have spent a lot of time on it. Now let me tell you something about optical fiber.

An optical fiber is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communications. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss, and they are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so they can be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in tight spaces. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors and fiber lasers

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optical fiber

Light is kept in the core of the optical fiber by total internal reflection. This causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers which support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those which can only support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF). Multi-mode fibers generally have a larger core diameter, and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 550 metres (1,800 ft).

Joining lengths of optical fiber is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable. The ends of the fibers must be carefully cleaved, and then spliced together either mechanically or by fusing them together with an electric arc. Special connectors are used to make removable connections.