Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sun, 16 Jun 91 15:23:13 EDT From: Mark Miller Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: What The Heck is "Fiber Optic Quality" Anyway? Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 463, Message 2 of 5 Lines: 19 OK, this one has been bugging me for some time, but what is the highly touted "Fiber Optic Quality"?? Now as I understand it, virtually all long distance calls are sent in a digital format. Last time I checked, digital data didn't really care whether it was sent by copper, microwave or fiber. So if the proceeding assumption is correct, then I should be able to "hear a pin drop" regardless of the transmission media. Now of course I understand the benefits of fiber to the LD carrier, in that they can send many more calls, cheaper. So, is this "fiber optic quality" spiel just some marketing drival intended to mislead the consumer, or did I miss the point somewhere?? Mark T. Miller miller@dg-rtp.dg.com ...uunet!xyzzy!miller